December 22 in Military History

The Continental Congress appointed Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy, giving the fledgling American fleet its first unified command structure during the Revolutionary War.

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton directed the construction of ten revenue cutters to enforce tariff law at American ports, formalizing what had been authorized by Congress in August 1790. The Revenue Cutter Service, renamed the Revenue Marine and eventually merged with the Life-Saving Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard, is the oldest continuously operating armed maritime service of the United States.

General William T. Sherman completed his March to the Sea and captured Savannah, Georgia, telegraphing President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

Army Group Don's Operation Winter Storm, commanded by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, ended in failure on the southwest approaches to Stalingrad. The LVII Panzer Corps under General Friedrich Kirchner had pushed to within 30 miles of the pocket before being halted by Soviet resistance and the inability of the encircled German Sixth Army to break out from the inside.

Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe replied "Nuts!" to a German surrender ultimatum at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most famous acts of defiance in American military history.

The People's Army of Vietnam was officially founded under Vo Nguyen Giap to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, the force that would later defeat both France at Dien Bien Phu and the United States in the Vietnam War.

With Kampfgruppe von Lauchert of the 2nd Panzer Division bypassing Bastogne to the north and elements of the Panzer Lehr Division pressing from the south, the 101st Airborne Division, the 10th Armored Division's Combat Command B, and attached anti-aircraft and artillery units continued to hold the seven-road junction at Bastogne through a fourth day of encirclement. Clearing weather the following day would allow C-47 resupply drops and P-47 close air support to break the siege.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird conducted its maiden flight at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, beginning the operational career of the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft ever built, capable of Mach 3.2 at 85,000 feet.

Operation Linebacker II, the most intense aerial bombing campaign of the Vietnam War, continued its devastating assault on Hanoi and Haiphong as B-52 Stratofortresses flew massive raids through one of the densest air defense networks ever encountered.

Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena fled Bucharest by helicopter after soldiers joined protesters in the Romanian capital, effectively ending the communist regime that had ruled Romania since 1947. The army declared support for the revolution within hours, and Ceausescu was captured, tried by a military tribunal, and executed on December 25, one of the most violent transitions in the collapse of European communism.

President Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, ending the 17-year-old policy banning openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals from serving in the U.S. military, one of the most significant civil rights milestones in American military history.