26 Azar 1395

Events

• 1497 (529 years ago) Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River at the southern tip of Africa, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
• 1914 (112 years ago) World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
• 1944 (82 years ago) World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
• 1960 (66 years ago) A United Air Lines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.
• 1971 (55 years ago) The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
• 1972 (54 years ago) The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is enacted.
• 1997 (29 years ago) Dennō Senshi Porygon: Over 600 kids in Japan suffer photosensitive epileptic seizures after watching an episode of the Pokémon anime.
• 2013 (13 years ago) A bus falls from an elevated highway in Manila, capital of the Philippines, killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.

Births

• 1485 (541 years ago) Catherine of Aragon, Spanish princess, Queen Consort of England (died 1536)
• 1770 (256 years ago) Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (died 1827)
• 1775 (251 years ago) Jane Austen, English novelist (died 1817)
• 1863 (163 years ago) George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (died 1952)
• 1866 (160 years ago) Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-French painter and theorist (died 1944)
• 1901 (125 years ago) Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author (died 1978)
• 1917 (109 years ago) Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (died 2008)
• 1928 (98 years ago) Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (died 1982)

Deaths

• 705 (1321 years ago) Wu Zetian, Empress of the Zhou dynasty (born 624)
• 882 (1144 years ago) John VIII, pope of the Catholic Church
• 1515 (511 years ago) Afonso de Albuquerque, Portuguese admiral and politician, 3rd Viceroy of Portuguese India (born 1453)
• 1774 (252 years ago) François Quesnay, French economist, physician, and philosopher (born 1694)
• 1897 (129 years ago) Alphonse Daudet, French author, poet, and playwright (born 1840)
• 1921 (105 years ago) Camille Saint-Saëns, French pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1835)
• 1965 (61 years ago) W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (born 1874)
• 2009 (17 years ago) Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Russia (born 1956)

All 389 events, births and deaths of December 16