November 16

is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining.

Events

534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
1384 - Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.
1532 - Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa.
1632 - The Battle of Lützen, where king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden is killed.
1776 - American Revolutionary War: Hessian mercenaries capture Fort Washington from the Patriots.
1776 - American Revolution: The United Provinces (Low Countries) recognize the independence of the United States of America, the first country in the world to do so. is a controversial statement, because other sources say that the Kingdom of Morocco was the first to extent diplomatic recognition to the new United States.
1821 - American Old West: Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail.
1849 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his execution is canceled at the last minute.
1857 - Second relief of Lucknow. The most Victoria Crosses won in a single day (24).
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Campbell's Station near Knoxville, Tennessee. Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces.
1885 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel is executed for treason.
1896 - First transmission of electricity between a power plant and a city was sent from the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant to industries in Buffalo, New York.
1904 - John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube.
1906 - Opera star Enrico Caruso is charged with an indecent act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo.
1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
1907 - Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania sister ship of RMS Lusitania, sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1914 - The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
1920 - Qantas, the national airline of Australia is registered as an aerial carrier under the name of “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited”. Only KLM (now part of Air France-KLM) is older.
1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
1940 - World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
1940 - Holocaust: In occupied Poland, German Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
1940 - New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
1943 - World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vermork, Norway.
1945 - Cold War: The United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists & engineers to help in the production of rocket technology.
1957 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden.
1959 - The Broadway musical, The Sound of Music, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel opens at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.
1965 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
1973 - Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
1973 - US President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in theaters.
1979 - The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in Bucharest, Romania.
1981 - Luke and Laura marry on the U.S. soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history.
1988 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that the Estonia was "sovereign" but stopped short of declaring independence.
1988 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister.
1989 - A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.
1996 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
1996 - The $127.5 million Jumbotron at Buffalo's HSBC Arena falls to the ice hours before a hockey game; no one is injured.
1997 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
2000 - Bill Clinton becomes the first serving U.S. President to visit Vietnam.
2004 - X-43A scramjet becomes the fastest air-breathing jet flying at nearly Mach 10 at approx. 11,200 km/h or 3.11 km/s.

Births

42 BC - Tiberius, Roman emperor (d. 37)
1603 - Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (d. 1673)
1717 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician (d. 1793)
1720 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, Italian composer (d. 1788)
1766 - Rodolphe Kreutzer, French violinist (d. 1831)
1836 - David Kalakaua of Hawaii, last king of Hawaii (d. 1891)
1841 - Jules Violle, French physicist and inventor (d. 1923)
1862 - Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (d. 1944)
1880 - Alexander Blok, Russian poet (d. 1921)
1885 - Michael Gonzi, archbishop of Malta and former politician (d. 1984)
1873 - W. C. Handy, American composer (d. 1958)
1889 - George Kaufman, American playwright (d. 1961)
1892 - Guo Moruo, Chinese writer (d. 1978)
1895 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)
1896 - Oswald Mosley, British fascist (d. 1980)
1896 - Lawrence Tibbett, American actor and singer (d. 1960)
1905 - Eddie Condon, American musician (d. 1973)
1907 - Burgess Meredith, American actor (d. 1997)
1916 - Daws Butler, voice actor (d. 1988)
1922 - Gene Amdahl, American computer scientist
1922 - José Saramago, Portuguese writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1924 - Mel Patton, American athlete
1928 - Clu Gulager, American actor
1930 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author
1938 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. 2002)
1942 - Willie Carson, Scottish jockey
1943 - Michael Cimino, American film director
1946 - Terrence McKenna, American writer, philosopher, and psychedelic researcher
1952 - Robin McKinley, fantasy writer
1952 - Shigeru Miyamoto, Japanese video game designer
1954 - Bruce Edwards, golf caddy (d. 2004)
1958 - Marg Helgenberger, American actress
1961 - Frank Bruno, British boxer
1962 - Josh Silver, American keyboardist and record producer (Type O Negative)
1964 - Dwight Gooden, American athlete
1964 - Diana Krall, Canadian singer
1964 - Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Italian actress
1967 - Lisa Bonet, American actress
1967 - Craig Arnold, American poet
1970 - Martha Plimpton, American actress
1971 - Alexander Popov, Russian swimmer
1971 - Waqar Younis, Pakistani cricketer
1973 - Brendan Laney, rugby player for Scotland
1974 - Paul Scholes, English footballer
1977 - Oksana Baiul, Ukrainian figure skater
1977 - Maggie Gyllenhaal, American actress
1978 - Gary Naysmith, Scottish footballer
1980 - Kayte Christensen, American basketball player
1981 - Allison Crowe, Canadian singer and songwriter
1981 - Caitlin Glass, American actress
1984 - Kimberly J. Brown, American actress

Deaths

1093 - Saint Margaret of Scotland, wife of King Malcolm Canmore
1240 - Edmund Rich, St. Edmund of Canterbury
1272 - King Henry III of England (b. 1207)
1328 - Prince Hisaaki, Japanese shogun (b. 1276)
1613 - Trajano Boccalini, Italian satirist (b. 1556)
1628 - Paolo Quagliati, Italian composer
1632 - King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (killed in battle) (b. 1594)
1695 - Pierre Nicole, French philosopher (b. 1625)
1724 - Jack Sheppard, English burglar (hanged) (b. 1702)
1745 - James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman and soldier (b. 1665)
1773 - John Hawkesworth, English writer
1779 - Pehr Kalm, Finnish explorer and naturalist (b. 1716)
1790 - Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
1797 - Frederick William II of Prussia (b. 1744)
1802 - André Michaux, French botanist (b. 1746)
1806 - Moses Cleaveland, founder of Cleveland, Ohio (b. 1754)
1836 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, Dutch mycologist (b. 1761)
1885 - Louis Riel, Canadian politician (b. 1844)
1907 - Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma (b. 1848)
1911 - Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (b. 1842)
1922 - Max Abraham, German physicist (b. 1875)
1939 - Pierce Butler, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1866)
1960 - Clark Gable, American actor (b. 1901)
1961 - Sam Rayburn, U.S. Speaker of the House (b. 1882)
1973 - Alan Watts, English writer (b. 1915)
1981 - William Holden, American actor (b. 1918)
1982 - Arthur Askey, British comedian (b. 1900)
1993 - Achille Zavatta, French clown (b. 1915)
1994 - Doris Speed, British actress (b. 1899)
1994 - Dino Valente, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (b. 1943)
1995 - Jack Finney, American author (b. 1911)
1999 - Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1928)
2000 - DJ Screw, American hiphop DJ (b. 1971)
2003 - Bettina Goislard, French relief worker (b. 1974)
2005 - Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
2005 - Robert Tisch, American football team owner (b. 1926)
2005 - Donald Watson, founder of the Vegan Society (b. 1910)

Holidays and observances

R.C. Saints - Saint Margaret of Scotland ; Gertrude the Great
Also see November 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Day for Tolerance
Iceland - Dagur íslenskrar tungu (Icelandic Language Day)
Thailand - Loy Krathong festival (2005)
USA - admission of Oklahoma, 46th state, 1907

External links

BBC: On This Day

November 15 - November 17 - October 16 - December 16 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: November 16

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links