Wednesday 16th of December 1485

Princess of Wales and first wife of Henry VIII Catalina de Aragón is born in Palacio Arzobispal, Alcalá de Henares, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain.

Sunday 16th of December 1770

Composer Ludwig van Beethoven is born in Bonngasse 20, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Saturday 16th of December 1775

Writer Jane Austen is born in Steventon, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 16th of December 1790

1st King of Belgium Leopold I is born as Leopold George Christian Frederick of Saksen-Coburg-Saalfeld in Ehrenburg Palace, Coburg, Bayern, Germany.

Friday 16th of December 1859

Folklorist and mythologist Wilhelm Karl Grimm dies of an internal infection at the age of 73 in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Sunday 16th of December 1866

Painter and art theorist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky is born in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Saturday 16th of December 1882

Composer Zoltán Kodály is born in Kecskemét, Dél-Alföld, Hungary.

Saturday 16th of December 1899

Playwright, director, actor and singer Noël Peirce Coward is born in Teddington, Middlesex, United Kingdom.

Monday 16th of December 1901

Anthropologist Margaret Mead is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Friday 16th of December 1904

Widow Gladys Cochcrane dies of Spontaneous Human Combustion in Rosehall, Falkirk, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Cochrane was found burned beyond recognition in her bedroom sitting in a chair surrounded by pillows and cushions which were not burned. Cochrane had not cried out and there was no fire in her grate.

Sunday 16th of December 1917

Science fiction writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer and television series host Arthur C. Charles Clarke known for 2001: A Space Odyssey is born in Minehead, Somerset, United Kingdom.

Sunday 16th of December 1928

Science fiction writer Philip K. Kindred Dick known for his novel Blade Runner is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Dick and his twin sister Jane Charlotte were born six weeks prematurely. The death of Jane on 26 January 1929, profoundly affected Philip's life, leading to the recurrent motif of the 'phantom twin' in his books.

Monday 16th of December 1935

Actress Thelma Alice Todd aka The Bohemian Girl dies of carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of 30 in Pacific Palisades, California, United States.

Friday 16th of December 1938

Actress Liv Johanne Ullmann is born in Tokyo, Kantō, Japan.

Friday 16th of December 1938

Swindler Phillip Mariano Fausto Musica aka F. Donald Coster commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 61 in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States.

Musica was careful to stand in a way that when he fell into a large marble bathtub none of his blood stained the carpet on the floor.

Saturday 16th of December 1944

567 die in Cinema Rex explosion in Cinema Rex, De Keyserlei 15, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

The building was caught in a full hit by a V2 during the showing of Cecil B DeMille's ‘The Plainsman’ starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.

Friday 16th of December 1949

Possible victim of the Zodiac Killer Betty Elizabeth Marie Cloer is born in Lakeview, Oregon, United States.

Sunday 16th of December 1956

Musician Lizzy Martine-Elisabeth Mercier Descloux is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 16th of December 1960

134 die in United Airlines Douglas DC-8-11 Flight 826 and Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation Flight 266 collision in Park Slope, New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

The only initial survivor of the tragedy was 11-year-old Stephen Lambert Baltz, but he died of pneumonia the next day.

Thursday 16th of December 1965

Writer and playwright William Somerset Maugham dies of natural causes at the age of 91 in Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

Monday 16th of December 1968

43-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Aktion / Das Böse / Tv–film für den WDR' in Praterstraße 32, Wien, Wien, Austria.

Wednesday 16th of December 1970

16-year-old Multiple murderer Frank Alexander is found beating his 39-year-old mother Dagmar and his 18-year-old and 15-year-old sisters Marina and Petra to death in Flat 1d, 37 Calle Jesús Nazareno, Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain.

Alexander had also been tearing out their hearts and cutting away their sex organs and nailing them to the walls of the flat while his father Harald played the organ in a presumer 'Lorberbewegung' ritual. Petra's twin sister Sabina managed to escape. In the subsequent trial the young Alexander stated "I saw that mom was looking at me, I felt I was not allowed that she looked at me that way."

Wednesday 16th of December 1970

45-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Weihnacht 70' in Aktionsgalerie Rudolf Jäggli, Uferweg 42, Bern, Mittelland, Switzerland.

Thursday 16th of December 1976

36-year-old Double murderer Gary Mark Gilmore aka The Executioner’s Song tries to commit suicide in Utah State Prison, Draper, Utah, United States.

Friday 16th of December 1977

26-year-old Maryann Carr is abducted and killed by serial killer Richard Cottingham aka The Torso Killer in Ledgewood Terrace Apartments, Liberty Street, Little Ferry, New Jersey, United States.

Carr's body was left on the parking lot of a Quality Inn Motel parking lot.

Monday 16th of December 1985

The four only members, 33-year old Pierre Carette, 30-year-old Didier Chevolet, 28-year-old Pascale Vandegeerde and 23-year-old Bertrand Sassoye of Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC are arrested in Quick restaurant, Avenue de la Gare 7, Namur, Namur, Belgium.

Tuesday 16th of December 1986

44-year-old Serial killer Myra Hindley aka The Moors Murderers (with Ian Brady) returns to the Moor by helicopter from Cookham Wood Prison in an attempt to locate burial sites of their victims Pauline Reade and Keith Benneth in Hollin Brown Knoll, Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.

The search proved no results and Hindley arrived back at Cookham Wood at 7.15pm.

Saturday 16th of December 1989

Actor Lee Clarence Leroy Van Cleef dies of a heart attack at the age of 64 in Oxnard, California, United States.

Thursday 16th of December 1993

Double murderer David Mark Pruett is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Greensville Correctional Center, Jarratt, Virginia, United States.

Thursday 16th of December 2004

Musician Jeroen Stevens at a Catholic performance in a record shop (that still owes us about 1.000,- € from cd-sales) in Freaks end Future, Prinsstraat, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Thursday 16th of December 2010

Murderer John David Duty is executed by lethal injection at the age of 58 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.

Duty was to be the first US prisoner whose execution included the use of the sedative pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanise animals. Duty's last meal request was for a double cheeseburger with mayonnaise, a foot-long hot dog with cheese, mustard and onions, a cherry limeade, and a banana shake.

Monday 16th of December 2019

A measurement spot for soil contamination in the street in Antwerpen, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Belgium.