Protesters demand Walmart provide a living wage and full-time work as part of a nationwide Black Friday strike outside a Walmart store in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles on November 29, 2013. On December 22, 2005, Walmart was ordered to pay more than 100,000 California employees $172 million for depriving them of breaks to eat. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning throws against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second quarter at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver on September 29, 2013. On December 22, 2013, Manning, leading the Broncos to a 37-13 victory over the Houston Texans, set an NFL single-season record with his 51st touchdown pass. He finished the season with 55. File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI | License Photo

On December 22, 1944, ordered to surrender by Nazi troops who had his unit trapped south of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division replied with one word: "Nuts!" File Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army

Dec. 22 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1785, the American Continental Navy fleet was organized, consisting of two frigates, two brigs and three schooners. Sailors were paid $8 a month.


In 1894, French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a military court-martial on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial and sentenced to life in prison for his alleged crime of passing military secrets to the Germans. Dreyfus was released from prison in 1899 and officially exonerated in 1906.

In 1944, ordered to surrender by Nazi troops who had his unit trapped south of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division replied with one word: "Nuts!"

In 1972, a series of earthquakes killed about 5,000 people and left the Nicaraguan capital of Managua in ruins.

In 1984, "subway vigilante" Bernard Goetz shot and wounded four would-be holdup men on a New York City subway. He served eight months in prison for carrying an illegal weapon but was cleared of assault and attempted murder charges.

In 1986, political dissident and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, were allowed to return to Moscow after seven years of internal exile.

In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last hard-line communist holdout against East Bloc reforms, fell from power in the face of massive demonstrations.

In 1992, all 157 people aboard Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 died when the jetliner crashed, apparently following an in-flight collision with a military plane.

In 2001, American Airlines passengers and attendants overpowered a man trying to light a match to detonate powerful explosives hidden in his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami.

In 2005, Walmart was ordered to pay more than 100,000 California employees $172 million for depriving them of breaks to eat.

In 2006, rape charges were dropped against three former members of the Duke University lacrosse team after the alleged victim said she couldn't be sure she had been raped.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the repeal of the ban on gays and lesbians from openly serving in the U.S. military. The so-called "Don't Ask Don't Tell" legislation was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1994.

In 2013, Denver's Peyton Manning, leading the Broncos to a 37-13 victory over the Houston Texans, set an NFL single-season record with his 51st touchdown pass. He finished the season with 55.

In 2015, SpaceX successfully returned the company's Falcon 9 rocket to Earth, landing it vertically on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., -- 10 minutes after it blasted-off for its jaunt to space and back.