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