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| 340 | Eusebius consecrated as bishop of Vercelli. Eusebius was later exiled and imprisoned when he attempted to have all those attending the synod of Milan sign the Nicene creed. |
| 882 | John VIII, Catholic Pope (872-82), dies. Marinus I begins his reign as Pope. |
| 1431 | King Henry VI of England crowned king of France. |
| 1485 | Birth of Catherine of Aragon, first of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. Desiring a male heir, Henry divorced Catherine on 30 March 1534 and married Anne Boleyn. The act of divorce proved highly significant: it caused Henry to break with the Pope and thereby led to the English Reformation. After the divorce, Catherine was not executed (as were some of Henry's later wives) but was expelled from court and died two years later at Kimbolton Castle. Her only surviving child became Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary, who reigned from 1553-1558. |
| 1617 | Spanish viceroy Hernando Arias de Saavedra founds provinces Rio de la Plata (now Argentina) and Guaira (now Paraguay). |
| 1631 | Mount Vesuvius, Italy erupts, destroys six villages and kills 4,000. |
| 1653 | Oliver Cromwell sworn in as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. |
| 1689 | English Parliament adopts Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution. |
| 1742 | Birth of Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Lebrecht von Blucher. Known as "Marshal Forward," he was defeated by Napoleon in 1815 at Ligny but played a crucial role in Wellington's victory over the French at Waterloo. |
| 1770 | Birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, perhaps the greatest composer of all time. Known especially for the Ode to Joy in his 9th Symphony, which he wrote when completely deaf. Many piano students learn his Moonlight Sonata. Died March 26, 1827. |
| 1773 | The Boston Tea Party takes place off Griffin's Wharf, and is a protest against colonists' taxation in Massachusetts. East India tea chests were thrown into the harbor from three ships by Bostonians disguised as Indians, prompting British retaliation in 1774, including the shutting of the Boston Port. |
| 1775 | Birth of English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817). She described her raw material as three or four families in a country village. Her works included Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. |
| 1809 | Marriage between Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine dissolved after thirteen years. |
| 1811 | Major 8.0 earthquake centered in New Madrid, Missouri devastates US Midwest. |
| 1835 | A huge fire spreads through New York City, destroying over 600 buildings and causing damage estimated at $20 million. |
| 1859 | Death of Wilhelm Grimm, one of the German brothers who wrote Grimm's Fairy Tales. |
| 1862 | Kingdom of Nepal accepts its first constitution. |
| 1863 | Birth of Spanish-born American philosopher, poet, and humanist, George Santayna, who made important contributions to aesthetics, speculative philosophy and literary criticism. He observed that "it is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true." |
| 1864 | US Civil War: Union troops led by General George H. Thomas devastated Confederate forces (4,400 killed) at Nashville, Tennessee. |
| 1879 | The Transvaal Republic is proclaimed in southern Africa. A year later, on December 16, 1880, the Republic of South Africa is formed. |
| 1882 | Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly is born. Among his best known pieces are Dances of Galanta and the Hary Janos suite. |
| 1884 | Britain is first nation to recognize Belgian King Leopold II's private kingdom, Congo Free State. An historian bitterly commented: "Leopold is an Attila in modern dress." |
| 1893 | Premier of Anton Dvorak's New World Symphony. |
| 1897 | John Holland demonstrates the first submarine with an internal combustion engine. |
| 1899 | Birth of noted English actor, composer and playwright, Sir Noel Coward, author of Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Died March 26, 1973. |
| 1901 | Birth of Margaret Mead, U.S. anthropologist, who wryly observed, "Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible." |
| 1905 | First issue of Variety newspaper, covering all phases of show business, is published. |
| 1912 | First US postage stamp picturing an airplane, 20-cent parcel post, issued. The 15c and 20c parcel post and 25c parcel post postage-due stamps were the only ones ever issued by the US on December 16. |
| 1913 | Charlie Chaplin begins his film career at Keystone for $150 a week. |
| 1915 | Albert Einstein publishes his General Theory of Relativity. |
| 1916 | Assassination of Rasputin by Prince Yusupov. Rasputin, a corrupt monk, promoted the idea of rebirth through sin and advocated drunken orgies to commune with God. |
| 1917 | Birth of English space visionary and science fiction novelist Arthur C Clarke. In 1945, he predicted international communication by space satellite and suggested the positioning of three stationary satellites around the globe. He also wrote a popular science fiction series which began with his 1968 classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. |
| 1920 | One of the worst earthquakes on record occurs in Gansu Province, China. Estimated at 8.6 on the Richter scale, it kills 180,000 people. |
| 1921 | Death of French composer Camille Saint-Saens. Among his best known works were Carnival of the Animals and his opera Samson and Delila. |
| 1922 | Gabriel Narutowicz, first president of Poland (Dec 7-16, 1922), assassinated. |
| 1924 | Noel Coward's Vortex, premieres in London. |
| 1932 | Heavy earthquake ravages Kansu China, 70,000 killed. |
| 1940 | WWII: First RAF mass bombing raid of a German city (Mannheim) by 134 bombers. In six hours, the 103 bombers that reached the target dropped 89 tons of high explosives. Surprisingly, only 23 people on the ground were killed. |
| 1942 | WWII: The Battle of Stalingrad all but ends when an attempt to aid the trapped German Sixth Army is abandoned after the fourth Panzer Army is halted 40 miles from the city. |
| 1943 | Birth of Steven Bochco, TV writer and producer of shows such as NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, Philly, Columbo, Hill St. Blues, Hooperman, Doogie Howser, MD, The Twilight Zone, Cop Rock, and others. |
| 1944 | WWII: Germany launches last ditch counter-attack in the Ardennes, Belgium, an offensive which later came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. |
| 1944 | Glenn Miller, US dance band leader, disappears in a light plane over the English Channel. He was best remembered for In the Mood and his signature tune, Moonlight Serenade. |
| 1949 | Indonesian nationalist Sukarno is elected his country's first president after the Netherlands gives up sovereignty. He became president-for-life in 1966. |
| 1950 | US President Harry Truman proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism." |
| 1951 | Died: Dorothy Dix, American journalist and columnist, who observed, "You never saw a very busy person who was unhappy." |
| 1953 | First White House Press Conference (President Dwight Eisenhower and 161 reporters). |
| 1953 | Charles E. Yeager flies 2,575 kph in experimental Bell X-1A plane. |
| 1962 | Premier of David Lean's movie, Lawrence of Arabia. |
| 1965 | Death at age 91 of English short story writer, novelist, and playwright W. Somerset Maugham, who said, "Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it." |
| 1966 | The UN Security Council votes to adopt the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and opens it to the general assembly for ratification. They also vote to invoke economic sanctions against the white minority government in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. |
| 1968 | Spain revokes order expelling Jews from country, imposed by Queen Isabella in 1492. (Seized assets from the expulsion helped finance Christopher Columbus' explorations.) |
| 1969 | The British House of Commons votes 343-185 to approve the permanent abolition of the death penalty. |
| 1970 | Soviet spacecraft makes first successful landing on Venus. |
| 1971 | Bangladesh, formerly East Bengal and the Sylhet province of Assam in British India, comes into existence after fighting between East and West Pakistan. Constitution takes effect exactly one year later on Dec. 16, 1972. |
| 1972 | US Apollo 17 spacecraft takes off from the Moon and heads for Earth after the last US manned exploration of the Moon. |
| 1980 | Death at age 90 of Colonel Harlan Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, who said about death, "There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there." |
| 1987 | Roh Tae Woo elected president of South Korea. |
| 1989 | Death of U.S. actor, Lee Van Cleef, who said, "Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me." |
| 1990 | Haitians elect populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the country's first fully democratic election. |
| 1995 | Two British geologists say they have pinpointed the location of the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on a Dead Sea peninsula. |
| 2000 | Colin Powell selected to become the first African-American US Secretary of State. |
| 2004 | Wyatt Seton Sell born to Darcy Ahl and Matthew Sell at St Michael's Hospital, Bristol, England. |
