Daily Calendar for Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Question of the Day
How do you care for a mistletoe cactus?
The mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis baccifera), unlike its other cactus relatives, needs an indoor environment that is very humid—60 percent humidity is best. It also requires bright, filtered light.
Advice of the Day
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Home Hint of the Day
If you don’t have one of those rubber jar openers, try substituting a wide rubber band. This will give you the grip you need to unscrew a stubborn jar lid.
Word of the Day
Thermophobia
The fear of heat
Puzzle of the Day
What goes up the hill, down the hill, and yet stands still?
A road
Born
- Jane Austen (author) –
- Philip K. Dick (author) –
- Steven Bochco (producer) –
- William "Refrigerator" Perry (football player) –
- Benjamin Bratt (actor) –
- Hallee Hirsh (actress) –
- Anna Popplewell (actress) –
Died
- Lillian Disney (wife of Walt Disney; came up with the name Mickey Mouse) –
- John Spencer (actor) –
- Michiaki Takahashi (virologist best know for inventing first chickenpox vaccine ) –
Events
- On December 16, 1620, the British ship Mayflower arrived at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Soon after, the Pilgrims began building their settlement, Plymouth Colony. –
- A group of American patriots dressed as Indians dumped British tea overboard in Boston Harbor, protesting taxes by the British government; the event is referred to as the Boston Tea Party –
- Earthquake in Mississippi River Valley near Madrid, Missouri –
- Magnitude-8.1 earthquake in northeast Arkansas –
- Hiram W. Hayden patented a machine to make brass kettles –
- Second (and current) Cape Hatteras, N.C., lighthouse likely first lit –
- Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published –
- 7.1 earthquake, Fairview Peak, Nevada –
- Students’ satellite STARSHINE-2 deployed –
- 9,000th episode of All My Children aired –
Weather
- The temperature in Hanover, New Hampshire, was -17 degrees F in a bitter cold snap that hit New England –
- Ice jam closed Ohio River from Warsaw, Kentucky, to Rising Sun, Indiana –
