List of December 16th Major News Events

1910 UK -- Houndsditch Murders

A gang attempts to break into the rear of a jeweller's shop at 119 Houndsditch, during a police check the gang shot and killed Constable Choate and Sergeant Bentley, On January 2nd and 3rd the following year Police surround an area in Stepney and a gunfight leaves 2 of those responsible dead.

1916 Russia -- Rasputin

Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian royal family, was murdered by a group of noblemen led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich .

1920 China -- Severe Earthquake

1920 : An earthquake measuring 8.5 magnitude on the Richter scale hits the heavily populated of Gansu province of midwestern China, causing the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people.

1926 U.S.A. -- Calls to Bolster the Navy

1926 : Congress appealed to President Coolidge for money to bolster a weak and embarrassing American navy. They said that their navy was a third rate power and was behind France, Japan, and Great Britain.

1933 Germany -- Quits the League of Nations

Germany quit the League of Nations and Adolph Hitler was in power with his Nazi regime. Other European countries were nervous of Germany's intentions; however, they were relying on negotiations instead of war at that point. France was threatened by Germany, but generally felt secure behind her fortifications.

1940 England -- Aircraft Production

British factories could manufacture a plane in two hours, making a total of a dozen planes a day. Although Nazi bombing raids had damaged some of the plane factories Britain was still producing plenty of aircraft for the war effort. The majority of steel for the planes came from the United States.

1950 U.S.A. -- Communist Threat

1950 : President Truman proclaimed a state of emergency to combat the growth of communism and delegated many of his own war powers to Charles E. Wilson, the new Mobilization Director of the Economic Stabilization Agency . As part of the measures to fight communism new price controls are put in place and new war production targets are set.

1950 Italy -- US Ambassador

1950 : Italy had a new ambassador from the United States. He was J.D. Zellerbach and was president of the Crown-Zellerbach Corporation. During World War II Italy awarded him the Knightly Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his mission in 1948-50.

1960 U.S.A. -- Plane Crash

A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City, killing 134 people

1967 Canada -- Call For Quebec to Separate

General de Gaulle in France was encouraging Quebec to separate from the rest of Canada. The Newport Daily News explained, "Whereas practically all educated French learned English as a matter of necessity, any number of leading British Canadians knew little or no French - Canadian culture was almost exclusively British and American, with hardly a dash of French."

1969 England -- Death Penalty Abolished

The British Parliament votes to abolish the death penalty in Great Britain, there had been a temporary ban on the death penalty since 1965.

1971 Pakistan -- Bangladesh

Two weeks after the Indian invasion of East Pakistan ( Now Bangladesh ) in support of the independence movement, 90,000 Pakistani troops surrender to Indian forces.

1977 England -- Picadily Line to Heathrow

The Queen opens the new underground link on the Picadily Line from central London to Heathrow's terminals which will run every 4 minutes and take 40 minutes and cost 80 pence one way. ( current price £3.80 )

1978 Japan -- Massive New Store

Brooks Bothers and Daido Worsted Mills, were merging to create a 4,000 square foot store in Japan. This was an unusual move since Japan usually did not allow foreign companies to have the controlling interest in a joint Japanese company. Brooks was the oldest textile and retail manufacturer in the U.S. and Daido was a Japanese company.

1985 U.S.A. -- Mafia Boss Shot

Paul Castellano the head of the Gambino crime family, then one of New York's largest Mafia families, is shot to death outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan on the orders of John J. Gotti.

1989 China -- Sanctions Following Student Deaths

Sanctions were placed on China due to the death of student protesters and this was affecting Japan economically. Japan was the second largest investor in China. Since 1979 Japan loaned 770 billion yen to China and promised another 10 billion yen from 1990-1995. Japan did not resume trade with China, because the Japanese did not want to offend the United States.

1990 Haiti -- President

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic elections

1997 Mexico -- Border Control

1997 : President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo joined forces to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling along the 2,000 mile border between Mexico and the United States. President Clinton declared, "The United States and Mexico are working hard to forge a true partnership founded on mutual respect, a partnership as broad as our border is long."

1998 Iraq -- US Air strikes

President Bill Clinton orders a series of air strikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons inspectors.