December 16
(Redirected from
16th December )
December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years ) in the Gregorian Calendar . There are 15 days remaining.
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 .
1770 - Composer/musician Ludwig Van Beethoven is born in Bonn , Germany .
1773 - The Boston Tea Party
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 at Lyttelton to settle Christchurch , New Zealand .
1864 - 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.
1944 - The Battle of the Bulge begins. 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 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 - Victory Day of Bangladesh (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 began 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 elected president of Haiti
1991 - United Nations reverses ruling that Zionism is racism by 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 , physicist (d. 1810 )
1790 - King Leopold I of Belgium (d. 1865 )
1861 - Antonio de La Gandara , painter (d. 1917 )
1863 - George Santayana , philosopher, poet (d. 1952 )
1865 - Olavo Bilac , poet (d. 1918 )
1869 - Clarence Hawkes , physically handicapped lecturer (d. 1954 )
1882 - Zoltán Kodály , Hungarian composer (d. 1967 )
1882 - Walther Meissner , 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 , science fiction writer
1920 - Dorothy Abbott , actress (d. 1968 )
1926 - James McCracken , American tenor (d. 1988 )
1927 - Randall Garrett , science fiction writer
1928 - Philip K. Dick , science fiction writer (d. 1982 )
1934 - Elgin Baylor , basketball player
1938 - Frank DeFord , sports journalist
1938 - Liv Ullmann , Swedish actress
1941 - Lesley Stahl , journalist
1943 - Steven Bochco , producer, writer
1946 - Benny Andersson , Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA )
1946 - Trevor Pinnock , English conductor and harpsichordist
1947 - Vincent Matthews , American athlete
1951 - Robben Ford , blues guitarist
1952 - Joel Garner , West Indian cricketer
1961 - Bill Hicks , comedian (d. 1994 )
1963 - Benjamin Bratt , actor
1964 - Heike Drechsler , track and field athlete
1967 - Donovan Bailey , 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 , composer
1783 - William James (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 , writer
1942 - Heinrich Himmler orders that the Roma (gypsy) candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
1945 - Fumimaro Konoye , prince and prime minister of Japan (b. 1891 )
1949 - Sidney Olcott , pioneer motion picture director (b. 1873 )
1956 - Nina Hamnett , 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 (suicide)
2004 - Ted Abernathy , Major League Baseball player (b. 1933 )
Holidays and observances
External links
December 15 - December 17 - November 16 - January 16 -- listing of all days
Last updated: 10-13-2005 11:14:16
