History Events on December 16

A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.

#2013_Manila_Skyway_bus_accident

Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

#Hundred_Years'_War

Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

#Vasco_da_Gama

William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

#William_Shockley

U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.

#United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Eleventh_Circuit

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.

#Korean_War

American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

#American_Civil_War

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.

#Great_Trek

The Haiyuan earthquake of 8.5Mw?, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.

#1920_Haiyuan_earthquake

An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.

#An_Lushan

The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.

#Great_White_Fleet

President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zach?ta Gallery in Warsaw.

#President_of_Poland

Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.

#Second_Vatican_Council

World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.

#World_War_II

The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.

#Bahrain

Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

#Convention_Parliament_(1689)

Vincas Mickevi?ius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; it is dissolved in 1919.

#Vincas_Mickevi?ius-Kapsukas

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.

#American_Revolution

Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The ceasefire of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.

#Bangladesh_Liberation_War

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.

#Vietnam_War

Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.

#Adolf_Hitler

Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.

#First_Boer_War

First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.

#First_Balkan_War

Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family.

#Paul_Castellano

English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

#Interregnum_(England)

World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.

#World_War_I

Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.

#Kazakhstan

American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.

#Battle_of_Nashville

The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

#The_Holocaust

Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timi?oara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László T?kés.

#Romanian_Revolution

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.

#Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan

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.

#Theodore_Cole_and_Ralph_Roe

Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Ko?obrzeg.

#Seven_Years'_War

An earthquake with an estimated of 8.5Mw? strikes Valdivia, Chile.

#1575_Valdivia_earthquake

World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

#Battle_of_the_Bulge

Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.

Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.

A United Airlines 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.

Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery, in Clinton, Indiana.

Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to guests.

Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the S?n Tây citadel.

Wales and England contest the first Home Nations (now Six Nations) rugby union match.

The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

The discovery of octonions by John T. Graves, who denoted them with a boldface O, was announced to his mathematician friend William Hamilton, discoverer of quaternions, in a letter on this date.

Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.

The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.

British East India Company: Hada and Mada Miah lead the first anti-British uprising in the subcontinent against Robert Lindsay and his contingents in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.

Seven-Year War: Battle of Noryang: The final battle of the Seven-Year War is fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory.

Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.