About December 16

December 16, 2023 is the 350th day of the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 15 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.

You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.

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Sagittarius is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 56 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On December 16

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 1907
    The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world
  • 1918
    Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
  • 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.
  • 1941
    World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak
  • 1942
    Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
  • 1946
    Thailand joins the United Nations.
  • 1947
    William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
  • 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
    “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
    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.
  • 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.
  • 1989
    Protests break out in Timişoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
  • 1997
    An episode of Pokémon, “Dennō Senshi Porygon”, aired in Japan induces seizures in 685 Japanese children.

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