Events

• 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.
• 1476 – Vlad the Impaler defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.
• 1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
• 1812 – The Battle of Berezina begins during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia.
• 1865 – Battle of Papudo: A Spanish navy schooner is defeated by a Chilean corvette north of Valparaíso, Chile.
• 1914 – HMS Bulwark is destroyed by a large internal explosion with the loss of 741 men near Sheerness.
• 1917 – The Manchester Guardian publishes the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between the United Kingdom and France.
• 1918 – The Montenegran Podgorica Assembly votes for a “union of the people”, declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.
• 1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates an incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.
• 1941 – World War II: Japan’s 1st Air Fleet departs the Kuril Islands to strike Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• 1942 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
• 1942 – Casablanca, the movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premieres in New York City.
• 1943 – World War II: HMT Rohna is sunk by the Luftwaffe in an air attack in the Mediterranean north of Béjaïa, Algeria.
• 1944 – World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth’s shop in London, United Kingdom, killing 168 people.
• 1944 – World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
• 1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People’s Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch’ongch’on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire.
  • He is later awarded the Medal of Honour.
• 1986 – Iran-Contra affair: US President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
• 1986 – The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of committing war crimes as a guard at the Nazi Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
• 1991 – National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolishes the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renames several cities back to their original names.
• 2008 – Mumbai attacks, a series of terrorist attacks killing approximately 166 citizens by 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan based extremist Islamist terrorist organisation.
• 2011 – NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani check post in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

People (Births)

• 1727 – Artemas Ward, American general and politician (d. 1800).
• 1811 – Zeng Guofan, Chinese general and politician, Viceroy of Liangjiang (d. 1872).
• 1876 – Willis Carrier, American engineer, invented air conditioning (d. 1950).
• 1885 – Heinrich Brüning, German lieutenant, economist, and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1970).
• 1901 – William Sterling Parsons, American admiral (d. 1953).
• 1919 – Ryszard Kaczorowski, Polish soldier and politician, 6th President of the Republic of Poland (d. 2010).
• 1925 – Gregorio Conrado Álvarez, Uruguayan dictator (d. 2016).
• 1938 – Porter Goss, American soldier and politician, 19th Director of the CIA.
• 1945 – Björn von Sydow, Swedish academic and politician, 27th Swedish Minister for Defence.
• 1974 – Roman Šebrle, Czech decathlete and high jumper.

People (Deaths)

• 946 – Li Congyan, Chinese general (b. 898).
• 1651 – Henry Ireton, English-Irish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1611).
• 1661 – Luis Méndez de Haro, Spanish general and politician (b. 1598).
• 1851 – Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France (b. 1769).
• 1872 – Pavel Kiselyov, Russian general and politician (b. 1788).
• 1919 – Felipe Ángeles, Mexican general (b. 1868).
• 1926 – John Browning, American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company (b. 1855).
• 1928 – Reinhard Scheer, German admiral (b. 1863).
• 1936 – Şükrü Naili Gökberk, Turkish general (b. 1876).
• 1943 – Edward O’Hare, American lieutenant and pilot (b. 1914).
• 1987 – Thomas George Lanphier, Jr., American colonel and pilot (b. 1915).
• 2007 – Silvestre S. Herrera, Mexican-American sergeant, Medal of Honour recipient (b. 1917).
• 2007 – Herb McKenley, Jamaican sprinter (b. 1922)
• 2012 – Joseph Murray, American surgeon and soldier, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919).