Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on December 16th?

The Byzantine emperor Basil II wins a decisive victory against the Bulgarians at the Battle of Spercheios.

Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris, marking a significant moment in the Hundred Years' War.

"The Boston Tea Party" Defiant colonists dump crates of tea into Boston Harbor. This was the culmination of a series of events which led the thirteen American colonies closer to independence. More

An earthquake, believed to be the world’s second deadliest of the twentieth century, hits China’s remote Gansu Province leading to the deaths of more than 200,000 people and causing severe destruction over an area of 20,000 square kilometers. More

The German army launches a counteroffensive intended to cut through the Allied forces and turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. The German offensive was code-named Wacht am Rhein (the “Watch on the Rhine”), but is better known in the United States as the “Battle of the Bulge". More

President Harry S. Truman Proclaims the "Existence of a National Emergency", stating that “the increasing menace of the forces of communist aggression spreading throughout the globe via North Korean forces requires that the national defense of the United States be strengthened as speedily as possible,” The U.S. forces had seemed on the verge of victory in Korea. but in November, hundreds of thousands of communist Chinese troops. joined the fight and broke through the American lines driving them back just days after General Douglas MacArthur declared an “end the war offensive. More

A United DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City, killing 134 people on the planes and on the ground. More

The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marking a significant moment in human rights history.

A terrorist bomb mailed to his home, kills Federal Judge Robert Vance in Alabama. Two days later a second bomb killed civil rights Attorney Robert Robertson in Georgia. Two other bombs were discovered before they exploded. A massive investigation ensued involving the FBI and several other law enforcement agencies. In June 1991, a federal jury convicted Walter LeRoy Moody, Jr. on charges related to the bombings. He was executed in 2018. More

President Clinton orders air attack on Iraq and the United States joined by Britain begin operation "Desert Fox" as a reaction to Saddam Hussein's refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM's inspectors and to degrade Iraq's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction as well as to diminish" the Iraqi threat to its neighbors. More