From Historynet: Today in History December 17

1399              Tamerlane's Mongols destroy the army of , Sultan of Delhi, at Panipat.

1861              The Stonewall Brigade begins to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O Canal.

1886              At a Christmas party, Sam Belle shoots his old enemy Frank West, but is fatally wounded himself.

1903              Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright  make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

1927              U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg suggests a worldwide pact renouncing war.

1938              Italy declares the 1935 pact with France invalid because ratifications had not been exchanged. France denies the argument.

1939              In the Battle of River Plate near Montevideo, Uruguay, the British trap the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. German Captain Langsdorf sinks his ship believing that resistance is hopeless.

1943              U.S. forces invade Japanese-held New Britain Island in New Guinea.

1944              The German Army renews the attack on the Belgian town of Losheimergraben against the defending Americans during the Battle of the Bulge.

1944              U.S. approves end to internment of Japanese Americans. U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt  issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes effective January 2, 1945.

1948              The Smithsonian Institution accepts the Kitty Hawk - the Wright brothers' plane.

1950              The French government appoints Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.

1952              Yugoslavia breaks relations with the Vatican.

1965              Ending an election campaign marked by bitterness and violence, Ferdinand Marcos is declared president of the Philippines.

1981              Red Brigade terrorists kidnap Brigadier General James Dozier , the highest-ranking U.S. NATO officer in Italy.

1989              The Simpsons, television's longest-running animated series, makes its US debut.

1989              Fernando Color de Mello becomes Brazil's first democratically elected president in nearly 30 years.

1990              Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins Haiti's first free election.

2002              Congolese parties of the inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord in the Second Congo War, providing for transitional government and elections within two years.

2010              Mohamed Bouazizi immolates himself, the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring.