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On December 16, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, considered the most influential composer in the history of Western music. Almost completely deaf from the age of 30, he composed some of his most monumental works — the Ninth Symphony, the Fifth Symphony — without ever hearing them. His life and music are the symbol of the triumph of human will over adversity.

On December 16, 1773, a group of American colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into the sea at Boston harbour, in protest against the colonial tax on tea. The Boston Tea Party was one of the triggers of the American War of Independence, which broke out in 1775.

On December 16, 1971, the Pakistani army surrendered to Indian and Bengali forces in Dhaka, ending the Bangladesh Liberation War. The conflict, which began with Pakistan's brutal suppression of the Bengali independence movement, caused between 300,000 and 3 million deaths. Bangladesh was born as an independent state that same day.