December 16

December 16 is the 350th (three hundred and fiftieth) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and the 351st in leap years. There are 15 days left to end the year.

Events

• 755: In China, General An Lushan began the An-Shi Rebellion against the Tang Dynasty. The conflict will be one of the most destructive in Chinese history.
• 1431: in the framework of the Hundred Years War; Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Notre-Dame.
• 1470: In Catalonia, Juan de Calabria is named a lieutenant to replace the late Juan de Lorena, his father.
• 1497: Vasco da Gama passes through the Great Fish River, where Bartolomé Díaz had previously returned to Portugal.
• 1575: In Valdivia, Chile, at 14:30 (local time), an earthquake of magnitude 8.5 occurs on the seismological scale of Richter, with a balance of 200 dead.
• 1598: The Chinese-Korean coalition beats Japan in the Battle of Noryang. The last Japanese ship leaves Korea on December 24, ending definitively with the Imjin War.
• 1602: In Mexico, Sebastián Vizcaíno is the first European to the bay of Monterrey, in which he founded the port of the same name.
• 1698: In England, parliament publishes the Declaration of Rights (Bill of Rights)
• 1702: In Spain, Felipe V returns to Madrid given the growing allied threat and internal problems of the Crown.
• 1740: In the present Poland, Prussian king Frederick II the Great invades Silesia (in that time part of the Austrian Empire), which begins the War of Austrian Succession.
• 1773: In Boston (United States), a group of settlers disguised as Mohawk Indians climb the British ships loaded with tea boxes and throw them into the sea, which means the beginning of the United States Independence War.
• 1811: in New Madrid (United States, 36° 36’ N, 89° 36’ O), a violent earthquake of magnitude 8.1 changes several courses on the Mississippi River.
• 1815: John VI of Portugal signs the decree of the creation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve.
• 1835: In New York (United States), a large fire destroys 635 buildings in the Manhattan neighbourhood.
• 1837: In Spain, Narcisa Heredia and Begines de los Ríos is appointed president of the government.
• 1857: In Naples, Italy, an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 in the seismological scale of Richter causes the death of more than 11,000 people.
• 1873: In Spain, the head of the Canton of Cartagena, Roque Barcia, sends a letter to the U.S. ambassador asking President Grant for the annexation of Cartagena to the United States in order for the central government to cease the bombing of the city.
• 1877: The first telephone communication is made in Barcelona, Spain.
• 1899: in Milan, Italy is founded the Associazione Calcio Milano.
• 1900: in Malaga, Spain, the German shipwreck Gneisenau is shipwrecked; the commander and several officers perish, as well as a thirty-nine fishermen who went out to save the shipwrecks.
• 1904: In the framework of the Russian-Japanese War, the Japanese navy withdraws from Port Arthur to meet the Russian fleet of the Baltic Sea.
• 1905: In St.Petersburg (Russia) the workers' council is dissolved and its members are detained.
• 1914: The United Kingdom makes Egypt a “protected”.
• 1920: in Gansu Province, China, an earthquake of magnitude 8.6 on the Richter scale leaves a balance of 235 502 victims.
• 1935: In Spain the Popular Front, led by Manuel Azaña and formed by republicans, socialists, communists and Basque nationalists, is constituted.
• 1936: in Mexico, the president Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1895-1970) has the creation of a national park of Citlaltépetl, of 19 750 ha, which encompasses the volcanic cone and its surrounding area, including in the municipalities of Tlachichuca, Ciudad Serdán, La Perla, Mariano Escobedo and Calcahualco, among others, in the states of Puebla and Veracruz.
• 1937: In Nanking (capital of the Republic of China between 1912 and 1949), the third day of the Nanking massacre takes place, in which, until early February 1938, the Japanese invaders murdered half a million civilians.
• 1940: In the period of the Second World War, the German city of Mannheim, is bombarded in an aerial expedition of 134 planes whose key name was Abigail Rachel.
• 1940: In the framework of World War II, British troops arrive at Sollum, in North Africa, as well as in Italian Somalia.
• 1940: the civilian population of Mannheim (Germany) suffers from another British air strike.
• 1941: In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the state of siege is declared.
• 1942: In Burma a British offensive against the Japanese fails.
• 1943: In Norway, allies (Second World War) carry out air strikes against power plants and factories.
• 1944: in the region of Las Ardenas (between Belgium, Luxembourg and France), the German army launches a strong offensive to try to stop the advance of allied troops that did not succeed.
• 1944: Budapest is completely surrounded by Soviet troops.
• 1945: British, American and Soviet Foreign Ministers meet in London to agree on the conditions of peace with the former Axis countries.
• 1948: Cambodia is independent of the French Union.
• 1953: American pilot Charles E. Yeager, on board the Bell X-1A plane, reaches twice and a half the speed of sound.
• 1954: the Teatro Circular de Montevideo is founded.
• 1957: The United States launches the first United States intercontinental missile, the Atlas.
• 1958: in Bogotá, Colombia, a fire of Almacen Vida leaves 88 dead.
• 1960: Air collision over New York.
• 1965: In the United Nations (New York), Resolution 2017 is voted, in which the Government of Spain is urged to decolonize the territories of Ifni and Western Sahara.
• 1965: in a well 260 meters underground, in the U2al area of the Nevada atomic testing site (about 100 km northwest of the city of Las Vegas), at 7:39 (local time) United States detonates its 3 kiloton Emerson atomic bomb. Four hours later (at 11:15), 500 m deep, detonates the 51 kt Buff pump. Half an hour later, in three separate wells, at 180, 150 and 0 meters deep, in the area U3, at 12:00 (local time), the United States simultaneously detonates its atomic bombs Parrot, Cassowary-1 and Hoopoe-2 (of 1.3, less than 20 and less than 20 kilotons respectively). 10 minutes later, 152 m deep detonates the 2.7 kt Mudpack pump. It is the bombs number 398 to 401, and 441 and 442 of the 1132 that the United States detonated between 1945 and 1992.
• 1966: in New York, United States, the United Nations General Assembly adopts the New York Pacts
• 1966: In New York, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
• 1989: Romania begins the 1989 Romanian Revolution.
• 1991: Kazakhstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1993: In Santiago de Chile Paul McCartney made a concert for the first time in that country, being the first to be in Chile.
• 1993: in the city of Santiago del Estero (Argentina) a popular revolution known as the Santiagueñazo is unleashed against the neoliberal economic measures of the government of President Carlos Menem.
• 1993: In New Orleans (United States), the guardian of the municipal aquarium sees a woman with the same characteristics as Ylenia Carrisi (23), the oldest daughter of the Italian singer Al Bano and the American actress Romina Power. The disappearance will be known only on 31 December. You'll never know about her again.
• 1997: in Japan 685 children are hospitalized, victims of epileptic attacks, for having witnessed the episode of Pókemon Dennō Senshi Porygon, since the rapid change between the red and blue colors in a scene provoked convulsions that led to a photo-sensitive epilepsy.
• 1999: in Venezuela, the second day of the intense rains that leave hundreds of dead, in what was called the Tragedia of Vargas.
• 2000: the latest reactor is shut down at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, Ukraine.
• 2002: Lusaka (Zambia) signed the Lusaka Agreement, which lays the foundation for the peace process that would end the Second War of the Congo
• 2004: in Paris, France, the BIE (International Exhibition Office), proclaims Zaragoza, Spain, as the headquarters of the 2008 International Exhibition after imposing itself on Thessaloniki, Greece, and Trieste, Italy, on second ballot.
• 2006: From the island Wallops (Virginia), the United States launches its biological nanosatellite Genesat 1, of 6.8 kg.
• 2016: Bon Jovi publishes his third live album This House Is Not For Sale: Live From The London Palladium.
• 2017: in Cochabamba (Bolivia), the president of the Plurinational State Evo Morales in front of a concentration of hundreds of thousands of people, officially confirms and in the midst of polemics of illegality the third re-election to the country's mandate (the second in the laws of the Plurinational State).

Births

• 1364: Manuel III of Trebisonda, Byzantine emperor (f. 1417).
• 1485: Catherine of Aragon, infant of Castile and Aragon, and queen consort english (f. 1536).
• 1714: George Whitefield, British Methodist Leader (f. 1770).
• 1770: Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, orchestra director and German pianist (f. 1827).
• 1775: Jane Austen, British writer (f. 1817).
• 1775: François Adrien Boïeldieu, a French musician and composer (f. 1834).
• 1790: Leopoldo I, Belgian king (f. 1865).
• 1805: Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French zoologist (f. 1861).
• 1857: Edward Emerson Barnard, American astronomer (f. 1923).
• 1863: George Santayana, philosopher, novelist and Spanish poet (f. 1952).
• 1865: Olavo Bilac, a Brazilian politician and poet (f. 1918).
• 1866: Vasili Kandinski, Russian painter (f. 1944).
• 1867: Amy Carmichael, missionary and philanthropic Indian (f. 1951).
• 1871: Manuel Fernández Silvestre, a Spanish military officer (f. 1921).
• 1872: Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian military (f. 1947).
• 1876: Rodolphe Seeldrayers, Belgian football leader (f. 1955).
• 1878: Josep Clarà, Spanish sculptor (f. 1958).
• 1882: Julio Camba, a Spanish journalist and writer (f. 1962).
• 1882: Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (f. 1967).
• 1883: Max Linder, French silent film actor (f. 1925).
• 1888: Alexander I, the Yugoslav king (f. 1934).
• 1889: Ted Wilde, American filmmaker
• 1888: Alphonse Juin, French general (f. 1967).
• 1899: Noel Coward, British composer and playwright (f. 1973).
• 1899: José Entrecanales Ibarra, engineer and Spanish businessman (f. 1990).
• 1901: Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (f. 1978).
• 1902: Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (f. 1999).
• 1902: Ryu Gwansun, Korean activist (f. 1920).
• 1905: Arturo García Buhr, Argentine actor (f. 1995).
• 1906: Martí Ventolrà, Spanish footballer (f. 1977).
• 1907: Barbara Kent, Canadian actress (f. 2011).
• 1908: Remedios Varo, a Spanish-Mexican painter (f. 1963).
• 1910: Egyptian Jacobsen, a Danish painter (f. 1998).
• 1911: Dolores Medio, a Spanish writer (f. 1996).
• 1915: Gueorgui Svirídov, Russian neo-Romantic composer (f. 1998).
• 1917: Arthur C. Clarke, British writer (f. 2008).
• 1920: Les Les Leston, British racing pilot (f. 2012).
• 1921: Eulalio González, Mexican actor and singer (f. 2003).
• 1922: Nelson García Otero, Uruguayan jurist (f. 2011).
• 1926: Mauricio Garcés, Mexican actor (f. 1989).
• 1926: James McCracken, American tenor (f. 1988).
• 1926: Arthur Robinson, lawyer and politician trinitense (f. 2014).
• 1928: Philip K. Dick, American writer (f. 1982).
• 1929: Nicholas Courtney, British actor (f. 2011).
• 1929: Jaime Serfaty Laredo, industrialist and Spanish poet (f. 2003).
• 1932: Rodion Shchedrin, Russian composer.
• 1934: Rodolfo Llinás, a Colombian scientist and neurophysiologist.
• 1934: Pablo Sorozábal Serrano, composer, writer and Spanish translator (f. 2007).
• 1936: Regina Betancourt de Liska, a mentalist practising Colombian esotericism and ex-politics.
• 1937: Edward Ruscha, American artist.
• 1937: Ciro Durán, director and filmmaker of Colombia (f. 2022).
• 1938: Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress.
• 1939: Philip Langridge, British tenor.
• 1940: Jesús Sancho Rof, politician and Spanish professor.
• 1943: Steven Bochco, American filmmaker (f. 2018).
• 1944: Efraín Aguilar, Peruvian actor, director and writer.
• 1946: Benny Andersson, Swedish musician and singer, of the Abba band.
• 1946: Trevor Pinnock, director of orchestra and British carver.
• 1946: Juan Bautista Yofre, journalist, writer and Argentine politician.
• 1947: Vincent Matthews, American athlete.
• 1948: María Lucía Mott, Brazilian historian (f. 2011).
• 1949: Billy Gibbons, American musician, of the ZZ Top band.
• 1950: Roy Schuiten, Dutch cyclist.
• 1950: Les Parsons, footballer and Canadian coach.
• 1951: Adriana Aguirre, actress and vedette argentina.
• 1951: Robben Ford, American guitarist.
• 1952: Manuel Barrueco, Cuban-American guitarist.
• 1952: Jorge Luis Pinto, Colombian football coach.
• 1953: Héctor Timerman, diplomatiivo y política argentina (f. 2018).
• 1955: Xander Berkeley, American actor.
• 1957: Antonio Vega, Spanish musician (f. 2009).
• 1958: Rody Aragon, clown, humorist and presenter.
• 1959: Ana Miralles, Spanish cartoonist and historietist.
• 1961: Bill Hicks, American comedian (f. 1994).
• 1961: Jon Tenney, American actor.
• 1963: Benjamin Bratt, American actor.
• 1963: James Mangold, American filmmaker.
• 1964: Heike Drechsler, German athlete.
• 1965: J. B. Smoove, American actor.
• 1966: Dennis Wise, British footballer.
• 1966: Clifford Robinson, American basketball player.
• 1967: Donovan Bailey, a Jamaican-Canadian athlete.
• 1967: Miranda Otto, Australian actress.
• 1969: Sergi Pedrerol, Spanish waterpolista.
• 1969: Adam Riess, American astrophysicist.
• 1971: Alix Bauer, Mexican singer, of the Timbiriche band.
• 1971: Paul van Dyk, German musician and DJ.
• 1972: Željko Kalac, Australian footballer.
• 1973: Mariza, Portuguese singer.
• 1973: Scott Storch, Canadian music producer.
• 1975: Ricardo Fastlicht, Mexican actor.
• 1975: Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian singer, of the Billy Talent band.
• 1977: Juan Gómez-Jurado, Spanish writer and journalist.
• 1979: Mihai Trăistariu, Romanian musician and singer.
• 1979: Jon Huber, American professional fighter.
• 1981: Latex Diamond, Spanish rapper.
• 1981: Kearran Giovanni: American actress.
• 1981: Krysten Ritter: American actress.
• 1981: Gareth Williams, British footballer.
• 1981: Joshua Rose: Australian footballer
• 1981: Alphonse Leweck, Luxembourg footballer.
• 1981: Gaby Moreno, singer and Guatemalan guitarist.
• 1982: Anna Sedokova, model and Ukrainian singer.
• 1983: Andrés Wiese, Peruvian actor.
• 1983: Kelenna Azubuike, British basketball player.
• 1984: Theo James, British actor and singer.
• 1985: Amanda Setton, American actress.
• 1986: Alcides Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player.
• 1987: Mame Biram Diouf, Senegalese footballer.
• 1987: Hallee Hirsh, American actress.
• 1987: Alejandro Martinuccio, Argentine footballer.
• 1987: Kris Rain Man Trindl, American diyéi, of the Krewella band.
• 1988: Mats Hummels, German footballer.
• 1988: Park Seo-joon, South Korean actor
• 1988: Anna Popplewell, British actress.
• 1989: Lee Biran, Israeli singer, actor and composer.
• 1991: Ignacio Solís, Costa Rican footballer.
• 1992: Lieke Martens, a Dutch footballer.
• 1993: Cazzu, Argentinean singer.
• 1996: Sergio Reguilón, Spanish footballer.
• 1997: Zara Larsson, Swedish singer.
• 1999: Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov, Russian footballer.

Deaths

• 705: Wu Zetian, the only "Emperor" in Chinese history (n. 624).
• 999: Adelaide, Empress of the Holy Empire and Holy Catholic (n. 928/933).
• 1263: Haakon IV, Norwegian king (n. 1204).
• 1316: Öljeitü, khan Persa (n. 1280).
• 1542: James V, Scottish king between 1513 and 1542 (n. 1512).
• 1672: John II Casimiro Vasa, Polish king (n. 1609).
• 1687: William Petty, physician, economist and British statistician (n. 1623).
• 1729: Pedro de Fajardo, a Spanish religious (n. 1664).
• 1744: Mary Anna of Austria, German princess (n. 1718).
• 1774: François Quesnay, French economist (n. 1694).
• 1816: Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz, German musician and patron (n. 1772).
• 1845: Pedro Sainz de Baranda and Borreiro, Mexican marine (n. 1787).
• 1853: Álvaro Flórez Estrada, politician and Spanish economist (n. 1765).
• 1859: Wilhelm Grimm, linguist and German mythologist (n. 1786).
• 1877: Pedro León Gallo Goyenechea, Chilean politician (n. 1830).
• 1897: Alphonse Daudet, a French writer (n. 1840).
• 1913: Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, Italian priest (n. 1843).
• 1919: Luigi Illica, an Italian opera writer (n. 1857).
• 1921: Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (n. 1835).
• 1922: Eliezer Ben Yehuda, an Israeli philologist and grammar of Russian origin (n. 1858).
• 1933: Robert William Chambers, American writer (n. 1865).
• 1935: Thelma Todd, American actress (n. 1905).
• 1939: Juan Demóstenes Arosemena, politician and Panamanian writer (n. 1879).
• 1941: Alain Gerbault, French navigator (n. 1893).
• 1944: Antonio I. Villarreal, a Mexican revolutionary (n. 1879).
• 1965: Somerset Maugham, British writer (n. 1874).
• 1965: Tito Schipa, Italian tenor (n. 1888).
• 1965: Salote Tupou III, Queen of Tonga (n. 1900).
• 1971: Santiago Salvat Espasa, Spanish editor (n. 1891).
• 1980: Harland Sanders, American colonel and businessman (n. 1890).
• 1981: Manuel Sanchís Guarner, filologist, historian and Spanish writer (n. 1911).
• 1982: Colin Chapman, automaker and British engineer (n. 1928).
• 1985: Quim Sánchez i Núñez, Spanish terrorist of Terra Lliure (n. 1963).
• 1988: Miguel Sancho Izquierdo, Professor of Law and Rector of the University of Zaragoza (n. 1890).
• 1989: Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing pilot (n. 1913).
• 1989: Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (n. 1930).
• 1989: Gianni Poggi, Italian tenor (n. 1921).
• 1989: Lee Van Cleef, American actor (n. 1925).
• 1991: Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Italian writer (n. 1955).
• 1993: Moses Gunn, an African-descendant American actor (n. 1929).
• 2000: Blue Demon, Mexican professional fighter (n. 1922).
• 2001: Stefan Heym, German writer (n. 1913).
• 2003: Hugo Moser, author and Argentine writer (n. 1926)
• 2006: Enric Arredondo, Spanish actor (n. 1940).
• 2006: Pastor Serrador, an Argentine actor in Spain (n. 1919).
• 2009: Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva, a Mexican drug dealer (n. 1961).
• 2009: Manuel Ocampo, dancer, choreographer and Guatemalan teacher (n. 1931).
• 2009: Roy E. Disney, American businessman and son of Roy O. Disney (n. 1930).
• 2010: Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, Mexican social activist; murdered (n. 1958).
• 2011: Manuel Jalón Corominas, military, engineer, inventor and Spanish writer, inventor of mop and disposable hypodermic needle (n. 1925).
• 2011: Bob Brookmeyer, American musician (n. 1929).
• 2011: Bonifacio Alfonso, Spanish painter and engraver (n. 1934).
• 2013: Lolita Sevilla, Spanish singer and actress (n. 1935).
• 2013: Michiaki Takahashi, Japanese virologist, creator of the first chickenpox vaccine (n. 1928).
• 2018: Ismael Sánchez Bella, Spanish Professor of Law History (n. 1922).
• 2020: Flavio Cotti, Swiss politician, president of Switzerland in 1991 and 1998 (n. 1939).
• 2021: Lucia Hiriart, Chile's first lady between 1974 and 1990 (n. 1923).

Celebrations

• BangladésBangladesh: Victoria Day
• BaréinBaréin: National Day
• India: Victoria Day
• Kazakhstan Kazakhstan: Independence Day
• NepalNepal: Constitutional Day
• Panama Panama: Loyalty Day
• South Africa: Reconciliation Day

Catholic saints list

• St. Ageo, prophet.
• Virgin saints from Africa (480).
• San Beano de Hibernia, hermit.
• Saint Everardo of Cysoing, Duke of Friuli (867).
• Saint Adon de Vienne, bishop (875).
• Santa Adelaide de Selz, Empress (999).
• San Macario de Collesano, monk (1005).
• beato Sebastián de Madiis, priest (1496).
• Blessed Mary of the Angels Fontanella, virgin (1717).
• Blessed Clemente Marchisio, priest (1903).
• Beato Honorato de Biala Podlaska Kazminsky, priest (1916).
• beato Felipe Siphnog Onphitak, martyr (1940).