January 16

January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 349 days remaining (350 in leap years).

Events

• 27 BC – Octavian Caesar given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate.
• 929 – Emir Abd-ar-rahman III of Cordoba declares himself caliph, thereby establishing the Caliphate of Cordoba.
• 1362 – A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
• 1412 – Medici family made official bankers of the Papacy.
• 1456 – Painter Filippo Lippi elopes with Lucrezia Buti, a young nun from the convent of Saint Margherita.
• 1492 – The first grammar of a modern language, in Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella.
• 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.
• 1605 – The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid.
• 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 La Coruña.
• 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.
• 1917 – German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States
• 1919 – Temperance movement: The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, was passed by the Congress of the United States. It went into effect one year later, on January 16th, 1920.
• 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.
• 1969 – Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
• 1970 – Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
• 1970 – Curt Flood files suit, stating that major league baseball had violated the American anti-trust laws.
• 1977 – The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
• 1979 – The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
• 1986 – Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the Worldwide Church of God (the Church of God in Philadelphia Era) died.
• 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 – US serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men.
• 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.
• 2001 – Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
• 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 members of the 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.
• 2004 – Goatse.cx is shut down by the Christmas Island Registry
• 2005 – Adriana Iliescu gives birth at age 66 and becomes the oldest woman in the world to do so.

Births

• 1245 – Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (d. 1296)
• 1821 – John C. Breckenridge, Kentucky Senator 1861-1861, Confederate General (d. 1875)
• 1838 – Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
• 1874 – Robert W. Service, poet (d. 1958)
• 1881 – Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming, radio pioneer
• 1886 – John Hamilton, American actor (d. 1958)
• 1898 – Margaret Booth, film editor (d. 2002)
• 1901 – Frank Zamboni, inventor (d. 1988)
• 1901 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
• 1902 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)
• 1907 – Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)
• 1908 – Ethel Merman, American actress, singer (d. 1984)
• 1910 – Dizzy Dean, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1974)
• 1912 – Franz Tumler, Austrian narrator (d. 1998)
• 1917 – Buddy Lester, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1918 – Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Francesco Scavullo, photographer (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer
• 1924 – Katy Jurado, actress (d. 2002)
• 1928 – William Kennedy, author
• 1931 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany
• 1932 – Dian Fossey, zoologist (d. 1985)
• 1934 – Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
• 1935 – Udo Lattek, football coach
• 1935  – A.J. Foyt, automobile racer
• 1943 – Brian Ferneyhough, composer
• 1944 – Jim Stafford, singer
• 1944 – Ronnie Milsap, country music 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
• 1948  – Dalvanius, New Zealand entertainer (d. 2002)
• 1948  – Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
• 1950 – Debbie Allen, actress, dancer, choreographer
• 1950  – Caroline Munro, actress
• 1954 – Nancy Richards-Akers, novelist (d. 1999)
• 1958 – Anatoli Boukreev, Russian climber (d. 1997)
• 1959 – Sade, singer
• 1969 – Roy Jones Jr., boxer
• 1974 – Kate Moss, supermodel
• 1977 – Jeff Foster, professional basketball player
• 1979 – Aaliyah, singer (d. 2001)
• 1980 – Albert Pujols, baseball player
• 1980  – Michelle Wild, Hungarian pornstar

Deaths

• 1747 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)
• 1794 – Edward Gibbon, historian (b. 1737)
• 1806 – William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
• 1876 – Edmund H. Sears, composer
• 1891 – Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
• 1917 – George Dewey, admiral (b. 1837)
• 1936 – Albert Fish, serial killer (executed) (b. 1870)
• 1942 – Carole Lombard, actress (b. 1908)
• 1957 – Arturo Toscanini, conductor (b. 1867)
• 1962 – Ivan Meštrović, sculptor (b. 1883)
• 1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, actor and songwriter
• 1979 – Ted Cassidy, American actor
• 1981 – Bernard Lee, British actor
• 1982 – Red Smith, sports columnist
• 1983 – Meyer Lansky, gangster
• 1986 – Herbert W. Armstrong, evangelist, author, and publisher
• 1988 – Ballard Berkeley, British actor
• 1989 – Trey Wilson, American actor
• 1995 – Eric Mottram – poet, teacher, critic, and editor (b. 1924)
• 1998 – Emil Sitka, American actor
• 2001 – Laurent-Desire Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (assassinated; death officially confirmed on January 18)
• 2002 – Michael Bilandic, mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
• 2002  – Eddie Meduza, Swedish composer
• 2002  – Bobo Olson, American boxer
• 2002  – Ron Taylor, American actor (b. 1952)
• 2004 – Kalevi Sorsa, former Finnish prime minister (b. 1930)
• 2005 – Marjorie Williams, Washington Post columnist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair (b. 1958)

Holidays and observances

External links

• BBC: On This Day

January 15 – January 17 – December 16 – February 16 — listing of all days