Timeline December 1916

Events in December 1916 6

• 1869 – 1916 Grigori Rasputin (1869-1916) Died 30 December 1916, aged 47 Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic who gained enormous influence over the family of Tsar Nicholas II. He was murdered by a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov, an act that further destabilized the Russian monarchy on the eve of revolution.
• 1916 Battle of Verdun WWI War of Attrition One of the longest and costliest battles of World War I, symbolizing French resilience.
• 1916 The Battle of Verdun Verdun, France Falkenhayn chose a place the French would defend to the last man and set out to bleed France white. Ten months, around 700,000 casualties, and the line ended almost where it started. The French rotated most of their army through it.
• 1916 Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister London, United Kingdom He replaced Asquith promising to fight the war more energetically, and spent much of the next two years at odds with his own generals.
• 1916 – 2020 Kirk Douglas (1916-2020) Died 5 February 2020, aged 103 Kirk Douglas was a Hollywood leading man of the 1950s and 60s, starring in films including Spartacus and Paths of Glory, and a founder of Bryna Productions. He died on 5 February 2020 at the age of 103.
• 1916 – 2003 Maurice Wilkins (1916-2003) Died 5 October 2003, aged 86 Maurice Wilkins was a biophysicist whose X-ray diffraction work at King's College London contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA. He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with James Watson and Francis Crick.