The Siege of Malta ended after 2.5 years.
The Axis effort to isolate and eliminate Malta as a British asset had been conducted principally from the air, but had also been heavily supported by the German and Italian navies. For almost all the siege the defense of the of the island, which used numerically inferior numbers of aircraft, had been a strictly British affair, aided only in the end by the U.S. Navy assisting in ferrying aircraft to Malta. It was a resolute British victory.
The tide had been turning since the British had been able to reinforce the island with new aircraft in 1942 and emergency supplies had been run in, keeping the island from starvation. The Germans had more or less given up in October, but Axis defeats in North Africa made maintaining the siege impossible, as the Axis had been required to switch its air assets to the failing campaign in North Africa.
Malta had been independent until 1798, having been governed by the monastic Order of Saint John, which lost power to Napoleon. The Maltese rebelled and asked for British help, with the island becoming a British protectorate in 1800. It became a Crown Colony in 1813, obtaining home rule in 1947 and independence in 1964.
The British 8th Army retook Benghazi, Libya.
The Red Army opened up phase two of Operation Uranus with Stalingrad Front commander Andrei Yeremenko opening up the southern prong after the fog lifted. Again, Romanian troops failed and collapsed, with German forces attempting to react. By then end of the day, only the 6th Romanian Cavalry Regiment stood between the Red Army and the Don.
The Alaska Highway officially opened.
Today In Wyoming's History: November 20: 1942 NHL abolishes regular season overtime until World War II is over.
Hockey fans weren't the only lonely ones. Life magazine went to press with a black and white photograph of a woman smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee on its cover, entitled "Lonely Wife".
Joseph Robinette Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Norman Greenbaum, famous for his song Spirit In The Sky, was born in Malden, Massachusetts.
Joe Biden is the oldest person to ever be elected President. In case a person wonders, he's only four years older, however, than Donald Trump.
