Dec 16th
1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1653 –
English Interregnum:
The Protectorate:
Oliver Cromwell becomes
Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
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.
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.
903 –
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1991 –
Kazakhstan declares independence from the
Soviet Union.