1818 – Christmas carol “Silent Night” composed by Franz Xaver Gruber is first sung at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria
1893 – Henry Ford completes his first useful petrolm fuelled engine
1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1941 – First ships of admiral Nagumo’s Pearl Harbor fleet return to Japan
1942 – First powered flight of V-1 ‘buzz bomb’, Peenemunde, Germany
1942 – Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
1943 – FDR appoints Gen Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1963 – Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
1966 – Luna 13 lands on Moon
1979 – 1st Ariane rocket launched