1940 - London suffered its most devastating air raid when Germans firebombed the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but fire fighters showed a valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much of the city from destruction.

1915 - The British Cabinet decides to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones.

1977 - Thousands of people flocked to UK cinemas to watch the long-awaited blockbuster, Star Wars. Sadly, Carrie Fisher also died on this day in 2016 of a sudden cardiac arrest.

2004 - A devastating tsunami with waves up to 30 m (100 ft) high and an earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake was a 9.3 magnitude which caused a tsunami that hit Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and other countries. The destruction killed an estimated 227,898 people.

2021 - The James Webb Space Telescope was launched from the Guiana Space Center. Jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, the telescope is the most advanced infrared telescope ever built.

1914 - Late on Christmas Eve, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches.

1972 - Sixteen plane crash survivors were rescued after being stranded in the Andes for seventy days. Although 33 of the 45 onboard survived the crash, injuries and severe weather conditions killed many more. Survivors had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

2010 - The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, was being recognised for its “cultural and historical importance” following advice from English Heritage.

2020 - The death (aged 103) of RAF ‘Spitfire woman’ Eleanor Wadsworth. She was the last surviving of about 165 women to have taken on the task of transporting aircraft to the frontlines during World War II. The women operated out of White Waltham in Berkshire and flew without instruments, flying instructions or radios.