Today is Wednesday, December 16, the 350th day of 2009. There are 15 days left in the year.

on this date

In 1653, Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1773, colonists, dressed as Indians, dump 342 chests of tea overboard from a British ship in Boston Harbor, staging a protest against British taxation. The event becomes known as "The Boston Tea Party".

In 1838, Boers defeat Zulus on Blood River, Natal.

In 1879, the Transvaal Republic is proclaimed in what is now South Africa.

In 1920, one of the worst earthquakes of all time hit China's Kansu province, killing 180,000 people.

In 1944, the Battle of the Bulge began when German forces broke through Allied lines in the Ardennes region of Belgium.

In 1945, Japan's Prince Fumimaro Konoe, twice prime minister, committed suicide rather than face war crimes charges.

In 1949, Indonesian nationalist leader Sukarno was elected his country's first president after the Netherlands gave up sovereignty.

In 1950, US President Harry Truman proclaims a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."

In 1966, UN Security Council votes 11 to zero to invoke economic sanctions against white minority government in Rhodesia.

In 1971, Pakistani troops surrender East Pakistan after a war with its rebels and their Indian allies. The territory soon becomes the independent nation of Bangladesh.

In 1979, five British soldiers are killed and another wounded in two Irish Republican Army bomb attacks in Northern Ireland after the group claims it would never take part in a Christmas ceasefire.

In 1990, Haitians elect populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president in the country's first fully democratic election.

In 1998, the United States launches a wave of cruise missiles at military and intelligence installations in Iraq. UN weapons inspectors were evacuated earlier in the day, with their chief citing Iraqi obstruction of their work.

Thought For Today:

"Life means progress, and progress means suffering" — Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Dutch-born journalist and lecturer (1882-1944).