On December 19, 1777, commander of the Continental Army
George Washington, the future first president of the United
States, lead his beleaguered troops into winter quarters at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Artist Rob Brun

On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched the last major
offensive of the war, Operation Autumn Mist, also known as
the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an
attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern
France to northwestern Belgium.

The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans
created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest
in pushing through the American defensive line, was the
largest fought on the Western front.

American troops man trenches along a snowy hedgerow in
the northern Ardennes Forest during the Battle.  

An American artilleryman shaves in frigid cold, using a
helmet for a shaving bowl.

An American tank moves past another gun carriage which
slid off an icy road in the Ardennes Forest during the
Battle of the Bulge.

Belgian residents of a northern Ardennes hamlet flee the fighting during the
Battle of the Bulge.        
        
       

   
Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller
(March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944)

After departing from an airfield outside London on December
15, 1944, a single-engine aircraft carrying trombonist and
bandleader Glenn Miller went missing over the English
Channel.

Miller was traveling to France for a congratulatory performance
for American troops that had recently helped to liberate Paris.

The wreckage of Miller’s plane was never found. His official
military status remains Missing in Action.

A U.S. Army Air Forces Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman
from the 3rd Air Commando Group.

 
Published in 1939.

In Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who
organized Adolf Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question,
” is condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal.

He claimed he was just following orders, but the judges
disagreed, finding him guilty on all counts on December
15 and sentencing him to die.

Terry Alan Anderson (October 27, 1947 – April 21, 2024)

Anderson was an American journalist and combat veteran. He
reported for the Associated Press.

In 1985, he was taken hostage by Shia Hezbollah militants of
the Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon and held until this 
day in 1991. 

Anderson being welcomed home to Lorain, Ohio, on June 21, 1992.