Marie and Pierre Curie successfully extract radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their Paris laboratory on December 20, 1902. In their pitchblende study in 1898, the Curies discovered the elements radium and polonium. 

In 1851, the Solani Aqueduct Railway was built in Roorkee. It was hauled by the Thomason steam locomotive, named after a British officer-in-charge of that name. The railway transported construction materials for an aqueduct over the Solani River. In 1852, the Madras Guaranteed Railway Company was incorporated.

The 2018 Sunda strait tsunami struck on 22 December 2018 at about 21:38 local time, when major portions of Anak Krakatoa's southwestern flank crashed onto its caldera. The landslide triggered a strong tsunami wave that hit many coastal areas in Banten and Lampung, including the popular tourist site of Anyer. The lack of warnings about the tsunami's coming, which coincided with the Christmas and New Year holiday season in the country, and the area's nighttime setting all contributed to the high death toll. The tsunami killed 426 people, making it the worst volcanic tsunami in Indonesian history since the 1883 Sunda Strait tsunami, which originated on the same island.

On December 21, 2012, South Korean musician Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the first music video to exceed 1 billion views on YouTube. When it surpassed the then-maximum of 2.14 billion views, it "broke" YouTube's play counter. For over five years, the mega-hit, which highlights the lifestyle associated with Seoul's opulent Gangnam District, ruled supreme on YouTube. In July 2017, Wiz Khalifa's video for "See You Again," featuring Charlie Puth, dethroned it.

Kunal Nayyar is an Indian actor of English origin. He played Raj Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019) and Vijay on the Nickelodeon animated series Sanjay and Craig (2013–2016). Nayyar has also appeared in Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), The Scribbler (2014), Dr. Cabbie (2014), Consumed (2015), Trolls (2016), and Sweetness in the Belly (2017). (2019). Nayyar married Neha Kapur, a model, actor, and Femina Miss India 2006, in December 2011.

Three NASA astronauts set off on a voyage that would take them "Round the Moon and Back" 50 years ago. The performance of the command and service modules was shown during the Apollo 8 mission. This historic mission launched on December 21, 1968, to test a lunar trajectory and was the Saturn V rocket's first manned launch. Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by a three-stage Saturn 5 rocket, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders onboard. The crew became the first human spacecraft to reach orbit around the moon on Christmas Eve.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematical prodigy who lived in India. He made significant contributions to number theory and worked on elliptic functions, continuing fractions, and infinite series. Ramanujan was born in Erode, a tiny hamlet around 400 kilometres southwest of Madras. In 1902, Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations, and he went on to develop his own method for solving quartic equations. He attempted to solve the quintic the next year, oblivious to the fact that radicals could not solve it.

According to rumours, Elton John will marry his companion of more than 20 years this weekend in England. Several news outlets reported that the 67-year-old singer and Canadian-born director David Furnish will marry on Sunday at their home in Windsor, Berkshire, near London. Furnish and John married on December 21, 2005, the first day civil partnerships may be performed in England, in the town of Windsor, Berkshire.

The authentic men in whom nature has succeeded are the great ones. They are not extraordinary – they are in the proper sequence, as they should be. Autar Singh Paintal, who died on December 21, 2004 in Delhi, was a brilliant man who will be remembered not just for his contributions to physiology but also for his deeds of kindness.

James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is a comedian, television host, and actor from the United States. He is most known for his work on Saturday Night Live and as the presenter of the late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and, before that, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On December 22, 2007, Fallon married film producer Nancy Juvonen, co-owner of production business Flower Films. They first met on the set of Saturday Night Live before becoming friends on the set of Fever Pitch.

Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was a novelist, dramatist, short storey writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator from Ireland. He lived in Paris for the majority of his adult life and wrote in both French and English. Beckett died on December 22 and was interred at Paris's cimetière du Montparnasse, where they share a plain granite monument that follows Beckett's order that it be "any colour, as long as it's grey."

On December 22, 1998, Zinedine Zidane received the 1998 Ballon d'Or, which is given annually to the finest football player in Europe as determined by a jury of sports writers from UEFA member nations.

On December 21, 1762, at St Margaret's Church in Barking. Elizabeth was the daughter of the innkeeper of The Bell at Wapping, and James Cook resided further upriver at Shadwell. Cook was fourteen years older than Elizabeth, who was only twenty years old. Because neither of them belonged to the parish of Barking, they were married by George Downing, vicar of Little Wakering in Essex, with the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Guru Gobind Singh, also known as Gobind Rai, was the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet, and philosopher who was born on December 22, 1666. At the age of nine, Guru Gobind Singh was formally appointed as the head of the Sikhs, becoming the tenth and final human Sikh Guru, after his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by Aurangzeb. During his lifetime, two of his sons died in war and the other two were executed by the Mughal army.

Samuel L. Jackson is a legendary Hollywood actor who has acted in over 100 films over his career. Jackson, who was abandoned by his father as a youngster, overcame a rough life to become one of Hollywood's most successful actors. Despite his stuttering, he went on to pursue a profession in acting with persistence and hard effort. Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. on December 21, 1948. He was reared by his mother, Elizabeth Jackson, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, since his father lived away from the family and subsequently died of alcoholism. He only met his father twice throughout his life.

Madonna Louise Ciccone, born August 16, 1958, is a singer-songwriter and actor from the United States. She is widely regarded as one of the most important individuals in popular culture and is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Pop." On December 22, one of the most anticipated weddings of all time occurred when Madonna married film director Guy Ritchie in a traditional Scottish ceremony.

Ed Hillary and June Mulgrew tour Nepal's Solu Khumbu in 1984. In the late 1980s, Hillary and Mulgrew resided throughout India when Hillary was the New Zealand ambassador, and they travelled widely in the area. Hillary retired in 1989, the year they married. Hillary's official companion during his tenure as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India and Nepal, which he concluded in July, was June Mulgrew.

Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron born December 21, 1977 he is a French politician who has been the country's president since May 14, 2017. Macron was born in Amiens and studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University before going on to Sciences Po to get a master's degree in public affairs and graduating from the École nationale d'administration in 2004. He began his career as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances before joining Rothschild & Co. as an investment banker.