From Historynet: Today in History December 20

69                   Vespasians's  supporters enter Rome and discover Vitellius  in hiding. He is dragged through the streets before being brutally murdered.

1355              Stephen Urosh IV of Serbia dies while marching to attack Constantinople.

1802              The United States buys the Louisiana territory from France.

1860              South Carolina secedes from the Union.

1861              English transports loaded with 8,000 troops set sail for Canada so that troops are available if the "Trent Affair" is not settled without war.

1924              Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving less than one year of a five year sentence for treason.

1930              Thousands of Spaniards sign a revolutionary manifesto.

1933              The German government announces 400,000 citizens are to be sterilized because of hereditary defects.

1938              First electronic television system is patented.

1941              The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat against the Japanese over Kunming.

1943              Soviet forces halt a German army trying to relieve the besieged city of Stalingrad.

1946              Viet Minh and French forces fight fiercely in Annamite section of Hanoi.

1948              U.S. Supreme Court announces that it has no jurisdiction to hear the appeals of Japanese war criminals sentenced by the International Military Tribunal.

1960              National Liberation Front is formed by guerrillas fighting the Diem regime in South Vietnam.

1962              In its first free election in 38 years, the Dominican Republic chooses leftist Juan Bosch Gavino as president.

1963              Four thousand cross the Berlin Wall to visit relatives under a 17-day Christmas accord.

1989              U.S. troops invade Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega and replace him with Guillermo Endara.

1995              NATO begins peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.

1996              NeXT merges with Apple Computer, leading to the development of groundbreaking Mac OS X.

2007              Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the UK; previously, that honor belonged to Queen Victoria.