Today in History, 12/16

1431: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France.
1485: Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII is born.
1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1770: Lubwig van Beethoven is born.
1773: The Boston Tea Party.
1790: Leopold I of Belgium is born. He was Queen Victoria's uncle. He also introduced her to her future husband Albert.
1899: Noel Coward is born.
1913: Charlie Chaplin goes to work at Keystone Studios.
1917: Arthur C. Clarke is born.
1928: Philip K. Dick is born.

1929: Nicholas Courtney is born. He played Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart on Doctor Who. He never met an alien menace that couldn't be improved with a volley of small arms fire.

"Five rounds, rapid!"

1937: Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from Alcatraz. They are never seen again. (I'm betting they're still at the bottom of the bay)
1943: Steven Bochco is born.
1943: Tony Hicks, guitarist for The Hollies is born. They were the "third" group behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I give The Hollies credit for being unabashedly poppy.

1944: The Battle of the Bulge kicks off.
1949: The SAAB -or Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget- debuts in Sweden.
1949: Billy Gibbons, guitarist for ZZ Top is born.
1951: Dragnet makes its radio premiere.
1961: Bill Hicks, edgy comedian is born. Less charitable people say that he's who Dennis Leary is ripping off.
1967: Mirado Otto is born. She played Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
1973: OJ Simpson becomes the first NFL player to rush for 2000 yards.
1975: Moses Gunn dies. He played Cletus in Rollerball and Bumpy Jonas in Shaft and Shaft's Big Score.
1989: Lee Van Cleef dies. He is perhaps best well known for all the westerns he did (and Escape from New York) but I thought he did a great job in the Roger Corman stinker It Conquered the World. Not many actors can sell fighting a giant carrot with a blowtorch.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.