April 16

April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). There are 259 days remaining.

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Events

• 1178 BC – A solar eclipse may mark the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War.
• 1071 – Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.
• 1746 – Second Jacobite Rebellion: The Battle of Culloden, the last battle of the Jacobite Uprising is fought, ultimately leading to the destruction of the Highland clans.
• 1799 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – 12 ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Only one ship is lost.
• 1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
• 1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
• 1917 – Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg) from exile in Finland.
• 1919 – Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.
• 1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo, in which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations between Berlin and Moscow, is signed.
• 1926 – Lolly Willows by Sylvia Townsend Warner is distributed as the first Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
• 1935 – Radio program Fibber McGee and Molly debuts.
• 1943 – Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
• 1945 – WWII: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
• 1945 – The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc (Colditz Castle).
• 1947 – Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
• 1947  – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• 1949 – Dave Garroway moves from radio to television to host the musical-variety show Garroway at Large.
• 1972 – Apollo program: Apollo 16 launches toward the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• 1972  – Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
• 1992 – The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
• 1996 – France Télécom introduces its Wanadoo Internet service.
• 1998 – One of the most serious urban tornadoes in history does significant damage to downtown Nashville, Tennessee (see Nashville Tornado of 1998).
• 2001 – First 3G voice call on Vodafone UK's 3G network.

Births

• 1319 – King John II of France (d. 1364)
• 1660 – Hans Sloane, British collector and physician (d. 1753)
• 1728 – Joseph Black, discoverer of carbon dioxide and magnesium (d. 1799)
• 1755 – Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, painter (d. 1842)
• 1823 – Ferdinand Eisenstein, mathematician (d. 1852)
• 1844 – Anatole France, French writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1924)
• 1867 – Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (d. 1912)
• 1871 – John Millington Synge, Irish writer (d. 1909)
• 1878 – Reginald Foster, English cricketer (d. 1914)
• 1886 – Ernst Thälmann, politician (d. 1944)
• 1889 – Charlie Chaplin, actor, writer and film producer (d. 1977)
• 1897 – Frederick William Winterbotham, code breaker (d. 1990)
• 1904 – Fifi D'Orsay, actress (d. 1983)
• 1912 – Garth Williams, American illustrator (d. 1996)
• 1913 – Les Tremayne, British-American actor (d. 2003)
• 1918 – Spike Milligan, comedian (d. 2002)
• 1919 – Merce Cunningham, dancer, choreographer
• 1921 – Peter Ustinov, writer, actor, and film director (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Kingsley Amis, author (d. 1995)
• 1924 – Henry Mancini, American composer (d. 1994)
• 1927 – Pope Benedict XVI
• 1927 – Edie Adams, American actress
• 1928 – Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football player (d. 2002)
• 1930 – Herbie Mann, American jazz flute player (d. 2003)
• 1933 – Ike Pappas, American reporter
• 1935 – Sarah Kirsch, lyricist
• 1935 – Bobby Vinton, American singer
• 1939 – Dusty Springfield, singer (d. 1999)
• 1940 – Queen Margaret II of Denmark
• 1946 – Margot Adler, American journalist
• 1947 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball star
• 1947 – Gerry Rafferty, British musician, songwriter
• 1949 – Melody Patterson, American actress
• 1952 – Bill Belichick, American football coach
• 1953 – J. Neil Schulman, science fiction writer, Libertarian activist
• 1954 – Ellen Barkin, American actress
• 1956 – Lise-Marie Morerod, skier
• 1960 – Rafael Benitez, Liverpool F.C. manager
• 1962 – Ian MacKaye, musician
• 1965 – Martin Lawrence, actor, comedian, and producer
• 1965 – Jon Cryer, American actor
• 1971 – Selena, singer (d. 1995)
• 1971 – Peter Billingsley, American actor
• 1976 – Lukas Haas, American actor

Deaths

• 69 – Otho, Roman Emperor (b. 32)
• 744 – al-Walid II ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad caliph
• 1198 – Duke Frederick I of Austria
• 1689 – Aphra Behn, dramatist (b. ca. 1640)
• 1788 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, naturalist (b. 1707)
• 1828 – Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter (b. 1746)
• 1859 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)
• 1914 – George William Hill, astronomer (b. 1838)
• 1915 – Nelson W. Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
• 1938 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
• 1946 – Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and Automobile designer
• 1958 – Rosalind Franklin, British chemist
• 1968 – Edna Ferber, American author (b. 1885)
• 1972 – Kawabata Yasunari, Japanese author (b. 1899)
• 1978 – Lucius Clay, American general
• 1985 – Scott Brady, American actor
• 1991 – David Lean, American film director (b. 1908)
• 1992 – Neville Brand, actor (b. 1920)
• 1994 – Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Iqbal Masih, Pakistani child slave
• 1997 – Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. 1951)
• 1998 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Michael Ritchie, American film director
• 2002 – Ruth Fertel, restaurateur
• 2002 – Robert Urich, American actor
• 2003 – Graham Stuart Thomas, horticultural artist, author, and garden designer
• 2005 – Kay Walsh, British actress (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

• Feast days:
  • Benedict Joseph Labre in the Roman Catholic Church
  • Saint Bernadette
  • Saint Paternus
  • Saint Fructuosus
  • Saint Turibius
  • Saints Martial, Urban, Eventius, Caecilian, Julia, and their companions martyrs of 304
  • Saint Drogo
• Birthday of the Queen celebrated in Greenland

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 15 – April 17 – March 16 – May 16 – listing of all days