NOW & THEN
16 DECEMBER
1431: Henry VI of England was crowned king of France.
1497: Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama became the first European to sail along the east coast of Africa, and named it Natal.
1620: The Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1613: Amid a continuous series of eathquakes, mount Vesuvius in Italy erupted, the fast-flowing lava destroying six villages in its path. Around 6,000 people were killed.
1653: After the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell failed to get the parliament he wanted and became Lord Protector of England, turning himself into an uncrowned king for the next four years.
1707: The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1773: The Boston Tea Party – caused when angry rebels, dressed as Plains Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea, worth £18,000, from ships into Boston harbour as a protest against British taxation. The War of Independence had begun.
1880: The Transvaal region declared itself as the Republic of South Africa.
1893: The Manchester Ship Canal was completed.
1905: The first edition of the showbusiness magazine Variety was published – launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering vaudeville.
1913: Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone for $150 per week.
1925: Construction of the Mersey road tunnel began. It opened on 18 July, 1934.
1929: The first all-talking feature film made in Britain. Called The Clue of the New Pin it featured a young John Gielgud as the villain.
1929: The British airship R100, designed by Barnes Wallis, first flew on trials.
1944: The Battle of the Bulge began in the Ardennes region of Belgium.
1966: United Nations Security Council voted 11-0 to invoke economic sanctions against white minority government in Rhodesia.
11971: Bangladesh formally came into existence after East Pakistan surrendered in the war with India.
1977: The extension of the Piccadilly Underground line to Heathrow Airport, London, was officially opened by the Queen.
1988: Edwina Currie resigned as junior health minister as taxpayers faced bill of £40 million to help ailing poultry industry after she said that most eggs were infected with salmonella.
1991: Stella Rimington, 56, became the first woman to be made director-general of MI5.
1997: An episode of the animated programme Pokemon aired in Japan induced seizures in 685 Japanese children.
2009: Scotland’s biggest airline, Flyglobespan, collapsed and was placed in administration.
2014: Taleban militant fighters attacked an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan, inflicting the massacre of 148 people including 133 children. They claimed it was in revenge for a military offensive carried out by the Pakistan army.
BIRTHDAYS
Benny Andersson, pop singer (Abba), 73; Christopher Biggins, actor, 71; Joel Garner, West Indian cricketer, 67; Trevor Pinnock CBE, harpsichordist and conductor, 73; Dennis Wise, footballer and manager, 53; Sir Quentin Blake CBE, cartoonist, inaugural British children’s laureate, 87; ; Bobby George, darts player and TV presenter, 74; Ben Cross, actor, 72; Trevor Immelman, golfer, 40
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1770 Ludwig van Beethoven, composer; 1775 Jane Austen, novelist; 1882 Sir Jack Hobbs, record wicket-taker and run scorer in first-class cricket; 1899 Sir Noël Peirce Coward, playwright, actor; 1917 Sir Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer; .
Deaths: 1859 Wilhelm Grimm, author (younger of the Brothers Grimm); 1858 Richard Bright, physician and pioneer of research into kidney disease; 1916 Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, monk who wielded powerful influence over Russian Czarin; 1921 Camille Saint-saëns, composer; 1965 Somerset Maugham, playwright and writer; 1982 Colin Chapman CBE, design engineer and founder of Lotus Motors; 2001 Stuart Adamson, rock singer and guitarist (Big Country) and songwriter; 2011 Nicol Williamson, Scottish actor.