The advance of the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Magdhaba, 23 December 1916. Image courtesy Australian War Memorial.
- Day 880 of the war
- Leonard William Glandfield Last is killed in action in France
- The Imperial Camel Corps, the Anzac Mounted Division and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade under the command of Sir Harry Chauvel capture Magdhaba in northern Sinai. The 6,000 strong Allied force sustains 146 casualties, including 22 dead; the 2,000 strong Ottoman army about 400 casualties with some 100 dead and more than 1,200 taken prisoner of war. The Allied success in the Battle of Magdhaba opens the way for a successful campaign in Palestine.
- Count Ottokar Czernin succeeds Baron Istvan von Burian as Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs
- British troops carry out two successful attacks along the Doiran front in Macedonia
