[Jimbuna]

1941 Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a wartime conference.

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 Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.

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)

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 Ceaușescu.

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.