TODAY IN HISTORY - 16th Dec, 2025 - Africa World News

TODAY IN HISTORY – 16th Dec, 2025 – Africa World News

By Valentine Uchechukwu Ndukwu.

When Robin Hobb wrote, “the past is a tapestry woven from countless threads of lives lived, of choices made, of circumstances beyond our control” he was referencing the complexity and richness of the past.

And he meant that the past is an intricate and multifaceted fabric, shaped by the experiences, decisions, and circumstances of countless individuals.

Read through as we unveil some of the remarkable events in history.

On this day in 1497, Vasco da Gama passed the Great Fish River at the southern tip of Africa, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

Still on this day in 1838, great Trek: Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

According to Today in History, it was on this day in 2013 that a bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.

Sadly on this day 2014, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 150 people, 132 of them schoolchildren.

In South Africa, today is the day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners.

Today is National Sports Day in Thailand.

Amazingly, Today in History reveals that today is the beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born (Hispanidad)

Today in history.