Today in History in 1631 An eruption of Mount Vesuvius kills around 4,000 people; and in 1903 the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Bombay, India, opens to guests for the first time.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 15 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of France.

1497 - Vasco da Gama sails around the Cape of Good Hope in present-day South Africa, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1575 - A massive earthquake hits Valdivia, Chile.

1598 - Second War of Jeong-yu: Battle of Noryang - Chinese general Chen Lin heavily damages the Japanese fleet, which successfully retreats.

1631 – An eruption of Mount Vesuvius kills around 4,000 people.

1653 – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1689 – Convention Parliament: In England, the Declaration of the Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

1707 – The last eruption of Mount Fuji, to date, occurs.

1761 - Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress in Kolobrzeg.

1773 – Boston Tea Party: American patriots dump crates of tea into Boston Harbor at protest against the tea act.

1796 - French ship Seduisant sinks off Brest, Brittany, France, killing 680.

1811 – The first in a series of strong earthquakes hits New Madrid, Missouri.

1830 – Uruguay adopts its current flag.

1838 - Great Trek: Battle of Blood River - Voortrekkers under Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu "impis" led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in present-day KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

1857 - An earthquake strikes the Basilicata region of Italy, killing 11,000 people.

1863 - American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate army of Tennessee.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Nashville - Major General George Thomas' Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate army of Tennessee.

1880 - The Boer Republic Transvaal declares independence from the United Kingdom under the name of "South African Republic". The first shots of the First Boer War are fired.

1899 – AC Milan FC is founded.

1900 - German ship Gneisenau sinks in a storm off Malaga, Spain, killing 40 people.

1903 - The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Bombay, India, opens to guests for the first time.

1912 - First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Empire Navy at the Battle of Elli.

1914 - World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.

1918 - Vincas Mickevicius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

1920 – An earthquake in Gansu province in China kills an estimated 200,000 people.

1922 – Polish President Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated.

1927 - Donald Bradman first appears in a first-class cricket match, for New South Wales against South Australia.

1937 - Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from Alcatraz, but are never seen again.

1941 - World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.

1942 - Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler orders Roma candidates for extermination to be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 - World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with a surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1946 – Thailand joins the UN.

1947 - William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

1950 - Korean War: Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the war in support of North Korea.

1957 - Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

1960 - New York City Air Disaster: Approaching New York Idlewild Airport from Chicago, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation Aircraft during a snowstorm on Staten Island, killing 134 people.

1965 – Taufa'ahau Tupou IV becomes King of Tonga.

1965 - The Pioneer 6 space probe is launched.

1966 - South Korean ferry Namjung-Ho sinks, killing 270 people.

1966 - International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are adopted.

1971 – Bahrain becomes independent.

1971 – The Bangladesh War of Independence and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 come to an end.

1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left peace negotiations.

1979 - Libya increases crude oil prices.

1985 - New York City crime: Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti.

1988 - In the UK, Edwina Currie resigns as junior health minister, after suggesting that most eggs contain salmonella.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Clashes begins between protestors and Securitate in Timisoara, Romania.

1991 – Egyptian ferry Salem Express crashes into a reef and sinks, killing over 700 people. 200 can be rescued.

1991 – Kazakhstan becomes independent from the Soviet Union.

1997 - A Japanese airing of the Denno Senshi-Porygon episode of Pokémon causes seizures in 685 viewers.

1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Kingdom and United States bomb targets in Iraq.

2011 – Typhoon Washi hits the Philippines in the night to December 17.

2012 - 2012 Delhi gang rape case: A 23-year-old female student is gang-raped by a group of men while getting off a bus in Delhi. She dies on December 29 and the attack attracts much attention and debate around the world.

2014 - The 2014 Sydney hostage crisis comes to an end, as police storm the café in Sydney, Australia, where Man Haron Monis had held people hostage since the previous day. Three people are killed, including the hostage taker.

2014 - Members of the Pakistani Taliban carry out a massacre at an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 141 people, most of them children.