December 16
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(Redirected from 16 December)
December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 15 days remaining.
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Events
- 1392 - Emperor Go-Kameyama of Japan abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu, ending the nanboku-cho period of competing imperial courts.
- 1653 - Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
- 1689 - The English Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights.
- 1773 - The Boston Tea Party: a crowd of colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians dumps 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the British Tea tax.
- 1811 - The first of a series of severe earthquakes occurs, in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri in the United States.
- 1838 - Boers defeat Zulu troops at Battle of Blood River, led by Dambuza and Nhlela, celebrated in South Africa as the day of the vow.
- 1850 - The first four ships arrive to settle Christchurch, New Zealand.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union troops led by General George Thomas defeat Confederate troops in the Battle of Nashville.
- 1893 - World premiere of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony".
- 1910 - Henri Coanda makes first short flight in aircraft with jet engine
- 1922 - Poland's President Gabriel Narutowicz assassinated.
- 1942 - SS Chief Heinrich Himmler orders that the Roma (gypsy) people be sent to Auschwitz for extermination.
- 1944 - World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins.
- 1944 - World War II: A V-2 rocket hits the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 567 people.
- 1946 - Léon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1958 - A fire at a store in Bogotá, Colombia kills 83 people.
- 1960 - A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over New York City, killing 134.
- 1963 - Park Chung-Hee is sworn in as South Korea's fifth president.
- 1966 - Mao's Little Red Book is published in Beijing.
- 1970 - Shipworkers in Gdańsk, Poland clash with government police and the seeds of the Solidarity movement are sown.
- 1971 - The Pakistan Army surrenders, ending the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 simultaneously.
- 1973 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in NFL history to rush for 2000 yards in one season.
- 1985 - In New York City, Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead , making hit organizer John Gotti the leader of the Gambino family.
- 1989 - The Romanian Revolution begins in the city of Timişoara as a protest against an attempt to evict a dissident priest.
- 1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti.
- 1991 - United Nations reverses its 1975 resolution that Zionism is racism by a vote of 111-25, with 13 abstentions.
- 1997 - Super Typhoon Paka makes landfall on the island of Guam with 150 mph winds.
- 1998 - Operation Desert Fox: American and British troops begin to bomb Iraqi targets after Iraq obstructs UN weapons inspectors.
- 1999 - Mud streams kill thousands in Venezuela.
- 2000 - NASA announces that there is an ocean beneath Jupiter moon Ganymede's icy surface.
- 2003 - Deborah Jin induces the formation of a fermionic condensate among fermionic atoms.
Births
- 1485 - Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (d. 1536)
- 1584 - John Selden, English jurist and oriental scholar (d. 1654)
- 1614 - Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1674)
- 1742 - Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German field marshal (d. 1819)
- 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (d. 1827)
- 1775 - Jane Austen, English writer (d. 1817)
- 1775 - François-Adrien Boieldieu, French composer (d. 1834)
- 1776 - Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist (d. 1810)
- 1790 - King Léopold I of Belgium (d. 1865)
- 1861 - Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)
- 1863 - George Santayana, philosopher, poet (d. 1952)
- 1865 - Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet (d. 1918)
- 1882 - Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)
- 1882 - Walther Meissner, German physicist (d. 1974)
- 1882 - Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (d. 1963)
- 1888 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
- 1899 - Noel Coward, English playwright (d. 1973)
- 1901 - Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
- 1905 - Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor (d. 1996)
- 1917 - Sir Arthur C. Clarke, British writer
- 1926 - James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
- 1927 - Randall Garrett, American writer
- 1928 - Philip K. Dick, American writer (d. 1982)
- 1929 - Nicholas Courtney, British actor
- 1932 - Rodion Shchedrin, Russian composer
- 1934 - Elgin Baylor, American basketball player
- 1938 - Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
- 1941 - Lesley Stahl, American journalist
- 1943 - Steven Bochco, American television producer and writer
- 1946 - Benny Andersson, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
- 1946 - Trevor Pinnock, English conductor and harpsichordist
- 1947 - Vincent Matthews, American athlete
- 1951 - Robben Ford, American guitarist
- 1952 - Joel Garner, West Indian cricketer
- 1961 - Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)
- 1963 - Benjamin Bratt, American actor
- 1964 - Heike Drechsler, German track and field athlete
- 1967 - Donovan Bailey, Canadian athlete
- 1975 - Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian singer (Billy Talent)
Deaths
- 714 - Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia
- 999 - Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. 931)
- 1325 - Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (b. 1270)
- 1379 - John Fitzalan, Marshal of England (drowned)
- 1470 - John II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1425)
- 1515 - Afonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval general (b. 1453)
- 1669 - Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician
- 1687 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (b. 1623)
- 1751 - Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (b. 1700)
- 1774 - François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694)
- 1783 - Johann A. Hasse, German composer (b. 1699)
- 1783 - William James British naval commander (b. 1720)
- 1859 - Wilhelm Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1786)
- 1898 - Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and art collector (b. 1832)
- 1914 - Ivan Zajc, Croatian composer (b. 1832)
- 1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (b. 1869)
- 1921 - Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)
- 1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz, first President of Poland (b. 1865)
- 1928 - Elinor Wylie, American poet and writer (b. 1885)
- 1945 - Giovanni Agnelli, founder of Fiat (b. 1866)
- 1945 - Fumimaro Konoye, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1891)
- 1949 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
- 1956 - Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
- 1965 - W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)
- 1977 - Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (b. 1934)
- 1980 - Colonel Harland Sanders, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1890)
- 1980 - Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
- 1982 - Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer (b. 1928)
- 1985 - Paul Castellano, American gangster (b. 1915)
- 1989 - Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)
- 1989 - Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)
- 1993 - Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (b. 1918)
- 1993 - Moses Gunn, African-American actor (b. 1929)
- 1995 - Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (b. 1939)
- 1996 - Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Robert Stanfield, Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1914)
- 2003 - Gary Stewart, American singer (suicide) (b. 1945)
- 2004 - Ted Abernathy, baseball player (b. 1933)
Holidays and observances
- Bahrain - National Day
- Bangladesh - Victory Day
- Kazakhstan - Independence Day
- Nepal - Constitution Day
- South Africa - Day of reconciliation
External links
December 15 - December 17 - November 16 - January 16 -- listing of all days
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