December 16

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) candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
• 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 DC-8 and a TWA 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 Gdansk, Poland (led in part by a 27-year-old electrician named Lech Walesa) 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 when exiting from Sparks Steak House, making hit organizer John Gotti the leader of the powerful Gambino organized crime family.
• 1989 – The Romanian Revolution begins in the city of Timişoara as a protest against an attempt by the government to evict a dissident Methodist priest, László Tőkés.
• 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
• 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)
• 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 Leopold 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
• 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, inventor
• 1917 – Sir Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer
• 1926 – James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
• 1927 – Randall Garrett, American science fiction writer
• 1928 – Philip K. Dick, American science fiction writer (d. 1982)
• 1934 – Elgin Baylor, American basketball player
• 1938 – Frank DeFord, American sports journalist
• 1938  – Liv Ullmann, Swedish actress
• 1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist
• 1943 – Steven Bochco, American television producer, writer
• 1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
• 1946  – Trevor Pinnock, English conductor and harpsichordist
• 1947 – Vincent Matthews, American track and field athlete
• 1951 – Robben Ford, American blues 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 track and field athlete

Deaths

• 714 – Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (b. 635 or 640)
• 999 – Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. 931)
• 1515 – Afonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval general (at sea) (b. 1453)
• 1783 – Johann A. Hasse, German composer
• 1783  – William James British naval commander (b. c. 1720)
• 1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1786)
• 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
• 1945 – Fumimaro Konoye, prince and prime minister of Japan (b. 1891)
• 1949 – Sidney Olcott, pioneer motion picture 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, fast food entrepreneur (KFC) (b. 1890)
• 1980  – Hellmuth Walter, engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
• 1982 – Colin Chapman, engineer, founder of Lotus Cars (b. 1928)
• 1985 – Paul Castellano, mafia boss (b. 1915)
• 1989 – Lee Van Cleef, actor (b. 1925)
• 1993 – Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (b. 1918)
• 1996 – Quentin Bell, English biographer, author
• 2003 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian politician (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Gary Stewart, country music singer
• 2004 – Ted Abernathy, Major League 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

• BBC: On This Day

December 15 – December 17 – November 16 – January 16 — listing of all days