October 16

is the 289th day of the year (290th in Leap years). There are 76 days remaining.

Events

456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Roman Empire
1775 - Portland, Maine burned by the British
1780 - Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont last major raid of the American Revolutionary War
1781 - George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia
1793 - Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
1793 - Battle of Wattignies
1813 - The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.
1834 - Much of the ancient structures of the Palace of Westminster in London is burnt down
1841 - Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
1843 - Sir William Rowan Hamilton invents the concept of quaternions.
1859 - John Brown leads raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
1869 - Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, discovered.
1869 - England's first residential college for women, Girton College, Cambridge, is founded.
1882 - The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
1890 - Michael Collins born: Irish Patriot and Commander-in-Chief, Irish Free State Army.
1906 - The Partition of Bengal (India) occurred.
1906 - The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.
1912 - Bulgarian pilots Radul Milkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history.
1916 - Margaret Sanger founds Planned Parenthood by opening the first U.S. birth control clinic.
1923 - The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
1934 - Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.
1940 - Benjamin O. Davis Sr. named first African American general in the United States Army
1940 - Warsaw Ghetto established
1946 - Ten war criminals of the Second World War, condemned in the Nuremberg trials hanged.
1949 - Nikos Zakhiariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.
1951 - The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi
1964 - People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon
1968 - United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked out of the USA's team for performing a Black Power salute during a medal ceremony.
1968 - Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
1969 - United States - The "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series.
1970 - Canada - In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.
1972 - Rainbow, a British television programme for children, debuts.
1973 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1975 - The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
1978 - Karol Józef Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II
1984 - Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1987 - Great Storm of 1987: hurricane force winds to hit much of the South of England killing 23 people.
1991 - Luby's massacre: George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 19 in Luby's Cafeteria.
1991 - Jharkhand Chhatra Yuva Morcha is founded at a conference in Ranchi, India.
1992 - Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson files a 1.4 million USD lawsuit against French tabloids for running topless photos taken of her on the French Riviera, including some of Texas millionaire John Bryan suckling on her toes.
1995 - The Million Man March occurs in Washington, DC.
1996 - 84 are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 soccer fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Mateo Flores Stadium in Guatemala City.
2001 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: U.S. warplanes mistakenly bomb International Red Cross warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan.
2002 - Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
2003 - The Red Sox and Yankees face off in a historical ALCS game 7 at Yankee Stadium. The game ends in dramatic fashion with an Aaron Boone walk off home run.

Births

1396 - William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English soldier (d. 1450)
1430 - King James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
1483 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
1535 - Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
1663 - Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (d. 1736)
1710 - Andreas Hadik, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1790)
1714 - Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
1726 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
1758 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
1815 - Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
1840 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
1841 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (d. 1909)
1854 - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
1855 - Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (d. 1931)
1861 - J. B. Bury, Irish historian (d. 1927)
1863 - Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
1878 - Maxey Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
1886 - David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
1888 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
1888 - Paul Popenoe, American activist (d. 1979)
1890 - Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
1890 - Paul Strand, American photographer (d. 1975)
1898 - William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1980)
1900 - Edward Ardizzone - Artist and illustrator (d. 1979)
1900 - Primo Conti, Italian painter (d. 1988)
1903 - Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)
1908 - Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (d.1985)
1914 - Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan
1918 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
1919 - Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003)
1922 - Max Bygraves, English singer songwriter
1923 - Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and songwriter (d. 1980)
1925 - Angela Lansbury, English-born actress
1927 - Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1928 - Mary Daly, feminist
1931 - Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator
1936 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer
1936 - Akira Machida Japanese judge
1936 - Peter Bowles, English actor
1938 - Carl Gunter Jr, Louisiana State Representative (d. 1999)
1940 - Barry Corbin, American actor
1940 - Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player (d. 2003)
1941 - Tim McCarver, baseball player and commentator
1946 - Suzanne Somers, American actress
1947 - Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
1947 - Bob Weir, American musician (Grateful Dead)
1952 - Boogie Mosson, American musician (P Funk)
1952 - Ron Taylor, American actor (d. 2002)
1953 - Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazilian footballer
1956 - Johnny Chavis, Native American Football Coach
1958 - Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
1959 - Gary Kemp, British musician and actor
1959 - Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian composer
1962 - Flea, Australian musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
1962 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian baritone
1965 - Steve Lamacq, British journalist and disc jockey
1967 - Davina McCall, British television presenter
1969 - Wendy Wilson, American pop singer (Wilson Phillips)
1970 - Mehmet Scholl, German footballer
1972 - Tomas Lindberg, Swedish musician (At The Gates)
1973 - Justin Credible, American professional wrestler
1974 - Paul Kariya, Canadian hockey player
1977 - John Mayer, American musician
1979 - Misty Mundae, B-movie actress
1980 - Sue Bird, American basketball player
1980 - Timana Tahu, Australian Rugby League Player
1982 - Vincy Chan, Hong Kong singer
1984 - Melissa Lauren, pornographic actress

Deaths

1355 - Louis, King of Sicily, felled by the Black Death
1553 - Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
1555 - Hugh Latimer, English protestant (martyred)
1591 - Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
1594 - William Cardinal Allen, English Catholic cardinal (b. 1532)
1621 - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer (b. 1562)
1628 - François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
1649 - Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter (b. 1621)
1655 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (b. 1591)
1680 - Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian-Austrian general (b. 1608 or 1609)
1750 - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer and lutenist (b. 1687)
1755 - Saint Gerard Majella, Catholic saint (b. 1725)
1781 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (b. 1705)
1793 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (executed) (b. 1755)
1796 - Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
1810 - Nachman of Breslov, founder of Breslov Hasidut (b. 1772)
1865 - Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet, lawmaker, philosopher, and sociologist (b. 1781)
1877 - Theodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)
1888 - John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
1893 - Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, President of France (b. 1808)
1937 - Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)
1946 - Hans Frank, German war criminal (b. 1900)
1946 - Wilhelm Frick, German war criminal (b. 1877)
1946 - Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
1946 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
1946 - Wilhelm Keitel, German military officer (b. 1882)
1946 - Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
1946 - Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist (b. 1893)
1946 - Fritz Sauckel, German war criminal (b. 1892)
1946 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader (b. 1894)
1946 - Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1887)
1959 - George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel laureate (b. 1880)
1962 - Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
1966 - George O'Hara, American actor (b. 1899)
1972 - Hale Boggs, U.S. Congressman from Louisiana (b. 1914)
1972 - Leo G. Carroll, English actor (b. 1892)
1973 - Gene Krupa, American musician (b. 1909)
1978 - Dan Dailey, American actor (b. 1913)
1979 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
1981 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
1983 - Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
1983 - Kelso, American racehorse (b. 1957)
1986 - Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (b. 1921)
1989 - Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
1990 - Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (b. 1919)
1992 - Shirley Booth, American actress (b. 1898)
1994 - Raul Julia, American actor (b. 1940)
1996 - Eric Malpass, English novelist (b. 1910)
1996 - Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)
1997 - James Michener, American writer
1998 - Jon Postel, American Internet pioneer (b. 1943)
1999 - Jean Shepherd, American writer and actor (b. 1921)
2000 - Mel Carnahan, American politician (b. 1934)
2002 - Angela Dawson, American activist
2003 - Avni Arbas, Turkish artist (b. 1919)
2003 - Stu Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1915)
2003 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
2004 - Pierre Salinger, John F. Kennedy's White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
2005 - "Len" Dresslar, American singer and voice actor (b. 1925)
2005 - David Reilly, American Singer (God Lives Underwater), (b. 1971)

External links

BBC: On This Day

October 15 - October 17 - September 16 - November 16 - more historical anniversaries

Gourt Home::Gourt :: October 16

Events

Births

Deaths

External links