ON THIS DAY

1916: The French defeat Germans in Battle of Verdun during World War I.

1939: The epic film Gone With The Wind premieres in the US city of Atlanta.

1970: Soviet spacecraft starts sending messages from planet Venus.

1989: An uprising begins leading to the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

1995: Pioneer 6, a spacecraft launched on December 16, 1965, gets an early happy birthday call from NASA and answers back.

1998: Northern Ireland’s Loyalist Volunteer Force promises to start disarming by Christmas.

2014: Sydney’s Lindt Cafe siege begins with Man Haron Monis holding 18 people hostage for 16 hours before a fatal shootout the next day.

Birthdays: Roman emperor Nero (AD 37-AD 68); French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923); US oil tycoon J. Paul Getty (1892-1976).