History is fun and educative, whether you’re reading through some amazing fun facts or you’re tackling some history trivia questions with friends and family.
In this compilation, we have dug in the past to know the historical events that happened on December 16.
- 1653 – Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
- 1835 – In New York, 530 buildings were destroyed by fire.
- 1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty, agreed to by the British Parliament and Sinn Féin, was ratified.
- 1944 – During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium.
- 1946 – Thailand joined the United Nations.
- 1950 – U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “Communist imperialism.”
- 1953 – 1st White House Press Conference was held with President Eisenhower & 161 reporters.
- 1964 – The US performed a nuclear test in the Pacific Ocean.
- 1969 – British House of Commons voted 343-185 to abolish the death penalty.
- 1978 – Ronald Reagan denounced President Jimmy Carter’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China.
- 1981 – The U.S. Congress restored the $122 minimum monthly social security benefit for current recipients.
- 1990 – Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected President of Haiti.
- 1991 – Kazakhstan declared its independence.
- 1991 – The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.
- 1993 – The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for negotiations on a comprehensive test ban.
- 1995 – NATO launched a military operation in support of the Bosnia peace agreement.
- 1998 – The U.S. and Britain fired hundreds of missiles on Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein’s refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.
- 2000 – U.S. President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state.
- 2009 – Astronomers discovered GJ1214b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.
- 2016 – US State Department increased the reward for information on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to $25 million.