May 16

May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.

Events

• 1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
• 1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
• 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
• 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.
• 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
• 1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
• 1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
• 1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
• 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
• 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
• 1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
• 1918 - The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
• 1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
• 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
• 1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
• 1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
• 1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
• 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.
• 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
• 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
• 1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
• 1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
• 1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
• 1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
• 1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
• 1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
• 2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.
• 2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
• 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
• 2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Births

• 1490 - Duke Albert of Prussia (d. 1568)
• 1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
• 1611 - Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
• 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
• 1827 - Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect (d. 1921)
• 1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian biologist (d. 1916)
• 1891 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
• 1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
• 1912 - Studs Terkel, American writer
• 1913 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
• 1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
• 1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
• 1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist (d.2000)
• 1931 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
• 1936 - Karl Lehmann, German Catholic cardinal
• 1936 - Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
• 1946 - Robert Fripp, English guitarist
• 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
• 1955 - Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
• 1955 - Jack Morris, baseball player
• 1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
• 1955 - Debra Winger, American actress
• 1963 - Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
• 1963 - Rosie Perez, American actress
• 1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
• 1966 - Janet Jackson, American singer
• 1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
• 1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
• 1969 - Tucker Carlson, American television commentator
• 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player
• 1973 - Tori Spelling, American actress
• 1977 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Canadian hockey player

Deaths

• 1620 - William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b.1564)
• 1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
• 1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
• 1669 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian architect (b. 1598)
• 1691 - Jacob Leisler, German-born American colonist (b. 1640)
• 1703 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
• 1782 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
• 1891 - Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
• 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan (b. 1861)
• 1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
• 1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
• 1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
• 1955 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
• 1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
• 1984 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
• 1984 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
• 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
• 1988 - Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
• 1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
• 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1925)
• 2003 - Mark McCormack, American sports business pioneer

Holidays and observances

• In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
• The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Ubaldus
  • Saint Honoré
  • John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 - 1393)
  • Andrew Bobola
  • Simon Stock
• Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
• Adelaide Cup day - South Australia (2005)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• Today in History: May 16

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May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 – listing of all days