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Today December 16th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
1392 – Nanboku-cho – 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 Korean and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Korean 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 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 Dvorák s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From The New World is given its world première 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 Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw.
1925 – Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity is founded at Lafayette College.
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 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.
1946 – Léon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France.
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 – 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 State 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 Timisoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tokés.
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.
1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.
2007 – Ron Paul raises a record amount of money online in a single day money bomb: over six million dollars in 24 hours.
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 (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)
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 (N.S.) – 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)
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)
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 Gay Baylor, NBA Hall of Famer
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
1955 – Xander Berkeley, American actor
1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
1960 – Pat Van Den Hauwe, Belgian footballer
1961 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (d. 1994)
1961 – Jon Tenney, American actor
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 – Miranda Otto, Australian actress
1971 – Michael McCary, American singer (Boyz II Men)
1971 – Paul van Dyk, German DJ
1972 – Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress
1972 – Charles Gipson, American baseball player
1972 – Željko Kalac, Australian soccer player
1973 – Themba Mnguni, South African footballer
1973 – Scott Storch, Canadian-American hip-hop producer
1974 – Frida Hallgren, Swedish actress
1975 – Valentin Badoi, 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 Traistariu, Romanian singer
1979 – Jessie Ward, American professional wrestler
1979 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer
1979 – Flo Rida, American rapper
1981 – Anna Sedokova, Ukrainian singer
1981 – Took Leng How, Malaysian criminal (d. 2006)
1981 – Gareth Williams, Scottish footballer
1982 – Garnon Davies, Welsh actor
1982 – Antrel Rolle, National Football League defensive back
1983 – Kelenna Azubuike, English basketball player
1983 – Danielle Lloyd, English model
1985 – Keita Tachibana, member of Japanese boy band w-inds.
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)
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)
1935 – Thelma Todd, American actress (b. 1905)
1940 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player (b. 1866)
1945 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1866)
1945 – Fumimaro Konoye, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1891)
1949 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
1956 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (b. 1874)
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)
Holidays and observances
Bahrain – National Day
Bangladesh – Victory Day
India – Vijay Diwas (Victory Day)
Kazakhstan – Independence Day
South Africa – Day of Reconciliation
Afrikaners (South Africa) – Day of the Vow
Mexico – First day of Las Posadas
Philippines – First day of Misa de Gallo
St. Adelaide
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