December 16
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 - Grigori Rasputin was assassinated by a group of noble Russian conspirators.
1920 - One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hit the Gansu Province in China. The 8.6-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000.
1944 - The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began in Belgium as German forces launched a surprise counter-attack against Allied forces.
1950 - President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism".
1960 - 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.
1982 - Environmental Protection Agency head Anne M. Gorsuch became the first Cabinet-level officer to be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to submit documents requested by a congressional committee.
1985 - Reputed organized crime boss 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1991 - The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.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 - Colin Powell was selected to become the first African-American secretary of state.
2001 - After nine weeks of fighting, Afghan militia leaders claimed control of the last mountain bastion of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida fighters, but bin Laden himself was nowhere to be seen.
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 of hitting Israel and parts of Europe.
2010 - Larry King concluded his CNN talk show after a 25-year run.
2019 - House Democrats laid out their impeachment case against President Donald Trump; a sweeping report from the House Judiciary Committee said Trump had "betrayed the Nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections."
Birthdays
24 - Zara Larson (singer)
28 - Stephan James (actor)
33 - Anna Popplewell (actress)
34 - Hallee Hirsh (actress)
36 - Amanda Setton (actress)
37 - Theo James (actor)
39 - Zoe Jarman (actress)
40 - Krysten Ritter (actress)
46 - Jonathan Scarfe (actor)
50 - Michael McCary (singer)
51 - Daniel Cosgrove (actor)
54 - Miranda Otto (actress)
56 - JB Smoove (actor/comedian)
58 - Jeff Carson (singer)
58 - Benjamin Bratt (actor)
60 - Jon Tenney (actor)
60 - Sam Robards (actor)
62 - Alison LaPlaca (actress)
66 - Xander Berkeley (actor)
72 - Billy Gibbons (singer)
75 - Benny Andersson (singer)
80 - Lesley Stahl (news correspondent)
83 - Liv Ullmann (actress)
84 - Joyce Bulifant (actress)
==============================================
Today in Sports History - December 16
1929 - The Chicago Blackhawks played their first game at Chicago Stadium. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1.
1945 - The Cleveland Rams defeat the Washington Redskins 15-14 to win the NFL Championship Game; the Rams would relocate to Los Angeles the following season.
1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season.
1973 - O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills broke Jim Brown's NFL single-season rushing record (1,863 yards) and became the first player in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a season (2,003).
1979 - Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys) played his last regular season game. The Cowboys came from behind to win the game in the last five minutes.
1990 - Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers threw for 527 yards in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
1991 - The Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators were officially granted membership in the NHL.
1995 - FOX aired a fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Mathis Jr; Tyson recorded a KO victory in the third round. The fight brought in FOX's highest Nielsen TV rating to date.
2001 - After having started the season with 12 consecutive losses, the Detroit Lions defeated the Minnesota Vikings to pick up their first win of the season.
2001 - An instant replay decision led to a bottle-throwing melee in a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The decision disallowed a catch by the Browns with 48 seconds left in the game. The Jaguars won the game 15-10.
2006 - During a game in New York, a fight occurred between multiple players for the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks. Ten players were ejected from the game. The NBA suspended several players and both teams were fined $500,000.
2011 - In San Francisco, eight years of being investigated for steroid allegations ended for home run king Barry Bonds with a 30-day sentence to be served at home. (Bonds never served the sentence; his conviction for obstruction of justice was overturned.)
2013 - Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston wins the Heisman Trophy.
2019 - New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees breaks Peyton Manning's NFL record for career touchdown passes (539) in a 34-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts; in the game, Brees went 29-of-30 for 307 yards and 4 TDs with a record 96.7% pass completion rate.
2020 - Major League Baseball reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league and said it would count the statistics and records of its 3,400 players as part of major league history.
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 - Grigori Rasputin was assassinated by a group of noble Russian conspirators.
1920 - One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hit the Gansu Province in China. The 8.6-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000.
1944 - The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began in Belgium as German forces launched a surprise counter-attack against Allied forces.
1950 - President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism".
1960 - 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.
1982 - Environmental Protection Agency head Anne M. Gorsuch became the first Cabinet-level officer to be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to submit documents requested by a congressional committee.
1985 - Reputed organized crime boss 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 - Colin Powell was selected to become the first African-American secretary of state.
2001 - After nine weeks of fighting, Afghan militia leaders claimed control of the last mountain bastion of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida fighters, but bin Laden himself was nowhere to be seen.
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 of hitting Israel and parts of Europe.
2010 - Larry King concluded his CNN talk show after a 25-year run.
2019 - House Democrats laid out their impeachment case against President Donald Trump; a sweeping report from the House Judiciary Committee said Trump had "betrayed the Nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections."
Birthdays
24 - Zara Larson (singer)
28 - Stephan James (actor)
33 - Anna Popplewell (actress)
34 - Hallee Hirsh (actress)
36 - Amanda Setton (actress)
37 - Theo James (actor)
39 - Zoe Jarman (actress)
40 - Krysten Ritter (actress)
46 - Jonathan Scarfe (actor)
50 - Michael McCary (singer)
51 - Daniel Cosgrove (actor)
54 - Miranda Otto (actress)
56 - JB Smoove (actor/comedian)
58 - Jeff Carson (singer)
58 - Benjamin Bratt (actor)
60 - Jon Tenney (actor)
60 - Sam Robards (actor)
62 - Alison LaPlaca (actress)
66 - Xander Berkeley (actor)
72 - Billy Gibbons (singer)
75 - Benny Andersson (singer)
80 - Lesley Stahl (news correspondent)
83 - Liv Ullmann (actress)
84 - Joyce Bulifant (actress)
==============================================
Today in Sports History - December 16
1929 - The Chicago Blackhawks played their first game at Chicago Stadium. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1.
1945 - The Cleveland Rams defeat the Washington Redskins 15-14 to win the NFL Championship Game; the Rams would relocate to Los Angeles the following season.
1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season.
1973 - O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills broke Jim Brown's NFL single-season rushing record (1,863 yards) and became the first player in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a season (2,003).
1979 - Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys) played his last regular season game. The Cowboys came from behind to win the game in the last five minutes.
1990 - Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers threw for 527 yards in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
1991 - The Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators were officially granted membership in the NHL.
1995 - FOX aired a fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Mathis Jr; Tyson recorded a KO victory in the third round. The fight brought in FOX's highest Nielsen TV rating to date.
2001 - After having started the season with 12 consecutive losses, the Detroit Lions defeated the Minnesota Vikings to pick up their first win of the season.
2001 - An instant replay decision led to a bottle-throwing melee in a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The decision disallowed a catch by the Browns with 48 seconds left in the game. The Jaguars won the game 15-10.
2006 - During a game in New York, a fight occurred between multiple players for the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks. Ten players were ejected from the game. The NBA suspended several players and both teams were fined $500,000.
2011 - In San Francisco, eight years of being investigated for steroid allegations ended for home run king Barry Bonds with a 30-day sentence to be served at home. (Bonds never served the sentence; his conviction for obstruction of justice was overturned.)
2013 - Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston wins the Heisman Trophy.
2019 - New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees breaks Peyton Manning's NFL record for career touchdown passes (539) in a 34-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts; in the game, Brees went 29-of-30 for 307 yards and 4 TDs with a record 96.7% pass completion rate.
2020 - Major League Baseball reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league and said it would count the statistics and records of its 3,400 players as part of major league history.
