16 December

The **16t o December** is the 350t day o the year (351t in lowp years) in the Gregorian Calendar, wi 15 days bidin.

## Events

* 1431 - Henry VI o Ingland is crouned King o Fraunce.
* 1497 - Vasco da Gama sails past Sooth Africae's Fish River on his voyage tae Indie.
* 1575 - A major yirdquauk hits Valdivia in present-day Chile.
* 1773 - Boston Tea Pairty: Members o the "Sons o Liberty" throw hundreds o crates o tea intae the river in Boston, Massachusetts in protest at the Tea Act.
* 1830 - Uruguay adopts its current banner.
* 1835 - A fire in Manhattan destroys 635 biggins.
* 1899 - Italian fitbaa club A.C. Milan is foondit.
* 1900 - German ship "Gneisenau" sinks in a storm aff Malaga, Spain, killin 40 fowk.
* 1920 - A yirdquauk in Cheenae's Gansu province kills 200,000 fowk.
* 1922 - Pols Preses Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinatit.
* 1944 - Warld War II: German forces stairt the Ardennes offensive in Belgium.
* 1946 - Thailand jyns the Unitit Naitions.
* 1965 - Taufa'ahau Tupou IV becomes King o Tonga.
* 1965 - The Pioneer 6 space probe is launched.
* 1971 - Bahrain gains unthirldom.
* 1971 - Bangladesh's War o Unthirldom ends.
* 1991 - Egyptian ferry "Salem Express" crashes intae a reef an sinks, killin 700 fowk.
* 1991 - Kazakhstan gains unthirldom frae the Soviet Union.
* 2012 - A 23-year-old woman is gang-raped in Delhi, Indie, provokin debate aroond the warld ower the treatment o weemen in Indie.
* 2014 - Members o the Pakistani Taliban carry oot a massacre at an airmy schuil in Peshawar, Pakistan, killin a total o 141 fowk, maist o them bairns.
* 2020 - The Unitit States accuses Swisserland an Vietnam o currency manipulation.

## Births

* 1485 - Catherine o Aragon, Spaingie-born Queen Consort o Ingland (d. 1536)
* 1724 - William Douglas, 4t Duke o Queensberry, Scots nobleman (d. 1810)
* 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German componer (d. 1827)
* 1775 - Jane Austen, Inglis writer (d. 1817)
* 1790 - Leopold I o Belgium (d. 1865)
* 1850 - Joseph Taylor, Scots fitbawer (d. 1888)
* 1866 - Wassily Kandinsky, Roushie penter (d. 1944)
* 1868 - William Brown Macdougall, Scots airtist an illustrator (d. 1936)
* 1882 - Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian componer, linguist an componer (d. 1967)
* 1888 - Alexander I o Yugoslavie (d. 1934)
* 1899 - Noël Coward, Inglis componer, writer an actor (d. 1973)
* 1901 - Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
* 1917 - Arthur C. Clarke, Inglis writer (d. 2008)
* 1923 - Ernst Florian Winter, Austrick-American historian (d. 2014)
* 1928 - Philip K. Dick, American writer (d. 1982)
* 1938 - Liv Ullmann, Norse actress
* 1946 - Benny Andersson, Swadish muisicker (ABBA)
* 1948 - Pat Quinn, American politeecian
* 1956 - Tommy Burns, Scots fitbawer (d. 2008)
* 1963 - Benjamin Bratt, American actor
* 1969 - Kevin McGowne, Scots fitbawer
* 1969 - Adam Riess, American astropheesicist
* 1971 - Scott Booth, Scots fitbawer
* 1973 - Mariza, Portuguese fado sangster
* 1988 - Mats Hummels, German fitbawer
* 1992 - Tom Rogic, Australie fitbawer
* 1995 - Ryan Gauld, Scots fitbawer
* 1997 - Zara Larsson, Swadish sangster

## Daiths
* 401 - Pape Anastasius I
* 882 - Pape John VIII
* 1634 - George Hay, 1st Yerl o Kinnoull, Scots nobleman an poleetical offeecial (b. 1570)
* 1859 - Wilhelm Grimm, German writer an folklorist (b. 1786)
* 1911 - Thomas Blake Glover, Scots merchant in Japan (b. 1838)
* 1922 - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Jewish lexicografer an eeditor (b. 1858)
* 1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz, Preses o Poland (b. 1865)
* 1965 - W. Somerset Maugham, Inglis writer (b. 1874)
* 1965 - Queen Salote Tupou III o Tonga (b. 1900)
* 1971 - Torrance Gillick, Scots fitbawer (b. 1915)
* 1989 - Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b. 1930)

## Halidays
*Independence Day (Bahrain, Kazakhstan)
*Victory Day (Bangladesh)
*Day o Reconciliation (Sooth Africae)