1941 - Pearl Harbor was attacked. The Imperial Japanese Navy used 353 planes to attack the US fleet at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor Naval Base. The attack killed 2,403 people.

2017 - Scientists discovered the most distant supermassive black hole. It’s estimated to be 13 billion light-years away and 800 million times the mass of our Sun.

1958 - Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (center) opened the Preston bypass in Lancashire. It was the first stretch of motorway in Britain and is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.

1952 - A lethal fog began to cover London, lasting for five days, causing the term “smog” to be termed – a combination of smoke and fog.

1992 - The first text message was sent to a mobile phone by Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth in Berkshire. It was sent to test out the technology and read Merry Christmas.

1697 - The rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, was opened. The previous cathedral had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

2010 - Large parts of the UK were brought to a standstill by the early freeze. Temperatures plunged again overnight to -16C (3F) in the Scottish Highland after one of the coldest starts to December in more than 20 years.

1934 - The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman (Engine No. 4472) became the first to officially exceed 100mph. She recently underwent major restoration at the National Railway Museum in York.

2015 - Great Britain won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 after Andy Murray beat Belgium's David Goffin to clinch the decisive point in Ghent, Belgium.