History for December 16

History for December 16 - On-This-Day.com
Catherine of Aragon 1485, Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770 - Composer, Arthur C. Clarke 1917 - Author, Liv Ullmann 1939 Actress 


Steven Bochco 1943 - TV producer (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues), Benny Andersson 1946 - Singer, keyboards, synthesizers (ABBA), Ben Cross 1948 - Actor 


1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company. 


1809 - Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate. 


1838 - The Zulu chief Dingaan was defeated by a small force of Boers at Blood River celebrated in South Africa as 'Dingaan's Day'. 


1916 - Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen. 


1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war. 


1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet" in a special preview on "Chesterfield Sound Off Time". The show began officially on January 3, 1952. 


1960 - A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City, killing 134 people. 


1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season. The Dolphins went on to defeat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. 


1973 - O.J. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record in the NFL. Brown had rushed for 1,863 yards, while Simpson attained 2,003 yards. 


1998 - Eric Michelman filed the earliest patent for a scroll wheel for a computer mouse. 


2000 - U.S. President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.