On this day in history

December 16

32 births · 19 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

252

Boston Tea Party

252 years ago

Born this day

1770

Ludwig van Beethoven

Died aged 56

Photo (modified): Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain

Oldest record

1320th

Wu Zetian

death anniversary

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Famous births32

1485 · 540 yrs

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon (also spelled Katherine; Spanish: Catalina de Aragón; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until its annulment on 23 May 1533.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Lucas Horenbout · Public domain

1742 · 283 yrs

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (German pronunciation:; 16 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), Graf (count), later elevated to Fürst (prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 76

View profile Photo (modified): Peter Edward Stroehling · Public domain

1761 · 264 yrs

Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (baptised 27 December 1761 – 26 May 1818) was a Russian field marshal who figured prominently in the Napoleonic Wars. Barclay was born into a Baltic German family from Livland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): копия Serge Lachinov (обработка для wiki) · Public domain

1770 · 255 yrs

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain

1775 · 250 yrs

Jane Austen

Jane Austen ( OST-in, AW-stin; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English writer known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 41

View profile Photo (modified): Cassandra Austen · Public domain

1790 · 235 yrs

Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I (Leopold George Christian Frederick; 16 December 1790 – 10 December 1865) was the first king of the Belgians, reigning from 21 July 1831 until his death in 1865.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Franz Xaver Winterhalter · Public domain

1834 · 191 yrs

Léon Walras

Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras (French:; 16 December 1834 – 5 January 1910) was a French mathematical economist and Georgist. He formulated the marginal theory of value (independently of William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger) and pioneered the development of general equilibrium theory.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1857 · 168 yrs

Edward Emerson Barnard

Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): The original uploader was SITCK at Luxembourgish Wikipedia . · Public domain

1863 · 162 yrs

George Santayana

George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States at the age of eight.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Artist: Samuel Johnson Woolf (1880-1948). Time magazine. · Public domain

1866 · 159 yrs

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December 1866 – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist active in Germany during the late Belle Époque and Interwar eras. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Western art.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): 未知上傳者 · Public domain

1872 · 153 yrs

Anton Denikin

Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; 16 December 1872 – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military officer who served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army and as a leading commander of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1882 · 143 yrs

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály (UK:, US:; Hungarian: Kodály Zoltán, pronounced; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Pál M. Vajda · Public domain

Showing 12 of 32

Famous deaths19

AD 705 · 1320 yrs

Wu Zetian

Empress Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the only undisputed female sovereign in the history of China.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Likely to be Zhang Xuan (张萱) · Public domain

AD 765 · 1260 yrs

Jaafar Al-Sadiq

Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (Arabic: جعفر ابن محمد الصادق, romanized: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq; c. 702–765) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, hadith transmitter and the sixth and last agreed-upon Shia Imam amongst Twelvers and Isma'ilis.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 63

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1598 · 427 yrs

Yi Sun-sin

Yi Sun-sin (Korean: 이순신; Hanja: 李舜臣; Korean pronunciation:; April 28, 1545 – December 16, 1598) was a Korean admiral and military general known for his victories against the Japanese navy during the Imjin War in the Joseon period.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 53

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1687 · 338 yrs

William Petty

Sir William Petty (26 May 1623 – 16 December 1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Ireland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): John Closterman · CC BY 4.0

1771 · 254 yrs

Claude Adrien Helvétius

Claude Adrien Helvétius (French:; 26 January 1715 – 26 December 1771) was a French philosopher, Freemason, and littérateur.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Alix, Pierre Michel (Paris, en 1762 - Paris, 27–12–1817), graveur · CC0

1774 · 251 yrs

François Quesnay

François Quesnay (French:; 4 June 1694 – 16 December 1774) was a French economist and physician of the Physiocratic school. He is known for publishing the "Tableau économique" (Economic Table) in 1758, which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified painter · Public domain

1859 · 166 yrs

Wilhelm Grimm

Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 1786 – 16 December 1859) was a German writer, philologist and anthropologist. He was the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): State22 · CC BY-SA 3.0

1897 · 128 yrs

Alphonse Daudet

Louis Marie Alphonse Daudet (French:; 13 May 1840 – 16 December 1897) was a French novelist and writer of short stories. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 57

View profile Photo (modified): Étienne Carjat · Public domain

1921 · 104 yrs

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (UK:, US:; French: 9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 86

View profile Photo (modified): Agence de presse Meurisse · Public domain

1922 · 103 yrs

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda (born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman; 7 January 1858 – 16 December 1922) was a Jewish linguist, lexicographer, and journalist who immigrated to Jerusalem in 1881, when the Ottoman Empire ruled it.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): Ya'ackov Ben-Dov · Public domain

1945 · 80 yrs

Fumimaro Konoe

Prince Fumimaro Konoe (近衞文麿, Konoe Fumimaro; 12 October 1891 – 16 December 1945) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 135

View profile Photo (modified): 内閣情報部 · Public domain

1965 · 60 yrs

William Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham ( MAWM; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels, and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 91

View profile Photo (modified): Carl Van Vechten (1880 - 1964) · Public domain

Showing 12 of 19

Events5

1740 · 285 yrs

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748, was a conflict between the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King George's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War, and the First and Second Silesian Wars.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1773 · 252 yrs

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest that took place on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1944 · 81 yrs

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and referred to by the Germans as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (transl. Operation Watch on the Rhine), was an offensive campaign on the Western Front during the Second World War, taking place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1966 · 59 yrs

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect individuals' civil and political rights, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2012 · 13 yrs

2012 Delhi gang rape case

The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved the gang rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman, Jyoti Singh, in a moving bus on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in Delhi, India.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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