1894 French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
1942 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1944 Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium.
1944 Sub Swordfish departs Pearl Harbor for Japan.
1963 Official 30-day mourning period for President John F. Kennedy ends.
1964 First flight of the US aircraft Lockheed SR-71, reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
1970 Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl sentenced to life imprisonment.
1974 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb home of former UK Prime Minister, Edward Heath, just before announcing Christmas ceasefire (no-one injured)
1989 After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
2010 Repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell policy", a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama.
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