TODAY IN HISTORY

December 23

1861		Lord Lyons, The British minister to America presents a formal complaint to secretary of state, William Seward, regarding the Trent affair.
1900		The Federal Party, which recognizes American sovereignty, is formed in the Philippines.
1919		Great Britain institutes a new constitution for India.
1921		President Warren G. Harding frees Socialist Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners.
1933		Pope Pius XI condemns the Nazi sterilization program.
1937		London warns Rome to stop anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
1939		The first Canadian troops arrive in Britain.
1940		Chiang Kai-shek dissolves all Communist associations in China.
1941		Despite throwing back an earlier Japanese amphibious assault, the U.S. Marines and Navy defenders on Wake Island capitulate to a second Japanese invasion.
1944		General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirms the death sentence of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American shot for desertion since the Civil War.
1947		President Harry S Truman grants a pardon to 1,523 who had evaded the World War II draft.
1948		Japan's Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo and six other collaborators are hanged for war crimes.
1950		General Walton H. Walker, the commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, is killed in a jeep accident. Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgeway is named his successor.
1967		U.S. Navy SEALs are ambushed during an operation southeast of Saigon.
1974		The B-1 bomber makes its first successful test flight.
1986		The Voyager completes the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load of fuel. The experimental aircraft, piloted Americans Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California after nine days and four minutes in the sky.
1990		In a referendum on Sovlenia's independence from Yugoslovia, 88.5% vote in favor of independence.
2002		An Iraqi MiG-25 shoots down a US MQ-1 Predator drone.