May 16Birthdays & History

On this day: May 16 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 946Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.Asia
2. 999Rebel Turkish warlord Mahmud of Ghazni defeats Samanid Emir Mansur II in battle at Merv.Middle East
3. 1003Patrician John II Crescentius, who has seized control of Rome, selects Pope John XVII as the new pope.Europe
4. 1204Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.EuropeMiddle East
5. 1364Hundred Years' War: Bertrand du Guesclin and a French army defeat the Anglo-Navarrese army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel.Europe
6. 1426Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes King of Ava.Asia
7. 1527The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.Europe
8. 1532Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.Europe
9. 1568Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.Europe
10. 1584Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.Latin AmericaEuropeAsia
11. 1739The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.Europe
12. 1770The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, Dauphin de France, who later becomes king of France.Europe
13. 1771The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.North America
14. 1777Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh fatally wounds Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in a duel in Savannah, Georgia.North America
15. 1811Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom fight an inconclusive battle against the French at the Albuera. It is, in proportion to the numbers involved, the bloodiest battle of the war.Europe
16. 1812Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.EuropeMiddle East
17. 1822Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.EuropeMiddle East
18. 1832Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.Latin America
19. 1834The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.Europe
20. 1842The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.North America
21. 1863American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, the decisive Union victory by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Champion Hill drives the Confederate army under John C. Pemberton back towards Vicksburg, Mississippi.North America
22. 1866The United States Congress establishes the nickel.North America
23. 1868The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.North America
24. 1874A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.North America
25. 1877The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.Europe
26. 1888Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.North America
27. 1891The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).Europe
28. 1916The 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.EuropeMiddle East
29. 1918The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.North America
30. 1918The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.Europe
31. 1919A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.North AmericaEurope
32. 1920In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.Europe
33. 1925The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.Europe
34. 1929In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.North America
35. 1943Operation Chastise is undertaken by RAF Bomber Command with specially equipped Avro Lancasters to destroy the Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley.Europe
36. 1943The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.Europe
37. 1945Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.EuropeMiddle East
38. 1951The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.North AmericaEuropeMiddle East
39. 1954Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.AsiaEurope
40. 1959The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.Europe
41. 1960Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.North America
42. 1961Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.Asia
43. 1966The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.Asia
44. 1969Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.Europe
45. 1972An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.Europe
46. 1974Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.Europe
47. 1975Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.Asia
48. 1988A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.North America
49. 1991Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.EuropeNorth America
50. 1997Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.Africa
51. 2003In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.Africa
52. 2005Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.Middle East
53. 2011STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.World
54. 2014Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.Africa
55. 2025A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.North AmericaEurope
56. 2025A catastrophic EF3 tornado kills five people and causes over $1 billion in damages in St. Louis, MO.North America

Source: Wikipedia "May 16" / CC BY-SA 4.0