On this day in military history - 23 December

[Woodmonkey]

1939 - The first Canadian troops arrive in Britain.

1941 - Despite throwing back an earlier Japanese amphibious assault, the U.S. Marines and Navy defenders on Wake Island capitulate to a second Japanese invasion.

1944 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirms the death sentence of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American shot for desertion since the Civil War.

1947 - President Harry S Truman grants a pardon to 1,523 who had evaded the World War II draft.

1948 - Japan's Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo and six other collaborators are hanged for war crimes.

1950 - General Walton H. Walker, the commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, is killed in a jeep accident. Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgeway is named his successor.

1967 - U.S. Navy SEALs are ambushed during an operation southeast of Saigon.

1974 - The B-1 bomber makes its first successful test flight.