May 16th

Events

• 1204 - Baldwin Count of Flanders crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
• 1527 - Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
• 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
• 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.
• 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year old Louis-Auguste (who later becomes king of France).
• 1866 - The United States Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
• 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
• 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
• 1910 - The United States Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines
• 1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. Liberace is born.
• 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
• 1929 - In Hollywood, California the first Academy Awards are handed out.
• 1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising ends.
• 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn on German dams.
• 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
• 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
• 1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
• 1975 - India annexes Sikkim.
• 1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1988 - A report by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
• 1988 - California v. Greenwood: In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.
• 1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

Births

• 1490 - Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia
• 1678 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (+ 1734)
• 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician (+ 1799)
• 1882 - Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (+ 1954)
• 1891 - Richard Tauber, tenor (+ 1948)
• 1905 - Henry Fonda, actor (+ 1982)
• 1912 - Studs Terkel, writer
• 1913 - Woody Herman, musician, band leader (+ 1987)
• 1919 - Liberace, pianist (+ 1987)
• 1919 - Gisela Uhlen, actress
• 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player, coach (+ 1989)
• 1929 - Friedrich Nowottny, journalist
• 1936 - Karl Lehmann, theologian
• 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987
• 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, actor
• 1955 - Debra Winger, actress
• 1955 - Olga Korbut, gymnast
• 1958 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
• 1966 - Janet Jackson, singer
• 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player
• 1973 - Tori Spelling, actress

Deaths

• 1703 - Charles Perrault, author
• 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan
• 1944 - George Ade, author
• 1957 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
• 1984 - Andy Kaufman, comedian
• 1984 - Irwin Shaw, author
• 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress
• 1990 - Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets
• 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor, comedian

Holidays and Observances

• In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator

May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 -- listing of all days

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

Referenced By