What Happened on December 16th in History
30 historical events on this date
Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
Benjamin W. Edwards was an American colonist in early Texas, and the leader of the Fredonian Rebellion. In the 1837 Mississippi gubernatorial election, he ran as a candidate for governor of...
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.
The Great Trek was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live...
The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
Charlotte Jane was one of the First Four Ships in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand.
American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints General Joseph E. Johnston to replace General Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the...
American Civil War: The Battle of Nashville ends as the Union Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas routs and destroys the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood, ending its effectiveness as a combat unit.
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin–Nashville campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting west of the coastal states in the American Civil War. It was fought...
Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.
The First Boer War, also known as the Transvaal War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory...
Wales and England contest the first Home Nations (now Six Nations) rugby union match.
The Wales national rugby union team represents Wales in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played...
Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.
The Tonkin campaign was an armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan...
In rugby union, the "Match of the Century" is played between Wales and New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park.
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union or often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby...
First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically...
World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
The Haiyuan earthquake of 8.5Mw rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
The 1920 Haiyuan earthquake occurred in Haiyuan County, Ningxia Province, Republic of China at 19:05:53 (UTC+8) on December 16, 1920. It was also called the 1920 Gansu earthquake because Ningxia was...
The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million...
World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
A Miami Airlines Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in Elizabeth, New Jersey, killing all 58 aboard including dancer Doris Ruby.
The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low-wing, twin-engine aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the...
A United Air Lines 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.
United Airlines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and to...
Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II, was the twenty-first and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. It met in...
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 Vijay Diwas in India respectively.
The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East...
The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated near the western shore of the Persian Gulf, the country comprises a small archipelago of 33 natural islands...
The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is enacted.
The Constitution of Bangladesh, officially the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is the supreme law of Bangladesh. The constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of...
Aeroflot Flight 2022 crashes in the Soviet Union's (now Russia) Volokolamsky District, killing all 51 aboard, including four Lithuanian doctors.
Aeroflot Flight 2022 was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight between Vilnius Airport in Lithuanian SSR and Moscow–Vnukovo Airport in Russian SFSR, that crashed on 16 December 1973, killing...
The Jeltoqsan riots erupt in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, in response to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of ethnic Kazakh Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, and his replacement with Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian from the Russian SFSR.
The Jeltoqsan, also spelled Zheltoksan, or December of 1986, were protests that took place in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, in response to CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed...
Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
The Romanian revolution was a period of violent civil unrest in the Socialist Republic of Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around...
Deportation of Hamas members: Israeli authorities began deporting hundreds of Palestinians suspected to be members of Hamas across the Lebanese border.
On 16 December 1992, the Israeli government carried out a mass deportation across the Lebanese border of four hundred Palestinian prisoners suspected of membership in the upsurgent Islamist militant...
Dennō Senshi Porygon: Over 600 kids in Japan suffer photosensitive epileptic seizures after watching an episode of the Pokémon anime.
"Dennō Senshi Porygon" is the 38th episode of the Pokémon anime's first season. During its sole broadcast in Japan on December 16, 1997, multiple scenes with flashing lights induced photosensitive...
The Zhanaozen massacre occurs when violent protests by oil workers take place in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, resulting in security forces killing at least 14 and injuring 100 more.
The Zhanaozen massacre took place in Kazakhstan's western Mangystau Region over the weekend of 16–17 December 2011. At least 14 protesters were killed by police in the oil town of Zhanaozen as they...
A bus falls from an elevated highway in Manila, capital of the Philippines, killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.
The 2013 Manila Skyway bus accident occurred on December 16, 2013, between Bicutan and Sucat Exits of South Luzon Expressway in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines, after a bus fell off the Skyway,...
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attack an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 150 people, 132 of them schoolchildren.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or simply the Pakistani Taliban, is a Deobandi jihadist militant organization that primarily operates along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. It is designated as...
A landslide occurs at a camp at an organic farm near the town of Batang Kali in Selangor, Malaysia, trapping 92 people and killing 31.
A landslide occurred in the early hours of 16 December 2022 near the Malaysian town of Batang Kali, Selangor, displacing 450,000 m3 (16 million cu ft) of soil and burying campsites at an organic...
The Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, takes place, resulting in the death of three people.
On December 16, 2024, a school shooting occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Two people were killed and six others were injured. The perpetrator,...