December 16 in History

Historical Events on December 16

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.
755

An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.
1431

Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1497

Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 strikes Valdivia, Chile.
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.
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.
1761

Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.
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.
1811

The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
1826

Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
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.[1]
1850

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 Confederate Army of Tennessee.
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.
1880

Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.
1883

Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.
1903

Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to guests.
1907

The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
1912

First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
1914

World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
1918

Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; it is dissolved in 1919.
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.
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.
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 Honour of the German Mother.
1941

World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.
1942

The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief 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.
1947

William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
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.
1960

A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.
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.
1968

Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
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.
1971

The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
1978

Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
1979

Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.
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.
1989

Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
1989

U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.
1991

Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.
2013

A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.
2014

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.

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