December 16

December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 15 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
• 1392 – Nanboku-chō: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
• 1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
• 1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
• 1575 – The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place.
• 1598 – Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang Point – The final battle of the Seven Year War is fought between the China and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.
• 1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• 1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
• 1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
• 1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
• 1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
• 1811 – The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. These three so-called mega-quakes are believed to be an ongoing cataclysmic danger that could reprise the 1811-12 series of 2,000 quakes that affected the lands of what would be eight of today's heartland states of the United States.
• 1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
• 1838 – Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius combat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• 1850 – History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Franklin-Nashville Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
• 1893 – Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From The New World is given its world première performance at Carnegie Hall.
• 1907 – The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world
• 1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
• 1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
• 1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
• 1925 – Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity is founded at Lafayette College.
• 1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
• 1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
• 1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother
• 1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak
• 1942 – Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
• 1945 – Thailand joins the United Nations.
• 1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
• 1949 – Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, later knows as SAAB, is founded in Sweden.
• 1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in the Korean War.
• 1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
• 1971 – Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.
• 1971 – Independence Day of the Kingdom of Bahrain from British Protectorate status
• 1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris.
• 1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.
• 1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, having an immediate dramatic effect on the United States.
• 1982 – The Federal Reserve announces that the operating capacity of factories has gone down to 67.8%.
• 1985 – Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.
• 1986 – Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during Gorbachev's tenure
• 1989 – Protests break out in Timişoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
• 1989 – Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama.
• 1991 – United Nations General Assembly: UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 revokes UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 after Israel makes revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.
• 1991 – Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.
• 1997 – Dennō Senshi Porygon an episode of Pokémon, is aired in Japan, inducing seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.
• 1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.
• 2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.

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)
• 1714 – George Whitefield, English-born Methodist leader (d. 1770)
• 1716 – Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais, French diplomat and writer (d. 1798)
• 1717 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)
• 1742 – Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German Field Marshal (d. 1819)
• 1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist (d. 1827)
• 1775 – Jane Austen, English writer (d. 1817)
• 1775 – François-Adrien Boïeldieu, French composer (d. 1834)
• 1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist (d. 1810)
• 1778 – John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 (d. 1841)
• 1787 – Mary Russell Mitford, English writer (d. 1855)
• 1790 – King Léopold I of Belgium (d. 1865)
• 1804 – Viktor Bunyakovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1889)
• 1834 – Léon Walras, French economist (d. 1910)
• 1861 – Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)
• 1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and writer (d. 1952)
• 1865 – Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet (d. 1918)
• 1866 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born French abstract painter (d. 1944)
• 1867 – Amy Carmichael, missionary in Dohnavur, India (d. 1951)
• 1869 – Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1952)
• 1872 – Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian general (d. 1947)
• 1882 – Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (d. 1963)
• 1882 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)
• 1882 – Walther Meissner, German physicist (d. 1974)
• 1883 – Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film (d. 1925)
• 1888 – King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
• 1888 – Alphonse Juin, marshall of France (d. 1967)
• 1889 – Kim Jwa-jin, played an important role in the Korean Anarchist Movement (d. 1930)
• 1899 – Sir Noel Coward, English playwright, actor and composer (d. 1973)
• 1900 – V. S. Pritchett, English author and critic (d. 1997)
• 1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
• 1902 – Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (d. 1999)
• 1905 – Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor (d. 1996)
• 1906 – Barbara Kent, Canadian actress
• 1913 – George Ignatieff, Russian-born Canadian diplomat (d. 1989)
• 1915 – Turk Murphy, American trombonist (d. 1987)
• 1916 – Birgitta Valberg, Swedish actress
• 1917 – Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, Sindhi scholar
• 1917 – Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English writer (d. 2008)
• 1918 – Pierre Delanoë, French songwriter and lyricist (d. 2006)
• 1922 – Cy Leslie, American music and video executive (d. 2008)
• 1923 – Menahem Pressler, German-Israeli pianist.
• 1926 – James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
• 1927 – Randall Garrett, American writer (d. 1987)
• 1928 – Philip K. Dick, American writer (d. 1982)
• 1929 – Nicholas Courtney, English actor
• 1932 – Rodion Shchedrin, Soviet/Russian composer
• 1934 – Elgin Baylor, American basketball player
• 1936 – Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
• 1937 – Joyce Bulifant, American actress
• 1938 – Frank Deford, American sportswriter
• 1938 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
• 1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist
• 1942 – Donald Carcieri, American politician, governor of Rhode Island
• 1943 – Steven Bochco, American television producer and writer
• 1943 – Tony Hicks, English guitarist (The Hollies)
• 1944 – Don Meyer Basketball coach Northern State, Lipscomb, and Hamline
• 1945 – Patti Deutsch, American actress and Match Game panelist
• 1945 – Bobby George, English professional darts player
• 1945 – Yukio Hattori, Japanese Iron Chef commentator
• 1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish musician, singer and songwriter (ABBA)
• 1946 – Trevor Pinnock, English conductor and harpsichordist
• 1947 – Ben Cross, English actor
• 1947 – Vincent Matthews, American sprinter
• 1948 – Christopher Biggins, English actor
• 1949 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)
• 1950 – Claudia Cohen, American gossip columnist and socialite (d. 2007)
• 1950 – Roy Schuiten, Dutch cyclist (d. 2006)
• 1951 – Robben Ford, American guitarist
• 1952 – Joel Garner, Barbadian West Indies cricketer
• 1952 – Francesco Graziani, Italian footballer
• 1953 – Rebecca Forstadt, American voice actor
• 1955 – Xander Berkeley, American actor
• 1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
• 1957 – Antonio Vega, Spanish pop singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
• 1958 – Katie Leigh, American voice actress
• 1959 – Alison LaPlaca, American actress
• 1960 – Pat Van Den Hauwe, Belgian footballer
• 1961 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)
• 1961 – Jon Tenney, American actor
• 1961 – Andre Andersen, Danish (Russia-born) multi-instrumentalist and composer
• 1962 – Maruschka Detmers, Dutch actress
• 1962 – William "The Refrigerator" Perry, American football player
• 1963 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor
• 1963 – Jeff Carson, American singer
• 1963 – James Mangold, American film director and screenwriter
• 1964 – Heike Drechsler, East German–born sprinter
• 1964 – Georgie Parker, Australian actress
• 1964 – Billy Ripken, American baseball player
• 1965 – Chris Jones, American baseball player
• 1965 – Melanie Sloan, American attorney
• 1965 – Nancy Valen, American actress
• 1966 – Clifford Robinson, American basketball player
• 1966 – Dennis Wise, English footballer
• 1967 – Donovan Bailey, Jamaican-born Canadian sprinter,
• 1967 – Mark Palmer, American-born Ambassador
• 1967 – Miranda Otto, Australian actress
• 1968 – Lalah Hathaway, American singer and daughter of (Donny Hathaway)
• 1970 – Daniel Cosgrove, American actor
• 1971 – Michael McCary, American singer (Boyz II Men)
• 1971 – Seyhan Kurt, French-Turkish poet,writer
• 1971 – Paul van Dyk, German DJ
• 1972 – Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress
• 1972 – Charles Gipson, American baseball player
• 1972 – Željko Kalac, Australian footballer
• 1973 – Themba Mnguni, South African footballer
• 1973 – Scott Storch, Canadian-American hip-hop producer
• 1974 – Frida Hallgren, Swedish actress
• 1975 – Valentin Bădoi, Romanian footballer
• 1975 – Nawo Kawakita, Japanese drummer (Maximum the Hormone)
• 1975 – Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian musician (Billy Talent)
• 1975 – Jonathan Scarfe, Canadian actor
• 1977 – Éric Bélanger, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1977 – Sylvain Distin, French footballer
• 1978 – Gunter Van Handenhoven, Belgian footballer
• 1978 – Kaine, American rapper (Ying Yang Twins)
• 1979 – Mihai Trăistariu, Romanian singer
• 1979 – Jessie Ward, American professional wrestler
• 1979 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer
• 1979 – Tramar Dillard, American Rapper, better known as Flo Rida
• 1981 – Anna Sedokova, Ukrainian singer
• 1981 – Gareth Williams, Scottish footballer, Miguel Gomina Alves
• 1982 – Garnon Davies, Welsh actor
• 1982 – Antrel Rolle, American football player
• 1983 – Kelenna Azubuike, American basketball player
• 1983 – Danielle Lloyd, English model
• 1985 – Keita Tachibana, Member of Japanese boy band w-inds.
• 1986 – Alcides Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player Milwaukee Brewers
• 1987 – Beau Dowler, Australian rules footballer
• 1987 – Hallee Hirsh, American actress
• 1988 – Anna Popplewell, English actress

Deaths

• 705 – Empress Wu of Zhou (b. 625)
• 714 – Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia
• 867 – Eberhard of Friuli
• 999 – Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. 931)
• 1325 – Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (b. 1270)
• 1378 – Otto III of Montferrat
• 1379 – John Fitzalan, Marshal of England
• 1470 – John II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1425)
• 1515 – Afonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval general (b. 1453)
• 1598 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean admiral (b. 1545)
• 1669 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)
• 1687 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (b. 1623)
• 1751 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (b. 1700)
• 1765 – Peter Frederick Haldimand, Swiss military officer and surveyor
• 1774 – François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694)
• 1783 – Johann A. Hasse, German composer (b. 1699)
• 1783 – Sir William James, British naval commander (b. 1720)
• 1809 – Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist (b. 1755)
• 1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1786)
• 1897 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist and short story writer (b. 1840)
• 1898 – Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and art collector (b. 1832)
• 1914 – Ivan Zajc, Croatian composer (b. 1832)
• 1916 – Ognjeslav Kostović Stepanović, Serbian inventor (b. 1851)
• 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)
• 1930 – Herman Lamm, German American bank robber (b. 1890)
• 1935 – Thelma Todd, American actress (b. 1905)
• 1940 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player (b. 1866)
• 1944 – Betsie ten Boom, sister of Corrie ten Boom and Holocaust victim. (b. 1885)
• 1945 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1866)
• 1945 – Fumimaro Konoye, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1891)
• 1948 – Denham Fouts, American male prostitute and socialite (b. 1914)
• 1949 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
• 1956 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
• 1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)
• 1968 – Futabayama Sadaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 35^th Yokozuna (b. 1912)
• 1968 – General Muhammad Suheimat , Jordanian military General and a statesman.(b.1916)
• 1976 – Réal Caouette, French Canadian politician (Social Credit Party of Canada) (b. 1917)
• 1977 – Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (b. 1934)
• 1980 – Colonel Sanders, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1890)
• 1980 – Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
• 1982 – Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer, founder of Lotus Cars (b. 1928)
• 1983 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (b. 1907)
• 1985 – Thomas Bilotti, American mafioso (b. 1940)
• 1985 – Paul Castellano, American mafioso (b. 1915)
• 1988 – Sylvester, American singer (b. 1948)
• 1989 – Óscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (b. 1913)
• 1989 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b. 1930)
• 1989 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)
• 1989 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)
• 1990 – Douglas Campbell, American pilot (b. 1896)
• 1993 – Moses Gunn, American actor (b. 1929)
• 1993 – Tanaka Kakuei, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1918)
• 1993 – Charizma, American Hip-Hop MC (b. 1973)
• 1995 – Johnny Moss, American poker player (b. 1907)
• 1995 – Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (b. 1939)
• 1996 – Quentin Bell, English art historian (b. 1910)
• 1997 – Lillian Disney, Wife of Walt Disney (b. 1899)
• 1997 – Nicolette Larson, American singer (b. 1952)
• 1998 – William Gaddis, American writer (b. 1922)
• 2001 – Stuart Adamson, English-born Scottish musician (The Skids, Big Country) (b. 1958)
• 2001 – Stefan Heym, German author (b. 1913)
• 2003 – Robert Stanfield, Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Gary Stewart, American musician and songwriter (b. 1945)
• 2004 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (b. 1933)
• 2005 – Kenneth Bulmer, English author (b. 1921)
• 2005 – Ed Hansen, American film director and editor (b. 1937)
• 2005 – John Spencer, American actor (b. 1946)
• 2006 – Don Jardine, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1940)
• 2006 – Taliep Petersen, South African singer and composer (b. 1950)
• 2006 – Pnina Salzman, Israeli pianist (b. 1922)
• 2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter (b. 1951)
• 2009 – Roy E. Disney, American businessman (b. 1930)
• 2009 – Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, controversial South African Health Minister (b. 1940)
• 2009 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian politician (b. 1956)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Adelaide of Italy
• Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
• National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent emirate in 1971.
• National Sports Day (Thailand)
• The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born (Christians of Spanish-origin):
  • The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, other Latin Americans)
  • The first day of Misa de Gallo (Philippines)
• Victory Day (Bangladesh)
• Victory Day (India)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada