1945: Boeing B-29s bombed Tokyo and Nanking (read  "When Fire Rained From the Sky" on HistoryNet.com), while on Luzon, U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy aircraft destroyed some 75 Japanese aircraft on the ground, significantly reducing the danger of suicide planes (only 35 planes remained operational).

A formation of mighty B 29 Super-Fortresses, from bases at Saipan bank into a turn over the Marians, on Dec. 5, 1944, during preparations for the initial attack by Super-fortresses against Tokyo.

Photo Credit: Cliff Owen/AP

Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:

1781: The British defeated a French attempt to seize the Isle of Jersey, costing the lives of both British and French commanders: France's Baron Philippe de Rullecourt and Britain's Major Francis Peirson (inspiring a painting by John singleton Copley).

1862:  Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson concluded two days of artillery bombardment across the Potomac at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station in Hancock, Maryland, after Union Brig. Gen. Frederick W. Lander rejected Jackson's surrender demand. On Jan. 7, Jackson disengaged and marched to Romney, Virginia.

1975: Phuoc Binh, capital of Phuoc Long Province, fell to a North Vietnamese assault. Contrary to a promise made by President Richard M. Nixon, the United States did not come to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam's aid in the face of this ceasefire violation.

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