World War II
1939 : USSR expelled from the League of Nations

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December 16, 1944
Battle of the Bulge begins

With the Anglo-Americans closing in on Germany from the west and the Soviets approaching from the east, Nazi leader Adolph Hitler orders a massive attack against the western Allies by three German armies.

The German counter attack out of the densely wooded Ardennes region of Belgium took the Allies entirely by surprise, and the experienced German troops wrought havoc on the American line, creating a triangular "bulge" 60 miles deep and 50 miles wide along the Allied front. Conditions of fog and mist prevented the unleashing of Allied air superiority, and for several days Hitler's desperate gamble seemed to be paying off. However, unlike the French in 1940, the embattled Americans kept up a fierce resistance even after their lines of communication had been broken, buying time for a three-point counter offensive led by British General Bernard Montgomery and American generals Omar Bradley and George Patton.

Fighting was particularly fierce at the town of Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division and part of the 10th Armoured Division were encircled by German forces within the bulge. On December 22, the German commander besieging the town demanded that the Americans surrender or face annihilation. U.S. Major General Anthony McAuliffe prepared a typed reply that read simply:

To the German Commander:

Nuts!

From the American Commander

The Americans who delivered the message explained to the perplexed Germans that the one-word reply was translatable as "Go to hell!" Heavy fighting continued at Bastogne, but the 101st held on.

On December 23, the skies finally cleared over the battle areas, and the Allied air forces inflicted heavy damage on German tanks and transport, which were jammed solidly along the main roads. On December 26, Bastogne was relieved by elements of General Patton's 3rd Army. A major Allied counter offensive began at the end of December, and by January 21 the Germans had been pushed back to their original line.

Germany's last major offensive of the war had cost them 120,000 men, 1,600 planes, and 700 tanks. The Allies suffered some 80,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action, with all but 5,000 of these casualties being American. It was the heaviest single battle toll in U.S. history.

1903 : First aeroplane flies

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December 18 1888:

While searching for stray cattle in the isolated canyons of southwest Colorado,
Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law stumble upon the magnificent ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.

December 20 1803:

Without a shot fired, the French hand over New Orleans and Lower Louisiana to the United States.

In April 1803, the United States purchased from France the 828,000 square miles that had formerly been French Louisiana.
The area was divided into two territories: the northern half was Louisiana Territory,
the largely unsettled (though home to many Indians) frontier section that was later explored by Lewis and Clark;
and the southern Orleans Territory, which was populated by Europeans.

Unlike the sprawling and largely unexplored northern territory (which eventually encompassed a dozen large states),
Orleans Territory was a small, densely populated region that was like a little slice of France in the New World.
With borders that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Louisiana,
Orleans Territory was home to about 50,000 people,
a primarily French population that had been living under the direction of a Spanish administration.