December 16 is the 350th day of the year.
There are 15 days remaining until the end of the 2015.
Sunrise Today: 7:18 AM
Sunset Today: 4:52 PM
There will be only 9 hours 33 minutes and 42 seconds of daylight today
The Moon is 27.6 percent illuminated, waxing crescent
Tides today in San Francisco Bay:
High tide this morning was at 3:35 AM5.17 H
Low tide this morning will be at 8:45 AM2.68 L
High tide again this afternoon at 2:35 PM5.13 H
and Low tide again tonight at 9:02 PM-0.06 L
"16 December" is the name of the 2002 Hindi-language thriller film
Today is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)
National Sports Day (Thailand)
Nine-day celebration of Mary and Joseph's search for a place to stay where Jesus could be born begins
The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, Latin America)
The first day of the Simbang Gabi novena of masses (Philippines)
Victory Day (Bangladesh)
Victory Day (India)
Republic Day (Kazakhstan)
If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday! You get to share birthday cake with...
1485 – Catherine of Aragon (d. 1536)
1775 – Jane Austen, English novelist (d. 1817)
1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (d. 1952)
1866 – WassilyKandinsky, Russian-French painter and theorist (d. 1944)
1882 – ZoltánKodály, Hungarian composer, conductor, and musicologist (d. 1967)
1899 – Noël Coward, English playwright, actor, and composer (d. 1973)
1900 – V. S. Pritchett, English essayist, short story writer, and critic (d. 1997)
1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author (d. 1978)
1915 – Turk Murphy, American trombonist and singer (d. 1987)
1917 – Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction novelist (d. 2008)
1928 – Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (d. 1982)
1936 – Morris Dees, American lawyer and activist, co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center
1938 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress, director, and screenwriter
1946 – Trevor Pinnock, English harpsichord player and conductor
On this day in history….
1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1653 – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk
Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1880 – Outbreak of the First Boer War betweens the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.
1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests.
1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact
transistor.
1960 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten
Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and 6 more on the ground.
1978 – Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
1995 – Official adoption of the name of "Euro".
2014 – Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people.