Today in History, December 16th
On December 16, 1773, colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Plus the New Madrid earthquake and the Battle of the Bulge.
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December 16 is best known for the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. The date also saw the first of the great New Madrid earthquakes in 1811 and the start of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
The big story: The Boston Tea Party (1773)
Oddly enough, the law that set off the Boston Tea Party made tea cheaper. The Tea Act of 1773 cut the tax on tea and gave the East India Company a near monopoly on the American trade, letting it undersell the Dutch tea that colonial smugglers brought in. Many colonists saw a trap: buy the cheap tea, and you accept Parliament’s right to tax you. When three tea ships, the Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver, sat in Boston Harbor, colonists demanded they go back to England. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused. On the night of December 16, 1773, about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty, organized by Samuel Adams and disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. Parliament answered in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which closed the port of Boston and tightened British control of Massachusetts. Colonists called them the Intolerable Acts, and the colonies soon sent delegates to the First Continental Congress.
More events on December 16
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1811 | The first of the New Madrid earthquakes struck at about 2:15 a.m., centered in what is now northeastern Arkansas. It was felt as far away as Canada and rang church bells in Boston. |
| 1893 | Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” had its world premiere at Carnegie Hall, played by the Philharmonic Society of New York. |
| 1914 | German battle cruisers shelled the English coastal towns of Hartlepool and Scarborough, killing more than 130 civilians. |
| 1944 | Germany launched a surprise offensive through the Ardennes forest, starting the Battle of the Bulge. Almost 20,000 Americans were killed in a fight that lasted weeks. |
| 1950 | With Chinese troops pouring into the Korean War, President Harry Truman declared a national state of emergency and called for a huge defense buildup. |
| 1960 | A United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City. The planes fell on Brooklyn and Staten Island, and 134 people died, six of them on the ground. |
| 1998 | President Bill Clinton ordered air strikes on Iraq after it refused to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. |
| 2009 | James Cameron’s Avatar had its U.S. premiere. It went on to pass Titanic as the highest-grossing film ever made. |
Born on December 16
- 1775: Jane Austen, English novelist of Pride and Prejudice and Emma.
- 1901: Margaret Mead, Philadelphia-born anthropologist whose studies of Samoa made her famous.
- 1917: Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sources
- Boston Tea Party, History.com
- New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12, Britannica
- Antonín Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” receives its world premiere in New York City, History.com
- Germans bombard English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough, History.com
- Battle of the Bulge begins, History.com
- Clinton orders air attack on Iraq, History.com
- Avatar opens in theaters, History.com
- Two airplanes collide over New York City, History.com
- Truman declares state of emergency, History.com
- Jane Austen, Britannica
