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