1944— 25th Battalion troops, supported by No 5 Squadron RAAF aircraft, occupied Pearl Ridge, Bougainville. 

1970— Helicopters flown by the RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam operated from an advanced landing zone at Chau Lang, in Chau Doc Province, against strong constant machine-gun and small arms fire from Viet Cong forces.                

1860— Sailors from the Victorian Colonial warship HMVS Victoria took part in an action at Matarikoriko, during the Second Anglo-Māori War in New Zealand. This was the first overseas military action by an Australian unit.

2004— Operation SUMATRA ASSIST commences when C-130 Hercules aircraft operated by No 36 Squadron RAAF begin relief operations following the Boxing Day Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. 

1941— Australian Prime Minister John Curtin announced that “Australia looks to America” for future defence relationships.

1943— Capture of the Pimple, after a battle lasting 4 months for Shaggy Ridge, New Guinea, by the Australian 7th Division.

917— Battle in the defence of Jerusalem. The Ottoman Army had surrendered Jerusalem to the British on 9th December but launched a counterattack which was repelled by the Australian Mounted Division.

1943— US Marines land at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, supported by forces which included HMAS Shropshire and the RAAF.

1944— HMAS Quickmatch picked up 67 survivors of US merchant ship Robert J Walker, torpedoed by a German U-boat U-862 off Bermagui, NSW.

1974— RAAF C-130 Hercules of No 37 Squadron arrive in Darwin in the wake of Cyclone Tracy to begin the Australian Defence Force relief of the city.

1941— Benghazi is recaptured in one of five times the city changed hands during the war in North Africa.

1974— HMAS Arrow sank with the loss of 2 lives, and HMAS Attack was driven aground when Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin. 

1916— The ANZAC Mounted Division under Major General Chauvel, captured Magdhaba, Sinai.

1962— The Indonesian Confrontation begins with an Indonesian backed attempted coup in the Sultanate of Brunei in north Borneo.

1916— The ANZAC Mounted Division under Major General Harry Chauvel began an overnight march to attack Magdhaba, Sinai.

1941— The first soldiers from the United States arrived in Australia.  Australia soon became a major base for US forces in the war against Japan and signalled a re-alignment of Australia’s defence strategy.

1916— Australian Light Horse capture El Arish. El Arish became one of the first steps in the Allied advance on Palestine.

1942— Battle of Sio, New Guinea, commences.

1970— HMAS Perth engaged in a counter-battery duel with Viet Cong guns located in the Long Hai hills of South Vietnam.