On this day in History - Dec. 16

• 0705 - Empress Wu of Zhou dies (b. 0625)
• 0714 - Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia.
• 0755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
• 0867 - Eberhard of Friuli dies.
• 0882 - John VIII dies. Italian Pope (872-82).
• 0955 - John XII is elected Pope.
• 0999 - Saint Adelaide of Italy dies (b. 0931).
• 1279 - D. Afonso III dies. King of Portugal (1248 - 1279).
• 1325 - Charles of Valois dies (b. 1270). Son of Philip III of France.
• 1378 - Otto III of Montferrat dies.
• 1379 - John Fitzalan dies (drowned). Marshal of England.
• 1392 - Emperor Go-Kameyama of Japan abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu, ending the nanboku-cho period of competing imperial courts.
• 1431 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
• 1470 - John II, Duke of Lorraine was born (b. 1425).
• 1485 - Catherine of Aragon was born. Queen of England (d. 1536) .
• 1497 - Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
• 1515 - Afonso de Albuquerque dies (b. 1543). Portuguese naval general.
• 1584 - John Selden was born (d. 1654). English jurist and oriental scholar.
• 1598 - An outnumbered Korean and Ming navy ambush and defeat a Japanese army at the Battle of Noryang Point.
• 1598 - Yi Sun-sin dies (b. 1545). Korean admiral.
• 1600 - Henri IV épouse Marie de Médicis.
• 1614 - Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg was born (d. 1674)
• 1631 - Mount Vesuvius, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages & kills 4,000.
• 1653 - The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• 1669 - Nathaniel Fiennes dies. English politician
• 1672 - John II Casimir Vasa dies at 63. Cardinal / King of Poland (1648-68).
• 1687 - William Petty dies (b. 1623). English scientist and philosopher.
• 1689 - The English Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights.
• 1707 - Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
• 1714 - George Whitefield was born (d. 1770). English-born Methodist leader.
• 1716 - Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais was born (d. 1798). French diplomat and writer.
• 1717 - Elizabeth Carter was born (d. 1806). English writer.
• 1742 - Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt was born (d. 1819). German field marshal.
• 1751 - Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau dies (b. 1700). Prussian general.
• 1761 - Seven Years' War: After four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
• 1765 - Peter Frederick Haldimand dies. Swiss military officer and surveyor
• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn [he was baptized on 17 December 1770, and it is presumed he was born on 16 December]. (d. 1827); German Composer, he is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the Western European music.
• 1773 - The Boston Tea Party took place. A crowd of colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians dumps 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the British Tea Act.
• 1774 - François Quesnay dies (b. 1694). French economist and personal physician of Louis XIV.
• 1775 - Jane Austen was born (d. 1817). English novelist (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice , Emma)
• 1775 - François-Adrien Boieldieu was born (d. 1834). French composer.
• 1776 - Johann Wilhelm Ritter was born (d. 1810). German physicist.
• 1783 - Johann A. Hasse dies (b. 1699). German composer.
• 1783 - William James dies (b. 1720). British naval commander.
• 1790 - King Leopold I of Belgium was born (d. 1865)
• 1804 - Viktor Bunyakovsky was born (d. 1889). Russian mathematician.
• 1809 - Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy dies (b. 1755). French chemist.
• 1809 - Napoleon Bonaparte divorces Empress Josephine by French Senate.
• 1811 - The first of a series of severe earthquakes occurs, in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri in the United States.
• 1815 - Criação do Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarves, pelo príncipe regente D. João, futuro D. João VI.
• 1824 - Great North Holland Canal opens.
• 1834 - Léon Walras was born (d. 1910). French economist.
• 1835 - Fire consumes over 600 buildings in NYC .
• 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 - History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton.
• 1859 - Wilhelm Grimm dies (b. 1786). German writer and folklorist.
• 1861 - Antonio de La Gandara was born (d. 1917). French painter.
• 1863 - George Santayana was born (d. 1952). Spanish philosopher, essayst and poet.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Union troops led by general George Thomas defeat Confederate troops in the Battle of Nashville.
• 1865 - Olavo Bilac was born (d. 1918). Brazilian poet.
• 1866 - Wassily Kandinsky was born. Russian painter.
• 1867 - Amy Carmichael was born (d. 1951). Missionary in Dohnavur, India
• 1869 - Hristo Tatarchev was born (d. 1952). Bulgarian revolutionary.
• 1872 - Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born (d. 1947). Russian general.
• 1882 - Sir Jack Hobbs was born (d. 1963). English test cricketer.
• 1882 - Zoltán Kodály was born (d. 1967). Hungarian composer.
• 1882 - Walther Meissner was born (d. 1974). German physicist.
• 1883 - Max Linder was born (d. 1925). French pioneer of silent film.
• 1884 - Great Britain recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State.
• 1888 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia was born (d. 1934)
• 1888 - Alphonse Juin was born (d. 1967). Marshall of France.
• 1893 - World premiere of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony".
• 1897 - Alphonse Daudet dies (b. 1840). French novelist and short story writer.
• 1898 - Pavel Tretyakov dies (b. 1832). Russian businessman and art collector.
• 1899 - Brooklyn Children's Museum opens.
• 1899 - Sir Noel Coward was born (d. 1973). British playwright, actor and composer
• 1900 - V. S. Pritchett was born (d. 1997). British author and critic.
• 1901 - Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia (d. 1978). American anthropologist, author and lecturer.
• 1902 - Rafael Alberti was born (d. 1999). Spanish poet.
• 1904 - Edward Morris Bernstein was born. Economist .
• 1905 - Piet Hein was born (d. 1996). Danish mathematician and inventor.
• 1906 - Barbara Kent was born. Canadian actress.
• 1906 - Leonid Brezhnev was born (Russian leader of the Communist Party) .
• 1910 - Henri Coanda makes first short flight in aircraft with jet engine.
• 1914 - Ivan Zajc dies (b. 1832). Croatian composer.
• 1915 - Albert Einstein publishes his "General Theory of Relativity"
• 1915 - Turk Murphy was born (d. 1987). American trombonist.
• 1916 - Grigori Rasputin dies assassinated by a group of noble Russian conspirators (b. 1869). Russian monk.
• 1917 - Sir Arthur C. Clarke was born. British science fiction writer (2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, Childhood's End) .
• 1917 - Nabi Bux Khan Baloch was born. Sindhi Scholar.
• 1918 - Pierre Delanoë was born (d. 2006). French songwriter and lyricist.
• 1920 - One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hit the Gansu province in China. The 8.6 quake killed 200,000 people.
• 1921 - Camille Saint-Saëns dies (b. 1835). French composer.
• 1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz dies (b. 1865). First President of Poland
• 1922 - President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
• 1925 - A regular broadcasting service was instituted in Ceylon.
• 1925 - Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity was founded at Lafayette College.
• 1926 - James McCracken was born (d. 1988). American tenor.
• 1927 - Randall Garrett was born. American writer.
• 1928 - Philip K. Dick was born (d. 1982) American writer.
• 1928 - Elinor Wylie dies (b. 1885). American poet and writer.
• 1929 - Nicholas Courtney was born. British actor
• 1929 - Chic Blackhawks 1st game at Chicago Stadium, beat Pitts Pirates, 3-1
• 1930 - José Júlio da Silva Ramos dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 6 Mar. 1853). Brazilian philologist and poet.
• 1932 - Heavy earthquake ravages Kansu China, 70,000 killed
• 1932 - Rodion Shchedrin was born. Russian composer
• 1934 - Aparício Fernandes de Oliveira was born in Acari, Rio Grande do Norte (d. 1996).
• 1934 - Elgin Baylor was born. American basketball player.
• 1935 - São Paulo Futebol Clube (Brazil) is founded.
• 1935 - Thelma Todd dies (b. 1905). American actress.
• 1937 - Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from Alcatraz island. Both men entered the bay on December 16th, neither was ever seen again.
• 1937 - Giulio Massarani was born in Rome (d. Rio de Janeiro, 28 Sep 2004). Italian-born Brazilian engineer and professor
• 1938 - Liv Ullmann was born. Norwegian actress.
• 1940 - Billy Hamilton (baseball player) dies (b. 1866). MLB Hall of Fame Outfielder.
• 1941 - Lesley Stahl was born. American journalist.
• 1941 - World War II: Japanese occupy Miri, Sarawak
• 1942 - Holocaust: Porajmos - Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination should be deported to Auschwitz.
• 1943 - Steven Bochco was born. American television producer and writer.
• 1943 - Tony Hicks was born. British guitarist (The Hollies)
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's allied forces and Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt's German army engage in the Belgian Ardennes.
• 1944 - The Battle of the Bulge begins. A V-2 rocket hits the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 567 people.
• 1945 - Bobby George was born. English professional darts player
• 1945 - Yukio Hattori was born. Japanese Iron Chef commentator
• 1945 - Giovanni Agnelli dies (d. 1866). Italian automobile manufacturer.
• 1945 - Fumimaro Konoye dies (b. 1891). Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1946 - Thailand becomes member of The United Nations.
• 1946 - Léon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1946 - Benny Andersson was born. Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
• 1946 - Trevor Pinnock was born. English conductor and harpsichordist
• 1947 - Ben Cross was born. British actor.
• 1947 - Vincent Matthews was born. American athlete.
• 1948 - Christopher Biggins was born. English Actor in Pantomines
• 1949 - Billy Gibbons was born. American guitarist (ZZ Top)
• 1949 - Traitsjo Kostov dies executed. Bulgarian communist vice-premier
• 1949 - Sidney Olcott dies (b. 1873). Canadian film director.
• 1949 - Sukarno becomes President Indonesia, Mokammed Hatta Premier
• 1949 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung is received at the Kremlin in Moscow.
• 1949 - Future SAAB makes its first car . A Swedish company by the name of Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget produced its first motorcar.
• 1950 - Claudia Cohen was born (d. 2007). American gossip columnist and socialite.
• 1950 - Roy Schuiten was born (d. 2006). Dutch cyclist.
• 1951 - Robben Ford was born. American guitarist.
• 1952 - Joel Garner was born. West Indian cricketer
• 1955 - Xander Berkeley was born. American actor
• 1955 - Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este was born.
• 1956 - UN troops occupy Port Said, Suez Canal Zone, following the abortive Tripartite Invasion.
• 1956 - Nina Hamnett dies (b. 1890). Welsh artist.
• 1957 - Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 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.
• 1961 - Bill Hicks was born (d. 1994). American comedian.
• 1962 - David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" premieres.
• 1962 - Nepal gets constitution / becomes Constitutional Hindu Monarchy.
• 1962 - Luciana Braga was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
• 1962 - Maruschka Detmers was born. Dutch actress.
• 1962 - William Perry was born. American football player.
• 1963 - Park Chung-Hee is sworn in as South Korea's fifth president.
• 1963 - A general amnesty is announced for Mau Mau forest fighters in Kenya.
• 1963 - Kenia becomes member of The United Nations.
• 1963 - Benjamin Bratt was born. American actor.
• 1963 - Jeff Carson was born. American singer.
• 1964 - Heike Drechsler was born. East German track and field athlete.
• 1964 - Billy Ripken was born. American baseball player.
• 1965 - Chris Jones was born. American baseball player.
• 1965 - Melanie Sloan was born. American attorney.
• 1965 - Nancy Valen was born. American actress.
• 1965 - W. Somerset Maugham dies (b. 1874). English playwright, novelist and short story writer.
• 1966 - Mao's Little Red Book is published in Beijing.
• 1966 - Dennis Wise was born. English footballer
• 1966 - Clifford Robinson was born. American basketball player
• 1967 - Miranda Otto was born. Australian actress
• 1967 - Donovan Bailey was born. Canadian athlete
• 1969 - MPs vote to abolish hanging British Parlament abolish the death penalty
• 1970 - 1st successful landing on Venus (USSR).
• 1970 - Shipworkers in Gdańsk, Poland clash with government police and the seeds of the Solidarity movement are sown.
• 1970 - Cláudia Lira was born in João Pessoa. Brazilian actress.
• 1971 - The Pakistan Army surrenders, ending the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 simultaneously.
• 1971 - Don McLean's 8+ minute version of "American Pie" released
• 1971 - Paul van Dyk was born. German Trance music DJ
• 1971 - Michael McCary was born. American singer (Boyz II Men)
• 1972 - Charles Gipson was born. American baseball player
• 1972 - Željko Kalac was born. Australian soccer player
• 1972 - Angela Bloomfield was born. New Zealand actress
• 1973 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in NFL history to rush for 2000 yards in one season.
• 1973 - Mariza was born. Mozambican-born Portuguese singer. 2003 Best European World Music Artist ( from BBC Radio 3 )
• 1974 - União Democrática Popular, Portuguese politic party, is founded.
• 1974 - Frida Hallgren was born. Swedish actress
• 1975 - Nawo Kawakita was born. Japanese drummer (Maximum the Hormone)
• 1975 - Benjamin Kowalewicz was born. Canadian singer (Billy Talent)
• 1976 - Réal Caouette was born (d. 1917). French Canadian politician (Social Credit Party of Canada)
• 1977 - England: Queen opens 'tube' link to Heathrow
• 1977 - Éric Bélanger was born. Canadian ice hockey player
• 1977 - Sylvain Distin was born. French footballer.
• 1977 - Risto Jarva dies (b. 1934). Finnish filmmaker.
• 1978 - Gunter Van Handenhoven was born. Belgian footballer
• 1978 - Kaine was born. American rapper (Ying Yang Twins)
• 1979 - Mihai Trăistariu was born. Romanian singer
• 1979 - Jessie Ward was born. American professional wrestler
• 1979 - Flo-Rida was born. American African rapper
• 1979 - Nicole Werra was born. Miss Wisconsin Teen USA (1996).
• 1980 - Colonel Harland Sanders dies (b. 1890). American fast food entrepreneur.
• 1980 - Hellmuth Walter dies (b. 1900). German engineer and inventor.
• 1981 - Anna Sedokova was born. Ukrainian singer
• 1981 - Took Leng How was born. Malaysian criminal
• 1981 - Gareth Williams was born. Scottish footballer
• 1982 - Garnon Davies was born. Welsh actor
• 1982 - Colin Chapman dies (b. 1928). English engineer and automobile manufacturer.
• 1983 - Kelenna Azubuike was born. English basketball player
• 1983 - Danielle Lloyd was born. English model
• 1984 - Debs Garms was born (d. 1907). Baseball player.
• 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.
• 1985 - Keita Tachibana was born. Member of Japanese boy band w-inds.
• 1985 - Paul Castellano dies (b. 1915). American mafioso.
• 1985 - Thomas Bilotti dies (b. 1940). American mafioso.
• 1986 - Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which became the first signs of ethnic strife during Gorbachev's tenure
• 1987 - Roh Tae Woo wins Presidential Election in South Korea
• 1987 - Hallee Hirsh was born. American actress.
• 1988 - Anna Popplewell was born. English actress.
• 1988 - Sylvester James dies (b. 1948). American R&B singer, disco performer.
• 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.
• 1989 - Chen Yaoye was born. Chinese professional Go player
• 1989 - Silvana Mangano dies (b. 1930). Italian actress (Death in Venice).
• 1989 - Lee Van Cleef dies (b. 1925). American actor (Good, Bad and Ugly)
• 1989 - Aileen Pringle dies (b. 1895). American actress.
• 1989 - Oscar Alfredo Gálvez dies (b. 1913). Argentine racing driver.
• 1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic .
• 1990 - Douglas Campbell dies (b. 1896). American pilot.
• 1991 - Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.
• 1991 - United Nations reverses ruling that Zionism is racism by 111-25, with 13 abstentions.
• 1993 - Moses Gunn dies (b. 1929). American actor.
• 1993 - Tanaka Kakuei dies (b. 1918). Japanese political leader.
• 1994 - Herberto Helder, Portuguese poet, is distinguished with The Pessoa Prize but he refused to receive it.
• 1995 - Johnny Moss dies (b. 1907). American poker player.
• 1995 - Mariele Ventre dies (1934). Italian choir director.
• 1996 - Quentin Bell dies (b. 1910). English biographer and art historian.
• 1996 - Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, condemned to death for a 1979 coup and a deadly military crackdown, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
• 1997 - Super Typhoon Paka makes landfall on the island of Guam with 150 mph winds.
• 1997 - 685 kids went to hospital in Japan after an episode of pokemon see also: Pokémon: Banned Episodes.
• 1997 - Nicolette Larson dies (b. 1952). American singer.
• 1998 - Operation Desert Fox: American and British troops begin to bomb Iraqi targets after Iraq obstructs UN weapons inspectors.
• 1998 - William Gaddis dies (b. 1922). American writer.
• 1999 - Mud streams kill thousands in Venezuela.
• 2000 - NASA announces that there is an ocean beneath Jupiter moon Ganymede's icy surface.
• 2000 - Colin Powell is selected to become the first African-American secretary of state.
• 2001 - Yakoub Dakidak, senior Hamas military wing activist, killed after nightfall by Israeli troops which had entered Palestiniain Hebron, who say that he was fleeing arrest
• 2001 - Stuart Adamson dies (b. 1958). British musician.
• 2001 - Stefan Heym dies (b. 1913). German author.
• 2002 - Le Canada devient le 99e pays à signer le protocole de Kyoto.
• 2003 - Deborah Jin induces the formation of a fermionic condensate among fermionic atoms.
• 2003 - Robert Stanfield dies (b. 1914). Premier of Nova Scotia.
• 2003 - Gary Stewart dies (suicide) (b. 1945). American singer.
• 2004 - Ted Abernathy dies (b. 1933). baseball player
• 2005 - The last scheduled day of the terrestial radio version of the popular US radio program The Howard Stern Show is broadcast.
• 2005 - Kenneth Bulmer dies (b. 1921). British author.
• 2005 - John Spencer dies (b. 1946). American actor.
• 2006 - Pnina Salzman dies (b. 1922). Israeli pianist.
• 2006 - Taliep Petersen dies (b. 1950). South African singer and composer.
• 2006 - Don Jardine dies (b. 1940). Professional wrestler.
• Bahrain - National Day
• Bangladesh - Victory Day
• Kazakhstan - Independence Day
• South Africa - Day of Reconciliation
• Mexico - First day of Las Posadas
• Philippines - First day of Misa de Gallo
• India - Vijay Divas (Victory Day)
• Afrikaners (South Africa) - Day of the Vow
• St. Adelaide
• St. Eusebius of Vercelli