TODAY IN HISTORY
December 16, 1998 - 0:0
1835 - A huge fire spread through New York City, destroying over 600 buildings and causing damage estimated at about 20 million dollars. 1838 - The Boers, on their great trek from British rule in Cape colony, clashed with Zulu chief Dingaan at the battle of Blood River. The Boers killed 3,000 Zulus. 1859 - Wilhelm Grimm, one of the German brothers who wrote Grimm's Fairy Tales, died.
1920 - One of the worst earthquakes on record occurred in Gansu Province, China. Estimated at over eight points on the Richter scale, it killed 180,000 people. 1944 - In World War II, the battle of the Bulge began when the German forces broke through the Allied lines in the rugged Ardennes region, taking U.S. troops by surprise. There were 77,000 Allied and 130,000 German casualties.
The German counter-offensive failed. 1945 - Prince Fumimaro Konoe, twice Japanese prime minister, committed suicide rather than face war crimes charges. In the 1920s he had worked to curb army powers and prevent an expansion of the war with China. He helped engineer the fall of the Tojo government in 1944 but was suspected of war atrocities. 1949 - Indonesian nationalist Ukarno was elected his country's first president after the Netherlands gave up sovereignty.
He became president-for-life in 1966 and was replaced by Suharto. 1960 - A total of 136 people were killed when a United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA super constellation collided in mid-air over New York; 128 were aboard the aircraft and eight more were killed on the ground. 1962 - King Mahendra of Nepal canceled plans for a parliamentary democracy, citing the lack of political consciousness among his subjects.
1963 - Zanzibar and Kenya were admitted to the United Nations. 1966 - The UN Security Council voted in favor of a British resolution for mandatory economic sanctions against Rhodesia. 1969 - The British House of Commons voted by 343-185 to approve the permanent abolition of the death penalty. 1987 - A Palermo court struck the heaviest ever legal blow against Sicily's criminal society, sending 19 mobsters, including Boss of Bosses Michele Greco, to jail for life and handing sentences totaling nearly 2,700 years to 319 others.
1996 - A South Korean appeals court commuted the death sentence on ex-president Chun Doo Hwan to life imprisonment. 1997 - President Nelson Mandela bade farewell as leader of his ruling African National Congress with a call for racial transformation of South Africa's economy to mirror the political change he led.
1920 - One of the worst earthquakes on record occurred in Gansu Province, China. Estimated at over eight points on the Richter scale, it killed 180,000 people. 1944 - In World War II, the battle of the Bulge began when the German forces broke through the Allied lines in the rugged Ardennes region, taking U.S. troops by surprise. There were 77,000 Allied and 130,000 German casualties.
The German counter-offensive failed. 1945 - Prince Fumimaro Konoe, twice Japanese prime minister, committed suicide rather than face war crimes charges. In the 1920s he had worked to curb army powers and prevent an expansion of the war with China. He helped engineer the fall of the Tojo government in 1944 but was suspected of war atrocities. 1949 - Indonesian nationalist Ukarno was elected his country's first president after the Netherlands gave up sovereignty.
He became president-for-life in 1966 and was replaced by Suharto. 1960 - A total of 136 people were killed when a United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA super constellation collided in mid-air over New York; 128 were aboard the aircraft and eight more were killed on the ground. 1962 - King Mahendra of Nepal canceled plans for a parliamentary democracy, citing the lack of political consciousness among his subjects.
1963 - Zanzibar and Kenya were admitted to the United Nations. 1966 - The UN Security Council voted in favor of a British resolution for mandatory economic sanctions against Rhodesia. 1969 - The British House of Commons voted by 343-185 to approve the permanent abolition of the death penalty. 1987 - A Palermo court struck the heaviest ever legal blow against Sicily's criminal society, sending 19 mobsters, including Boss of Bosses Michele Greco, to jail for life and handing sentences totaling nearly 2,700 years to 319 others.
1996 - A South Korean appeals court commuted the death sentence on ex-president Chun Doo Hwan to life imprisonment. 1997 - President Nelson Mandela bade farewell as leader of his ruling African National Congress with a call for racial transformation of South Africa's economy to mirror the political change he led.