This Day in History for 16th May
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Historical Events
Results 1 - 100 of 243
955 - Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus elected pope
1165 - Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine
1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
1527 - Florence becomes a republic
1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
1547 - Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg
1568 - Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
1571 - Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 AM
1584 - 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal
1605 - Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V
1606 - 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
1648 - Battle at Zolty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir
1747 - Prince Willem V sworn in as admiral-general of Neth
1763 - James Boswell's 1st meeting with Samuel Johnson
1763 - Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
1770 - Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
1771 - The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
1792 - Denmark abolishes slave trade
1795 - Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state
1796 - Lombardije Republic forms
1803 - Peace of Amiens ends
1804 - Senate & Tribune declare Napolean leader of France
1811 - Peninsular War-Allies defeat French at Albuera
1815 - The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.
1817 - Mississippi River steamboat service begins
1822 - Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
1860 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln candidate
1861 - Confederate govt offers war volunteers $10 premium
1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
1862 - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile
1863 - Battle of Champion's Hill, MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
1864 - Atlanta Campaign-battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
1864 - Battle of Bermuda Hundred, VA
1864 - Last battles at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (6,666 casualties)
1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
1866 - Congress authorizes nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)
1866 - US Treasury Dept authorizes nickel
1868 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor," premieres in Prague
1868 - By one vote, Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson
1869 - Cincinnati Reds play their 1st baseball game, win 41-7
1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
1874 - 1st recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg Mass)
1875 - Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000
1877 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
1879 - Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing," premieres
1879 - Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
1881 - World's 1st elec tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1882 - 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40.00
1884 - 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40.25
1888 - CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
1891 - George A Hormel & Co introduce Spam
1894 - Fire in Boston destroys baseball stadium & 170 other buildings
1901 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Priory School" (BG)
1902 - 2 deaf-mutes face each other for 1st time as Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants, Reds win 5-3
1903 - 1st transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at SF (George Wymann)
1903 - George Wyman makes 1st motorcycle trip across the US
1910 - US Bureau of Mines forms
1911 - Remains of a neanderthal man found in Jersey UK
1911 - Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf
1914 - American Horseshoe Pitchers Assn organizes in Kansas City
1914 - Ewing Field, near Masonic Street, opens
1916 - 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8
1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1920 - Joan of Arc (Jean D'arc) canonized a saint
1920 - Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull
1921 - 47th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2
1922 - White Star Line Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage
1924 - 108°F (42°C) in Blitzen Oregon
1925 - 51st Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Flying Ebony wins in 2:07.6
1927 - NY Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
1927 - Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
1929 - 1st Academy Awards - "Wings," Emil Jennings & Janet Gaynor wins
1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1930 - 6th Walker Cup: US, 10-2
1931 - 57th Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on Twenty Grand wins 2:01.8
1932 - Yanks 4th straight shutout to equal record set by Cleveland & Boston
1933 - Cecil Travis becomes 1st player to get 5 hits in his 1st game
1936 - 1st British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
1936 - 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59
1938 - 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
1938 - 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta Ga)
1938 - In cricket Bradman scores 278 Aust v MCC, 349 mins, 35 fours 1 six
1939 - 1st AL night game, Phila Shribe Park (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)
1939 - Food stamps are 1st issued
1940 - Nazi's forbid non-professional auto workers
1940 - Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
1941 - 1st US/radio performance of Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
1941 - Germans made their last major air attack on Britain
1941 - Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi Ethiopia
1941 - Last great German air attack on Great Britain (Birmingham)
1941 - Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
1942 - 1st transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma
1943 - -17th] RAF bombs Möhne & Eder (Battle of Ruhr)
1943 - German troops destroy synagogue of Warsaw
1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends after 30 days of fighting
1944 - 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
1944 - Milt police attack gypsies
1945 - Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa
1946 - Musical "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC
Famous Birthdays
Results 1 - 100 of 224
1558 - Andreas of Austria, Bohemia cardinal/gov of Netherlands (1598-1600)
1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
1609 - Ferdinand, Austria, cardinal of Spain/governor of Netherlands
1641 - Dudley North, financier/economist
1659 - Campegius Vitringa, Dutch theologist
1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
1748 - Antonius van Alphen, apostolic vicar of De Bosch
1761 - John Opie, artist
1763 - Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin, chemist (discovered chromium, beryllium)
1782 - John Sell Cotman, water color artist
1788 - Friedrich Rückert, German Poet, Translator and Orientalist (d. 1866)
1801 - William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, bought Alaska at 2 ¢/acre (d. 1872)
1804 - Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, educator/founder (US kindergarten)
1806 - George C Cadwalader, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1879
1816 - Henry Hopkins Sibley, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1886
1819 - Daniel Ammen, Capt (Union Navy), died in 1898
1821 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (d. 1894)
1822 - Eduard Hille, Dutch composer/conductor
1824 - Edmund Kirby Smith, Fla, General (Confederate Army), died in 1893
1824 - Levi Parsons Morton, (R) 22nd US VP (1889-93)
1827 - Petrus J H Cuypers, architect (Amsterdam Museum, Central station)
1831 - David Edward Hughes, inventor (microphone, teleprinter)
1832 - Philip Danforth Armour, founder (Armour Foods)
1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1916)
1850 - Arthur Henry Mann, organist/composer
1857 - Juan Morel Campos, composer
1858 - Frank Lynes, composer
1858 - Hanus Trnecek, composer
1860 - Herman Webster Mudgett, American Serial Killer (d. 1896)
1866 - Ernest Watson Burgess, US sociologist (ecological school)
1878 - Taylor Holmes, Newark NJ, actor (Tobor the Great, Beware My Lovely)
1880 - Julian Tannen, NY, comedian (Great Moment)
1887 - Bull Montana, Vogliera Italy, actor (Brass Buttons, Victory)
1887 - J van Hoddis, writer
1889 - Joan Collette, Dutch (male) painter (New Church, Delft)
1892 - Coenraad B van Haeringen, linguist/etymologist (Dutch Dictionary)
1892 - Richard Tauber, [Ernst Seiffert], Austria/British, tenor/conductor
1893 - Jose Calvo Sotelo, Spanish minister of Finance (1925-30)
1893 - Paul Amadeus Pisk, composer
1897 - Walther Geiser, composer
1898 - August de Schrijver, Belgian politician/founder (CVP)
1898 - Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (d. 1980)
1902 - Jan Kiepura, Sosnowiec Poland, vocalist/actor (Her Wonderful Lie)
1904 - Hugh Plaxton, Canada, ice hockey player (Olympic-gold-1928)
1904 - Lily Pons, opera singer/actress (That Girl From Paris)
1905 - H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates, novelist (Feast for July, Love for Lydia)
1905 - Henry Fonda, Grand Is Nebraska, actor (Mr Roberts, On Golden Pond)
1906 - Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuela, writer/minister (Lanzas Coloradas)
1906 - Ernie McCormick, cricketer (Australian quickie of late 30's)
1906 - Nicholas Beriozoff, ballet master
1906 - Alfred Pellan, French Canadian painter (d. 1988)
1906 - Margret Rey, author and illustrator (d. 1996)
1907 - Robert Tisdall, Ireland, 400m hurdler (Olympic-gold-1932)
1908 - Hilary Preston, editor
1908 - Mohammed Roem, Indonesian foreign minister (Linggadjati)
1909 - Charles Wislon, principal (Glasgow University)
1909 - Margaret Sullavan, American actress (d. 1960)
1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
1911 - Margaret Sullavan, Norfolk Va, actress (Back Street)
1911 - Olaff J de Landell, [JB Wemmerslager van Sparwoude], writer
1912 - Studs Terkel, NYC, author/host (Stud's Place, Working)
1913 - Woody Herman, jazz clarinetist/bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds)
1914 - Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author
1916 - Adriana Caselotti, cartoon voice
1916 - Bernard Braden, broadcaster/actor (All Night Lone, Full Treatment)
1916 - Ephraim Katzir, biophysicist/president (Israel)
1916 - Irene Elizabeth Beatrice Ighodaro, doctor/social reformer
1917 - George Gaynes, Helsinki Finland, actor (Henry-Punky Brewster)
1917 - Geraint Jones, conductor/organist
1918 - Edward Thomas, historian/intelligence expert
1918 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (Pedro Paramo)
1918 - Kevin Skelton, Bishop (Lichfield)
1918 - Wilf Mannion, English former footballer (d. 2000)
1919 - Liberace, West Allis WI, pianist (Liberace Show, Evil Chandell-Batman)
1919 - Richard Mason, author
1919 - [Wladziu Valentino] Liberace, West Allis Wisconsin, pianist
1919 - Ramon Margalef, Spanish scientist (d. 2004)
1920 - Martine Carol, [Maryse Mopurer], Saint-Mande France, actress (Nana)
1921 - Harry Carey Jr, Saugus Calif, actor (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)
1921 - Robert Croften Brown, politician
1922 - Colin Cole, Principal King of Arms
1922 - Russell Wood, treasurer (Queen Elizabeth)
1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 2000)
1924 - Dawda Kairaba Jawara, president (Gambia, 1970-94)
1924 - Frank F Mankiewicz, NYC, columnist (Perfectly Clear)
1925 - Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian entertainer
1926 - Jan Zimmer, composer
1927 - John Walford, solicitor
1927 - Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer
1928 - Billy Martin, baseball 2nd baseman/manager (NY Yankees, Oakland A's)
1928 - Reginald Askew, dean (King's College London)
1929 - Adrienne Cecile Rich, Balt Md, feminist writer (Diamond Cutters)
1929 - John Conyers Jr, (Rep-D-MI, 1965- )
1929 - Osmo Uolevi Lindeman, composer
1929 - Claude Morin, French Canadian politician
1930 - Desmond Langley, gov (Bermuda)
1930 - Don Conicannon, govt minister
1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist/composer (Hangman's Songs)
1931 - Donald James Martino, Plainfield NJ, composer (Noturnno-Pulitzer 1974)
Famous Deaths
Results 1 - 100 of 100
583 - Saint Brendan, Irish navigator (b. 484)
942 - Saadiah Gaon, head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, dies
1265 - Saint Simon Stock, English saint (b. 1165)
1434 - Pieter Appelmans, Flemish architect/master builder, dies at about 60
1569 - Dirk Willems, Anabaptist Martyr
1620 - William Adams, English navigator (b. 1564)
1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
1669 - Pietro da Cortona, [Berrettini], painter/architect, dies
1669 - Reyer Anslo, writer/poet, dies at about 42
1691 - Jacob Leisler, becomes 1st American colonist hanged for treason
1703 - Charles Perrault, author/fairy tale writer, dies
1754 - Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, composer, dies at 76
1762 - Ernst Chreistian Hesse, composer, dies at 86
1768 - Cornelis Writer, fleet supervisor, dies at about 81
1777 - Button Gwinnet, US revolutionary leader, dies from wounds
1778 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat (b. 1718)
1782 - Daniuel Charles Solander, botanist, dies
1790 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (b. 1720)
1805 - Christian Brunings, hydraulic engineer, dies at 68
1819 - Alexander van Bylandt, military, dies at 75
1829 - William Congreve, English officer, dies at 56
1830 - Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician, dies
1835 - Felicia Dorothea Hemans, poet/hymn writer, dies
1847 - Kaspar Ett, German organist/composer, dies at 59
1862 - Lev A Ms, Russian nobleman/poet, dies at 40
1863 - Lloyd Tilghman, Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at 47
1864 - Lean Bear, Cheyenne chief, murdered
1880 - Karl August Krebs, composer, dies at 76
1891 - Ion Brătianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
1892 - John Banvard, painted worlds largest painting (3 mile canvas), dies
1892 - Theodoor J Canneel, Flemish painter, dies at 74
1903 - Eduard Rappoldi, composer, dies at 72
1904 - N I Bobrikov, Russian governor-general in Finland, dies
1910 - Henri E Cross [Delacroix], French painter, dies at 53
1913 - Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1849)
1918 - Eusapia Palladino, Napolitan, dies at 64
1920 - Levi P. Morton, United States Vice President under Benjamin Harrision (b. 1824)
1926 - Mehmed VI Vahideddin (Mohammed Osman), last sultan of Turkey, dies
1928 - Edmund William Grosse, poet/author, dies
1929 - Lilli Lehmann, soprano, dies
1932 - Ki Imukai, premier of Japan (1931-32), murdered
1932 - William Pember Reeves, politician/poet, dies
1938 - Stephen Fairbairn, oarsman/coach, dies
1942 - Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski, anthropologist, dies
1943 - Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist (b. 1865)
1944 - George Ade, US novelist/playwright (Counsel Widow), dies at 78
1944 - Leone Sinigaglia, composer, dies at 75
1944 - Max Brand, [Frederick Schiller Faust], western author, dies
1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1861)
1949 - William Newzam Prior Nicholson, painter/engraver, dies
1952 - Alec Hearne, cricketer (scored 9 in Test for Eng v S Afr 1892), dies
1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
1954 - Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (Vienna State Opera), dies at 61
1954 - Werner Bischof, Swiss photographer, dies accidentally at 38
1955 - James Agee, US critic/writer (Death in Family), dies in NY
1956 - H. B. Reese, American founder of Reese's (b. 1876)
1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
1958 - Jeroom Verten [Jozef F Vermetten], Flemish playwright, dies at 49
1959 - Joe Cook, Stage comedian, dies at 69
1959 - Elisha Scott, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1894)
1961 - George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (b. 1881)
1966 - Randolph Turpin, boxer, shot dead in his home
1969 - Johnny Jordan, cameraman (You Only Live Twice), dies at 44
1972 - Maxime Dumoulin, composer, dies at 79
1975 - Michael X, (Abdul Malik), hanged in Trinidad, for murder
1979 - Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader & civil rights pioneer, dies at 90
1981 - Ernie Freeman, American pianist and arranger (b. 1922)
1983 - Carel Brons, composer, dies at 52
1984 - Andy Kaufman, comedian (Latka-Taxi), dies of cancer at 35
1984 - Irwin Shaw, US writer (Rich Man, Poor Man), dies at 71
1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz), dies at 82
1988 - Carrie Baxter, Best Bodybuilder (1983-85), dies in car crash at 42
1988 - Kay Baxter, Best Bodybuilder in the World (1983-85), dies at 42
1988 - Louise Wood, director of Girl Scouts of USA (1961-72), dies at 78
1988 - Charles Keeping, English illustrator (b. 1924)
1989 - Hassan Khaled, sheik of Lebanon, murdered
1990 - Dag Drollet, Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend killed by brother Christian
1990 - Jim Henson, puppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show), dies at 53
1990 - Sammy Davis Jr, singer/actor (Golden Boy), dies at 64
1991 - Prudence Nesbitt, British actress/TV producer, dies
1992 - Marisa Mell, actress (Hostages), dies of cancer at 53
1992 - Chalino Sanchez, Mexican musician (b, 1960)
1993 - Marv Johnson, US soul singer (You Got What it Takes), dies at 54
1994 - Alain Cuny, actor (Lovers, Emanuelle, Camille Claudel), dies
1994 - Barbara Jean Jones, fictional character on General Hospital, dies at 7
1994 - Phani Majumdar, film director, dies at 82
1994 - Vasek Simek, Czech/US actor (Green Card, Mistress), dies at 66
1995 - Lola Flores, singer/actress (Kuma Ching, Faraona), dies at 70
1995 - Ragnhild Marie Hatton, historian, dies at 82
1996 - Edward McInnes, German scholar, dies at 60
1996 - Mike Jeremy Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) commits suicide at 57
1996 - Pierre Debizet, resistance fighter/special agent, dies at 72
1997 - Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (b. 1903)
2000 - Bodacious the Bull Famous rodeo bull (b. 1988)
2001 - Brian Pendleton, English musician (The Pretty Things) (b. 1944)
2002 - Alec Campbell, the last surviving ANZAC (b. 1899)
2002 - Big Dick Dudley, American professional wrestler (b. 1968)
2003 - Mark McCormack, American businessman (b. 1930)

