December 16, Colin Powell nominated for secretary of state

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 16, the 350th day of 2025. There are 15 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 16, 2000, President-elect George W. Bush nominated Colin Powell to become secretary of state; Powell was confirmed by the Senate and became the first African-American to hold the position.

Also on this date:

In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes.

In 1907, 16 U.S. Navy battleships, which came to be known as the “Great White Fleet,” set sail from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a 14-month, round-the-world voyage to demonstrate American sea power.

In 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg.

In 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.

In 2020, a French court convicted 14 people accused of being accomplices in the 2015 Islamic State terror attacks in Paris against the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket. The attacks, claimed jointly by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, left 17 people dead along with three gunmen.

In 2024, a 15-year-old student opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a fellow student and a teacher. The shooter also died.