On this day: 16 December
Events, births and deaths on 16 December. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Nuno Loureiro
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Births · A. N. R. Robinson
- Births · James McCracken
- Births · Jeffrey Stone
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 999 · Deaths · Adelaide of Italy
Events · 31
- 533(Julian date)Digest — Roman law digest
- 755(Julian date)An Lushan Rebellion — rebellion against the Tang dynasty of China in 755 C.E
- 1575(Julian date)1575 Valdivia earthquake — earthquake in Chile
- 1598Battle of Noryang — 1598 last major battle of the Japanese invasions of Korea
- 1653Lord Protector — title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state, including Oliver Cromwell
- 1707Hōei eruption — 1707 eruption of Mount Fuji
- 1740First Silesian War — part of the War of the Austrian Succession
- 1773Boston Tea Party — 1773 American protest against British taxation
- 1782Muharram Rebellion — 18th-century Bengali uprising
- 18111812 New Madrid earthquake — Series of earthquakes from December 1811 to February 1812 affecting the Louisiana Territory (now Missouri)
- 1838Battle of Blood River — part of the Great Trek, fought on the bank of the Ncome river in South Africa in 1838
- 1899AC Milan — football club in Milan, Italy
- 1912Battle of Elli — 1912 naval battle of the First Balkan War
- 1914Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby — attack by the Imperial German Navy on 16 December 1914
- 19201920 Haiyuan earthquake — earthquake in Haiyuan, China
- 1922assassination of Gabriel Narutowicz — 1922 murder in Warsaw, Poland
- 1938Cross of Honor of the German Mother — German award given to mothers (Nazi Germany; 1938–1945)
- 1944Battle of the Bulge — 1944-1945 World War II battle
- 19511951 Miami Airlines C-46 crash — airliner Crash Incident
- 19601960 New York air disaster — Mid-air collision
- 1973Aeroflot Flight 2022 — aviation accident
- 1986Jeltoqsan — 1986 Alma-Ata protests and riots that resulted in massacre
- 19921992 deportation of Hamas members — deportation of Hamas members by Israel
- 1997Pokémon shock — incident
- 19981998 bombing of Iraq — bombardment of Iraq by the USA and the UK in December 1998
- 20122012 Delhi gang rape case — gang rape, torture, and murder incident
- 2013Parañaque bus accident — 2013 vehicle crash in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines
- 20142014 Peshawar school attack — terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the Pakistani city of Peshawar
- 20142014 Sydney hostage crisis — hostage crisis in Sydney
- 20222022 Batang Kali landslide — natural disaster in Selangor, Malaysia
- 2024Abundant Life Christian School shooting — 2024 United States mass shooting
Births · 60
- 1485Catherine of Aragon — first wife of Henry VIII of England (1485–1536)
- 1714George Whitefield — English minister and preacher
- 1742Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher — Prussian field marshal (1742–1819)
- 1770Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer (1770-1827)
- 1775Jane Austen — author, novelist, writer (1775–1817)
- 1775François Adrien Boieldieu — French composer
- 1776Johann Wilhelm Ritter — German chemist, physicist and philosopher
- 1790Leopold I of Belgium — German prince who became the first King of the Belgians (1790–1865)
- 1834Léon Walras — French mathematical economist (*1834 – †1910)
- 1863George Santayana — Spanish-American philosopher
- 1872Anton Denikin — Russian military and political leader (1872–1947)
- 1882Zoltán Kodály — Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue (1882–1967)
- 1883Max Linder — French silent film actor and director (1883–1925)
- 1888Alexander I of Yugoslavia — Prince regent of Kingdom of Serbia and later King of Yugoslavia 1921–34
- 1896Anna Anderson — Romanov imposter who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (1896–1984)
- 1899Noël Coward — English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer (1899–1973)
- 1901Margaret Mead — American anthropologist (1901-1978)
- 1902Rafael Alberti — Spanish poet (1902–1999)
- 1905Piet Hein — 20th-century Danish mathematician, inventor, designer, writer and poet (1905–1996)
- 1917Arthur C. Clarke — British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist (1917–2008)
- 1926A. N. R. Robinson — President and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (1926-2014)
- 1928Philip K. Dick — American science fiction author (1928–1982)
- 1932Quentin Blake — English cartoonist, illustrator and children's writer (born 1932)
- 1937Ed Ruscha — American painter and photographer (born 1937)
- 1938Liv Ullmann — Norwegian actress, director, and screenwriter (born 1938)
Deaths · 60
- 705(Julian date)Wu Zetian — founding empress of Zhou dynasty (r. 690–705); de facto ruler of Tang dynasty from 665 to 690
- 714(Julian date)Pepin of Herstal — Mayor of the Palace (635-714)
- 866(Julian date)Eberhard of Friuli — Frankish saint
- 875(Julian date)Ado of Vienne — Archbishop of Vienne
- 882(Julian date)John VIII — Head of the Catholic Church from 872 to 882
- 999(Julian date)Adelaide of Italy — Holy Roman Empress, Catholic saint (931–999)
- 1263(Julian date)Haakon IV of Norway — King of Norway
- 1316(Julian date)Öljaitü — the eighth Ilkhan of Mongol Ilkhanate (1304–1316)
- 1325(Julian date)Charles of Valois — French prince (1270-1325)
- 1470(Julian date)John II, Duke of Lorraine — Duke of Lorraine and poet
- 1474(Julian date)Ali Qushji — Ottoman astronomer and mathematician
- 1515Afonso de Albuquerque — Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman (1453–1515)
- 1598Yi Sun-sin — Korean (Joseon) naval commander (1545 – 1598)
- 1687William Petty — English scientist, philosopher, statistician and economist (1623-1687)
- 1751Leopold II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau — German prince (1700-1751)
- 1774François Quesnay — French economist (1694–1774)
- 1779Go-Momozono — emperor of Japan (1758-1779)
- 1783Johann Adolf Hasse — German composer, singer and teacher (1699-1783)
- 1809Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy — French chemist (1755-1809)
- 1859Wilhelm Grimm — German author, philologist, collector of fairy tales and legends (1786–1859)
- 1897Alphonse Daudet — French novelist, playwright, and poet (1840–1897)
- 1916Hugo Münsterberg — German-American psychologist (1863-1916)
- 1921Camille Saint-Saëns — French composer, organist, conductor and pianist (1835–1921)
- 1922Eliezer Ben-Yehuda — Russian hebrew linguist, grammarian, journalist, lexicographer, newspaper editor and Zionist activist
- 1922Gabriel Narutowicz — Polish politician (1865-1922)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.