1941: After having been repulsed the first time a couple of weeks before by U.S. troops, Japanese forces returned to Wake Island with help from aircraft of the carriers Soryu and Hiryu. Having eliminated the island's last two Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighters on Dec. 21, 900 Japanese troops of the Special Naval Landing Force come ashore and quickly forced Wake's defenders to surrender. Meanwhile in Burma, the Japanese began their assault on Rangoon, and on Luzon, General Douglas MacArthur began a retreat from Manila to Bataan. Read about the Battle of Wake Island on HistoryNet.com.

Japanese-held Wake Island under attack by U.S. carrier-based planes in November 1943.

Photo Credit: Cliff Owen/AP

Here's some of what also happened on Dec. 23 in the United States and elsewhere:


1776: While Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis, a series of pamphlets designed to boost patriots' morale, the Continental Congress negotiated a $181,500 war loan from France. Meanwhile, a few days before the Battle of Princeton, Hessian and Continental troops skirmished at Pettycoat Bridge near Trenton, New Jersey (from which the Continentals withdrew to Mount Holly). Read more about the Battle of Princeton on HistoryNet.

1779: Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for "improper conduct." Continental Army, you ain't seen nothing yet ( read more on HistoryNet.com about what happened after Arnold's court-martial).

1916: Allied forces defeat Ottoman forces in the World War I Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula.

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