October 16

October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in Leap years). There are 76 days remaining.

Events

• 456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Roman Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Roman Empire
• 1775 – Portland, Maine burned by the British
• 1781 – George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia
• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and wife of Louis XVI and hence Queen Consort of France, guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
• 1793 – Battle of Wattignies
• 1813 – The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig, on their way to an invasion of France to restore the House of Bourbon to the French throne.
• 1834 – Much of the ancient structures of the Palace of Westminster in London is burnt down
• 1859 – John Brown leads raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
• 1869 – Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, discovered.
• 1869 – England's first residential college for women, Girton College, is founded in Cambridge.
• 1882 – The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
• 1906 – The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.
• 1912 – Bulgarian pilots Radul Milkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne against Turkey.
• 1934 – Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong begin their Long March
• 1940 – Benjamin O. Davis Sr. named first African American general in the United States Army
• 1940 – Warsaw Ghetto established
• 1946 – Ten war criminals of the Second World War, condemned in the Nuremberg trials hanged.
• 1949 – Nikos Zakhiariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire to prevent the complete annihilation of Greece", effectively marking the end of the Greek Civil War.
• 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi
• 1964 – People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon
• 1968 – US-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked out of the USA's team for performing a raised-fist Black Power salute during the 200m dash medal ceremony.
• 1968 – Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
• 1970 – Anwar Sadat elected President of Egypt
• 1970 – Canada – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act imposing martial law.
• 1972 – Rainbow, a British television programme for children, debuts.
• 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1975 – The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
• 1978 – Karol Józef Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II
• 1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1991 – George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 19 in Luby's Cafeteria.
• 1992 – Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson files a 1.4 million USD lawsuit against French tabloids for running topless photos taken of her on the French Riviera, including some of Texas millionaire John Bryan suckling on her toes.
• 1995 – The Million Man March occurs in Washington, DC.
• 1996 – 84 are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 soccer fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Mateo Flores Stadium in Guatemala City.
• 2001 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: U.S. warplanes mistakenly bomb International Red Cross warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan .
• 2002 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
• 2003 – iTunes released for Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Births

• 1430 – James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
• 1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
• 1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese retainer, samurai, and daimyo (d. 1585)
• 1663 – Eugene of Savoy, Austrian general
• 1714 – Giovanni Arduino, geologist (d. 1795)
• 1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer
• 1815 – Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
• 1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese politician and prime minister (d. 1900)
• 1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
• 1861 – J. B. Bury, historian (d. 1927)
• 1878 – Maxey Long, American athlete
• 1886 – David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
• 1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright (d. 1953)
• 1890 – Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
• 1890 – Paul Strand, photographer
• 1898 – William O. Douglas, justice of the U.S. Supreme Court]] (d. 1980)
• 1900 – Primo Conti, painter
• 1908 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (d.1985)
• 1914 – Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan
• 1925 – Angela Lansbury, actress
• 1927 – Günter Grass, German novelist
• 1928 – Mary Daly, radical feminist philosopher
• 1931 – Charles Colson, American conspirator
• 1936 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer
• 1940 – Barry Corbin, actor
• 1940 – Dave DeBusschere, basketball player (d. 2003)
• 1941 – Tim McCarver, baseball player and commentator
• 1946 – Suzanne Somers, actress
• 1947 – Bob Weir, musician (The Grateful Dead)
• 1947 – Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
• 1952 – Boogie Mosson, musician (P Funk)
• 1952 – Ron Taylor, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1953 – Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazil footballer
• 1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
• 1959 – Gary Kemp, musician, actor
• 1962 – Flea, musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• 1965 – Steve Lamacq, journalist]] and disc jockey
• 1974 – Paul Kariya, hockey player
• 1977 – John Mayer, musician
• 1980 – Sue Bird, basketball player

Deaths

• 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
• 1591 – Pope Gregory XIV
• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
• 1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Savoy
• 1877 – Theodore Barrière, French dramatist
• 1888 – John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago
• 1946 – Hans Frank, German war criminal
• 1946 – Wilhelm Frick, German war criminal
• 1946 – Alfred Jodl, German military officer
• 1946 – Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer
• 1946 – Wilhelm Keitel, German military officer
• 1946 – Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician
• 1946 – Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist
• 1946 – Fritz Sauckel, German war criminal
• 1946 – Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austria]n Nazi leader
• 1946 – Julius Streicher, German propagandist
• 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan
• 1959 – George C. Marshall, general and United States Secretary of State
• 1972 – Hale Boggs, U.S. Congressman from Louisiana
• 1972 – Leo G. Carroll, actor
• 1973 – Gene Krupa, musician
• 1978 – Dan Dailey, actor
• 1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general
• 1983 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer
• 1986 – Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (b. 1921)
• 1989 – Cornel Wilde, actor
• 1990 – Art Blakey, jazz drummer
• 1992 – Shirley Booth, actress
• 1997 – James Michener, American writer
• 1998 – Jon Postel, American Internet pioneer
• 1999 – Jean Shepherd, writer and actor
• 2003 – Stu Hart, professional wrestler
• 2003 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer
• 2003 – Avni Arbas, Turkish artist

Holidays

• Bahá'í Faith – Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) – First day of the 12th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• United States – Boss's Day
• United States – National Feral Cat Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day