WORLD HISTORY · 1916 日本語
Events of 1916Taisho 5 (Japan) · Year of the Dragon
What happened in 1916?
In 1916, Japan's Factory Act, the country's first labor law, took effect, and Terauchi Masatake became prime minister. In World War I, the Battles of Verdun and the Somme were fought, and the Sykes–Picot Agreement was concluded.
- Yoshino Sakuzo publishes essay on constitutional governmentAsia
- Battle of Verdun beginsEurope
- Easter Rising breaks out in IrelandEurope
- Sykes–Picot Agreement concludedMiddle East
- Battle of the Somme beginsEurope
- Factory Act takes effect in JapanAsia
- Terauchi Masatake cabinet takes officeAsia
- Prince Hirohito formally named crown princeAsia
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1916 at a glance
| Japanese era | Taisho 5 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Dragon |
| Age of people born in 1916 | Turn 110 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1915 (Taisho 4) ／ 1917 (Taisho 6) |
| Events | 87 |
| AP World History | Unit 7 (Global Conflict) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 7 |
Famous people born in 1916
Our birthday pages list 391 people born in 1916. Here are some of them.
- Beverly ClearyBorn April 12 · turns 110 this year · American children's author who created Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph…
- Olivia de HavillandBorn July 1 · turns 110 this year · Two-time Oscar-winning actress remembered as Melanie in Gone with the Wind.
- Roald DahlBorn September 13 · turns 110 this year · British author of beloved children's books including Charlie and the Chocolate…
- Walter CronkiteBorn November 4 · turns 110 this year · American broadcast journalist who anchored the CBS Evening News for nearly two…
- Kirk DouglasBorn December 9 · turns 110 this year · American film star and producer known for intense roles in Champion, Paths of G…
- Shirley JacksonBorn December 14 · turns 110 this year · American writer of "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House, a master of ee…
- Betty FurnessBorn January 3 · turns 110 this year
- Fred HaasBorn January 3 · turns 110 this year
- Lionel NewmanBorn January 4 · turns 110 this year
- Robert ParrishBorn January 4 · turns 110 this year
- Park Mok-wolBorn January 6 · turns 110 this year
- Babe PrattBorn January 7 · turns 110 this year
Show 28 more
- W. L. JeyasinghamBorn January 7 · turns 110 this year
- Don MetzBorn January 10 · turns 110 this year
- Eldzier CortorBorn January 10 · turns 110 this year
- Sune BergströmBorn January 10 · turns 110 this year
- Bernard BlierBorn January 11 · turns 110 this year
- Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of RievaulxBorn January 12 · turns 110 this year
- P. W. BothaBorn January 12 · turns 110 this year
- Ruth R. BeneritoBorn January 12 · turns 110 this year
- Philip LucockBorn January 16 · turns 110 this year
- Peter Frelinghuysen Jr.Born January 17 · turns 110 this year
- Pietro RavaBorn January 21 · turns 110 this year
- Zypora SpaismanBorn January 21 · turns 110 this year
- Bill DurnanBorn January 22 · turns 110 this year
- Harilal UpadhyayBorn January 22 · turns 110 this year
- Henri DutilleuxBorn January 22 · turns 110 this year
- Airey NeaveBorn January 23 · turns 110 this year
- David Douglas DuncanBorn January 23 · turns 110 this year
- Gene MakoBorn January 24 · turns 110 this year
- Rafael CalderaBorn January 24 · turns 110 this year
- Pop IvyBorn January 25 · turns 110 this year
- Roy MarkhamBorn January 29 · turns 110 this year
- Xuân DiệuBorn February 2 · turns 110 this year
- John CrankBorn February 6 · turns 110 this year
- Frank HydeBorn February 7 · turns 110 this year
- Tex HughsonBorn February 9 · turns 110 this year
- Joseph AliotoBorn February 12 · turns 110 this year
- Dorothy BlissBorn February 13 · turns 110 this year
- Edward PlattBorn February 14 · turns 110 this year
Events of 1916 (timeline · 87)
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On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.
World War I: Imperial Russia begins the Erzurum Offensive, leading to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire's Third Army.
Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann become the first German aviators to earn the Pour le Mérite, receive the German Empire's highest military award, for achieving eight aerial victories each over Allied aircraft.
In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
World War I: The British government passes the Military Service Act that introduces conscription in the United Kingdom.
The Canadian province of Manitoba grants women the right to vote and run for office in provincial elections (although still excluding women of Indigenous or Asian heritage), marking the first time women in Canada are granted voting rights.
The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada burns down with the loss of seven lives.
The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen's disease patients.
World War I: In the Battle of Verdun, a German unit captures Fort Douaumont, keystone of the French defences, without a fight.
Ocean liner SS Maloja strikes a mine near Dover and sinks with the loss of 155 lives.
In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.
World War I: A British force unsuccessfully attempts to relieve the siege of Kut (present-day Iraq) in the Battle of Dujaila.
Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.
Battle of Verdun: German attack captures Côte 265 at the west end of Mort-Homme but the French 75th Infantry Brigade manages to hold Côte 295 at the east end.
The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
Albert Einstein submits his paper, "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity", which establishes his general theory of relativity, to the journal Annalen der Physik.
Yuan Shikai abdicates as Emperor of China, restoring the Republic and returning to the Presidency.
World War I: During a mine warfare in high altitude on the Dolomites, the Italian troops conquer the Col di Lana held by the Austrian army.
Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.
World War I: The UK's 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
Easter Rising: After six days of fighting, Irish rebel leaders surrender to British forces in Dublin, bringing the Easter Rising to an end.
Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.
Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while calling upon the people to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Réunion island.
Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.
A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.
A British army defeats a force of the Darfur Sultanate under Sultan Ali Dinar due to its superior firepower in the battle of Beringia.
World War I: Battle of Jutland: The British Grand Fleet engages the High Seas Fleet in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive.
The United States Senate confirms the appointment of Louis Brandeis to the United States Supreme Court, making him the first Jew to be an Associate Justice.
The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
World War I: Russia opens the Brusilov Offensive with an artillery barrage of Austro-Hungarian lines in Galicia.
Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court; he is the first American Jew to hold such a position.
The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire is declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.
Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.
British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
World War I: In "the day Sussex died", elements of the Royal Sussex Regiment take heavy casualties in the Battle of the Boar's Head at Richebourg-l'Avoué in France.
World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
World War I: Battle of Delville Wood begins as an action within the Battle of the Somme, lasting until 3 September 1916.
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme.
Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a parade, killing ten and injuring 40.
The Black Tom explosion in New York Harbor kills several people and destroys some $20,000,000 worth of military goods.
World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
World War I: Battle of Romani: Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.
World War I: Romania signs a secret treaty with the Entente Powers. According to the treaty, Romania agreed to join the war on the Allied side.
World War I: The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war as one of the Allied nations.
Ernest Shackleton completes the rescue of all of his men stranded on Elephant Island in Antarctica.
World War I: Leefe Robinson destroys the German airship Schütte-Lanz SL 11 over Cuffley, north of London; this is the first German airship to be shot down on British soil.
US federal employees win the right to workers' compensation by Federal Employers Liability Act (39 Stat. 742; 5 U.S.C. 751).
In a bid to prove that women were capable of serving as military dispatch riders, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren arrive in Los Angeles, completing a 60-day, 5,500 mile cross-country trip on motorcycles.
The Quebec Bridge's central span collapses, killing 11 men. The bridge previously collapsed completely on August 29, 1907.
World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
World War I: During the East African Campaign, colonial forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of Charles Tombeur capture the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.
Iyasu V is proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zewditu.
Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I.
In Russia, Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer.
The Everett massacre takes place in Everett, Washington as political differences lead to a shoot-out between the Industrial Workers of the World organizers and local police.
The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of 5th November of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Boston Elevated Railway Company's streetcar No. 393 smashes through the warning gates of the open Summer Street drawbridge in Boston, Massachusetts, plunging into the frigid waters of Fort Point Channel, killing 46 people.
World War I: Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.
World War I: First Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
World War I: Mines from SM U-73 sink HMHS Britannic, the largest ship lost in the war.
An armed confrontation in Athens between the Kingdom of Greece and the Allied Powers, arising from a dispute over Greece's neutrality in World War I, followed by reprisals and riots against Greek supporters of the Allies marking the height of the National Schism.
World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when the second French offensive pushes the Germans back two or three kilometres, causing them to cease their attacks.
World War I: Battle of Magdhaba: Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1916 in the Japanese calendar?
1916 was Taisho 5 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1916?
1916 is the Year of the Dragon.
How old is someone born in 1916?
They turn 110 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1916?
In 1916, Japan's Factory Act, the country's first labor law, took effect, and Terauchi Masatake became prime minister. In World War I, the Battles of Verdun and the Somme were fought, and the Sykes–Picot Agreement was concluded.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.