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.
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- O Sapientia (Anglicanism)
- 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. However December 16 is only the date on which the state celebrates the event, while the actual day on which the independence of Bahrain was declared was August 15, 1971 (see Bahrain Independence Day)
- National Sports Day (Thailand)
- Nine-day celebration of Mary and Joseph‘s search for a place to stay where Jesus could be born begins (Hispanidad):
- The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, Latin America)
- The first day of the Simbang Gabi novena of masses (Philippines)
- Victory Day (Bangladesh)
- Victory Day (India)
History
In 714, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.
In 755, An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
In 1431, Hundred Years’ War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
In 1497, Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
In 1575, An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 strikes Valdivia, Chile.
In 1598, Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang – 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.
In 1653, English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
In 1689, Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
In 1707, Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
In 1761, Seven Years’ War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.
In 1773, American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
In 1811, The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
In 1826, Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
In 1838, Great Trek: Battle of Blood River – Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
In 1850, The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
In 1863, American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
In 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Major General George Thomas‘s Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood‘s Confederate Army of Tennessee.
In 1903, Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests.
In 1907, The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
In 1912, First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
In 1914, World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
In 1918, Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1920, The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
In 1922, President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
In 1927, Donald Bradman makes his debut in first-class cricket for New South Wales against South Australia. Batting at No. 7, he scores a century.
In 1930, Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
In 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.
In 1938, Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.
In 1941, World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.
In 1942, The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
In 1944, World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
In 1946, Thailand joins the United Nations.
In 1947, William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
In 1950, Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.
In 1957, Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
In 1960, New York mid-air collision, the midair collision of a United Airlines flight with a TWA flight near Idlewild Airport that killed 133.
In 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.
In 1968, Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
In 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.
In 1971, The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain’s independence. This is commemorated annually as Bahrain’s National Day.
In 1978, Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
In 1979, Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.
In 1985, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York’s Gambino crime family
In 1986, Gennady Kolbin replaces Dinmukhamed Konayev as First Secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party, prompting the Jeltoqsan protests which began the next day.
In 1989, Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
In 1989, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.
In 1991, Kazakhstan gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
In 1997, A Japanese airing of the “Dennō Senshi Porygon” episode of Pokémon induces seizures in 685 viewers.
In 2006, Sally Davis Neudecker retired from teaching after 30 years at Humboldt Junior High School in Humboldt, TN.
In 2007, Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951) died of prostate cancer. He was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and bluegrass. He is best known for his early 1980 hit “Longer” and his late 1981 hit “Leader of the Band.”
In 2009, Corey Lamont Hennings, 33, of Jackson, entered a “bestinterest” plea Monday to Attempted First Degree Murder in Madison County Circuit Court Division, I. He was sentenced to 20 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction with a release eligibility of 30 %
In 2009, The Federal Government has announced of Australia it will proceed with controversial plans to censor the internet after Government-commissioned trials found filtering a blacklist of banned sites was accurate and would not slow down the internet. But critics, including the online users’ lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam, said the trial results were not surprising and the policy was still fundamentally flawed. The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.
In 2012, A gang rape in Delhi sparks widespread demonstrations across India.
In 2013, A bus falls from an elevated highway in Manila, Philippines, killing at least 18 people and injuring 20 others.
In 2014, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people.
