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On This Day: December 16
UpdatedDecember 16, 2013,1:28 pm
On Dec. 16, 1950, President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
On Dec. 16, 1901, Margaret Mead, the American anthropologist who authored 44 books and over 1000 articles , was born. Following her death on Nov. 15, 1978, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » |Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
| 1653 | Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. |
|---|---|
| 1773 | The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes. |
| 1809 | Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate. |
| 1811 | The first of the powerful New Madrid earthquakes, with an estimated magnitude of 7.7, struck the central Mississippi Valley. |
| 1916 | Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen. |
| 1917 | Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, England. |
| 1944 | The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began as German forces launched a surprise counterattack against Allied forces in Belgium. |
| 1985 | Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant. |
| 1990 | Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic elections. |
| 1991 | The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism. |
| 1998 | President Bill Clinton ordered a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors. |
| 2000 | President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state. |
| 2007 | British forces formally handed over to Iraq responsibility for Basra, the last Iraqi region under their control. |
| 2009 | Iran test-fired a missile capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe. |
| 2010 | Larry King concluded his CNN talk show after 25 years. |
Historic Birthdays
Margaret Mead12/16/1901 - 11/15/1978American anthropologist.Go to obituary »| 50 | Catherine of Aragon 12/16/1485 - 1/7/1536 English queen |
|---|---|
| 41 | Jane Austen 12/16/1775 - 7/18/1817 English novelist |
| 58 | Francois Boieldieu 12/16/1775 - 10/8/1834 French composer |
| 61 | Josephine Shaw Lowell 12/16/1843 - 10/12/1905 American social reformer |
| 51 | Hans Buchner 12/16/1850 - 4/5/1902 German bacteriologist |
| 88 | George Santayana 12/16/1863 - 9/26/1952 Spanish-American philosopher and poet |
| 81 | Sir John Berry Hobbs 12/16/1882 - 12/21/1963 English athlete |
| 73 | Sir Noel Coward 12/16/1899 - 3/26/1973 English actor and playwright |
| 96 | V.S. Pritchett 12/16/1900 - 3/20/1997 English author |
| 61 | James McCracken 12/16/1926 - 4/29/1988 American operatic tenor |
| 56 | Ludwig van Beethoven 12/16/1770 - 3/26/1827 German composer and pianist |
