October 16Birthdays & History

On this day: October 16 in history

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

1. 456Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.Europe
2. 690Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.Asia
3. 912Abd ar-Rahman III becomes the eighth Emir of Córdoba.Europe
4. 955King Otto I defeats a Slavic revolt in what is now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Europe
5. 1311The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time.Europe
6. 1384Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.Europe
7. 1590Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.Europe
8. 1736Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth.Europe
9. 1780The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing between 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.Latin America
10. 1780American Revolutionary War: The British-led Royalton raid is the last Native American raid on New England.North AmericaEurope
11. 1793War of the First Coalition: French victory at the Battle of Wattignies forces Austria to raise the siege of Maubeuge.Europe
12. 1793French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.Europe
13. 1805War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.Europe
14. 1813The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.Europe
15. 1817Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.Europe
16. 1817Simón Bolívar sentences Manuel Piar to death for challenging the racial-caste in Venezuela.Latin America
17. 1834Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.Europe
18. 1836Great Trek: Afrikaner voortrekkers repulse a Matabele attack, but lose their livestock.Africa
19. 1841Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.North America
20. 1843William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a three-dimensional system of complex numbers.Europe
21. 1846William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.North America
22. 1859Origins of the American Civil War: Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).North America
23. 1869Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.Europe
24. 1869The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".North America
25. 1875Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.North America
26. 1882The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.North America
27. 1891A diplomatic incident between the United States and Chile occurred after U.S. sailors were attacked in Valparaíso, nearly leading to war.North AmericaLatin America
28. 1905The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.Asia
29. 1909William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.North AmericaLatin America
30. 1916Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.North America
31. 1919Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.Europe
32. 1923Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.North America
33. 1934Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.Asia
34. 1939World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.Europe
35. 1940Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.Europe
36. 1943Holocaust in Italy: Raid on the Roman Ghetto.Europe
37. 1946Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.Europe
38. 1947The Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.AsiaEurope
39. 1949The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.Europe
40. 1951The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.Asia
41. 1953Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.Latin America
42. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).Latin AmericaNorth America
43. 1964China detonates its first nuclear weapon.Asia
44. 1964Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party, while Alexei Kosygin becomes the head of government.Europe
45. 1968Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.Latin America
46. 1968Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.Asia
47. 1968Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.North America
48. 1970Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act during the October Crisis.North America
49. 1973Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.AsiaNorth America
50. 1975Indonesian troops kill the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists, in Portuguese Timor.AsiaOceaniaEurope
51. 1975The Australian Coalition sparks a constitutional crisis when they vote to defer funding for the government's annual budget.Oceania
52. 1975Three-year-old Rahima Banu, from Bangladesh, is the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.Asia
53. 1978Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.Europe
54. 1984Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Africa
55. 1991George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.North America
56. 1995The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attend.North America
57. 1995The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.Europe
58. 1996Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.Latin America
59. 1998Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.Latin AmericaEurope
60. 1999The magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake strikes Southern CaliforniaNorth America
61. 2002The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.Middle East
62. 2013Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.Asia
63. 2017Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.Europe

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