16 January

Events

• 1362 - One of the North Sea's greatest stormtides ever destroys the island of Strand with the city of Rungholt.
• 1547 - Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.
• 1572 - The Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
• 1581 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
• 1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
• 1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.
• 1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• 1795 - French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.
• 1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna.
• 1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• 1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed.
• 1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounced its claims to the Samoan islands.
• 1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
• 1919 - The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States.
• 1938 - Benny Goodman plays Carnegie Hall.
• 1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
• 1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
• 1957 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool.
• 1961 - Mickey Mantle becomes the highest paid baseball player by signing a $75,000 contract.
• 1964 - The first musical version of Hello, Dolly! opens at New York City's St. James Theatre.
• 1966 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City.
• 1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
• 1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
• 1988 - Sports commentator Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder is fired by CBS a day after publicly stating that African Americans had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins.
• 1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City that ends a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
• 1997 - Ennis Cosby, the only son of actor Bill Cosby, is killed by a gunman while changing a flat tire in Los Angeles, California.
• 1998 - NASA announces that John Glenn will return to space when Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October 1998.
• 2000 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
• 2002 - A student shoots 6 people at the Appalachian School of Law. Three of those shot die.
• 2002 - John Ashcroft announces that so-called "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh would be tried in the United States.
• 2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining Taliban.
• 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. Columbia disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry.

Births

• 1838 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist, (d. 1917)
• 1874 - Robert Service, poet, (d. 1958)
• 1881 - Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming, radio pioneer
• 1898 - Margaret Booth, film editor, (d. 2002)
• 1909 - Ethel Merman, singer, actress, (d. 1984)
• 1910 - Dizzy Dean, Baseball Hall of Famer, (d. 1974)
• 1918 - Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer, (d. 1996)
• 1912 - Franz Tumler, Austrian narrator, (d. 1998)
• 1924 - Katy Jurado, actress, (d. 2002)
• 1928 - William Kennedy, author
• 1931 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany
• 1932 - Dian Fossey, zoologist, (d. 1985)
• 1935 - Udo Lattek, football coach
• 1935 - A.J. Foyt, automobile racer
• 1943 - Brian Ferneyhough, composer
• 1944 - Jim Stafford, singer
• 1946 - Kabir Bedi, actor
• 1946 - Ronnie Milsap, singer
• 1946 - Katia Ricciarelli, opera singer
• 1947 - Laura Schlessinger, psychiatrist, radio talk show host
• 1948 - John Carpenter, director
• 1950 - Debbie Allen, actress, dancer, choreographer
• 1959 - Sade, singer
• 1969 - Roy Jones Jr., boxer
• 1974 - Kate Moss, supermodel
• 1979 - Aaliyah, singer, (d. 2001)

Deaths

• 1794 - Edward Gibbon, historian, (b. 1737)
• 1806 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, (b. 1759)
• 1876 - Edmund H. Sears, composer
• 1917 - George Dewey, Admiral, (b. 1837)
• 1936 - Albert Fish, serial killer (electrocuted), (b. 1870)
• 1942 - Carole Lombard, actress, (b. 1908)
• 1957 - Arturo Toscanini, conductor, (b. 1867)
• 1962 - Ivan Meštrović, sculptor (b. 1883)
• 1982 - Red Smith, sports columnist
• 1995 - Eric Mottram - poet, teacher, critic, editor, (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances

January 15 - January 17 - December 16 - February 16 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By