May 16

May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.

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Events

• 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
• 1527 – The 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.
• 1777 – Patriot general Lachlan McIntosh shoots Button Gwinnett during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
• 1866 – The U.S. 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 U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
• 1918 – The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
• 1919 – US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
• 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
• 1929 – In Hollywood, California the first Academy Awards are handed out.
• 1938 – A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 35 people.
• 1943 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
• 1943  – World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron 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.
• 1966 – Two extremely influencial rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
• 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
• 1975 – India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
• 1975  – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1988 – A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
• 1992 – STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
• 2002 – Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in theaters.

Births

• 1490 – Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia (d. 1568)
• 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
• 1678 – Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (d. 1734)
• 1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician (d. 1799)
• 1827 – Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect
• 1882 – Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1954)
• 1891 – Richard Tauber, tenor (d. 1948)
• 1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1912 – Studs Terkel, writer
• 1913 – Woody Herman, American musician, band leader (d. 1987)
• 1919 – Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
• 1919  – Gisela Uhlen, actress
• 1928 – Billy Martin, baseball player, coach (d. 1989)
• 1929 – Friedrich Nowottny, journalist
• 1931 – Natwar Singh, Indian politician
• 1936 – Karl Lehmann, German cardinal and theologian
• 1936  – Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
• 1948  – Robert Fripp, guitarist
• 1950 – J. Georg Bednorz, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987
• 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
• 1955 – Olga Korbut, gymnast
• 1955  – Jack Morris, baseball pitcher
• 1955  – Hazel O'Connor, British singer
• 1955  – Debra Winger, actress
• 1958 – Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
• 1965 – Krist Novoselic, musician, former bassist for Nirvana
• 1966 – Janet Jackson, singer
• 1966  – Thurman Thomas, American football player
• 1969 – Steve Lewis, American athlete
• 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player
• 1973 – Tori Spelling, actress

Deaths

• 1620 – William Adams, English navigator and Japanese samurai (b.1564)
• 1703 – Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
• 1782 – Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
• 1891 – Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
• 1926 – Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan (b. 1861)
• 1944 – George Ade, author (b. 1866)
• 1953 – Django Reinhardt, jazz musician (b. 1910)
• 1955 – James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
• 1957 – Eliot Ness, federal agent (b. 1903)
• 1984 – Andy Kaufman, comedian (b. 1949)
• 1984  – Irwin Shaw, author (b. 1913)
• 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, actress (b. 1902)
• 1988 – Charles Keeping, illustrator (b. 1924)
• 1990 – Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets (b. 1936)
• 1990  – Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor, comedian (b. 1925)
• 2003 – Mark McCormack, sports business pioneer, founder of IMG

Holidays and observances

• In the Irish Calendar – Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
• Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
• Adelaide Cup day – South Australia (2005)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 15 – May 17 – April 16 – June 16 — listing of all days