Independence
day
Kazakhstan
Events
of the day
International
Human Solidarity Day
755
– An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang
Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion
during the Tang Dynasty of China.
1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of
France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good
Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously
turned back to Portugal.
1575 – The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place.
1598 – Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang Point
– 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.
1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate
– Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of
the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration
of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji
in Japan.
1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month
siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take
the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party
– Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as
Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor
as a protest against the Tea Act.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe
earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid,
Missouri. These four so-called mega-quakes are
believed to be an ongoing cataclysmic danger
that could reprise the 1811-12 series of 2,000
quakes that affected the lands of what would
be eight of today's heartland states of the
United States.
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican
controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself
ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1838 – 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.
1850 – History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane
and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury
Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston
replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army
of Tennessee.
1864 – American Civil War: Franklin-Nashville
Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General
George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant
General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of
Tennessee.
1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower first opened
its doors to the guests.
1907 – The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation
of the world
1914 – World War I: German battleships under
Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of
Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares
the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist
Republic.
1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5,
rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an
estimated 200,000.
1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz
is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at
the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of
his crew are killed by a posse of 200, following
a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
1937 – 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.
1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of
Honor of the German Mother
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy
Miri, Sarawak
1942 – Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler
orders that Roma candidates for extermination
be deported to Auschwitz.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge
begins with the surprise offensive of three
German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.
1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain build the first practical point-contact
transistor.
1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares
a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter
the fight with communist North Korea in the
Korean War.
1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim
Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching
New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines
Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super
Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten
Island, killing 134.
1965 – 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.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani
War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army
brings an end to both conflicts.
1971 – "National Day" of the Kingdom
of Bahrain is celebrated. Not to be confused
with Bahrain Independence Day which took place
on August 15, 1971.
1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces
that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations,
in Paris.
1972 – Vijay Diwas: (Victory Day) is commemorated
every 16 December in India as it marks its military
victory over Pakistan in 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani
War of 1971.
1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression
era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000
to local banks.
1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in
raising crude oil prices, having an immediate
dramatic effect on the United States.
1985 – Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano
and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders
of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the
Gambino family.
1986 – Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist
Party of Kazakhstan, known as Zheltoksan, which
becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure
1989 – Protests break out in Timişoara in response
to an attempt by the government to evict dissident
Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
1989 – Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist
bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith
Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing
him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama.
1991 – Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.
1997 – An episode of Pokémon, "Dennō Senshi
Porygon", aired in Japan induces seizures
in 685 Japanese children.
1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert
Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb
targets in Iraq.
2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM
Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the
United States' first national standards for
the sending of commercial e-mail and requires
the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its
provisions.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Adelaide of Italy
December 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as
Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United
Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent
emirate in 1971. However December 16 is only
the date on which the state celebrates the event,
while the actual day on which the independence
of Bahrain was declared was August 15, 1971
(see Bahrain Independence Day)
National Sports Day (Thailand)
The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning
December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating
the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before
finding a place to stay where Jesus could be
born (Christians of Spanish-origin):
The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, other
Latin Americans)
The first day of Simbang Gabi (Philippines)
Victory Day (Bangladesh)
Victory Day (India)
For details, contact Datacentre
