On this day, Dec. 16

1773 The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

1819 The first bridge across the Allegheny River, Federal and St. Clair streets, was completed. It served until 1860, when it was replaced by a suspension bridge.

1935 In the city’s healthiest economic signs since before the 1929 crash, Jones and Laughlin announced a $40 million expansion program, including a new $25 million sheet and strip mill on Second Avenue, and the Pennsylvania Railroad placed an order for 10,000 brake sets with the Westinghouse Airbrake Co.

1950 President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “world conquest by Communist imperialism.”

2009 Fred Honsberger, an iconic Pittsburgh radio newsman and talk show personality known for his outspoken, conservative political views, passed away at the age of 58.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin Today’s birthdays: Civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees, 84. Actor Joyce Bulifant, 83. Actor Liv Ullmann, 82. CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl, 79. Pop musician Tony Hicks (The Hollies), 75. Pop singer Benny Andersson (ABBA), 74. Rock singer-musician Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), 71. Rock musician Bill Bateman (The Blasters), 69. Actor Alison LaPlaca, 61. Actor Benjamin Bratt, 57. Actor-comedian JB Smoove, 55. Actor Miranda Otto, 53. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michael McCary, 49. Actor Krysten Ritter, 39. Actor Amanda Setton, 35. Actor Anna Popplewell, 32.

Thought for today: “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”

— Sir Noel Coward, English actor, playwright, composer (born this date, 1899; died in 1973)