Historical Events on May 16

Events 1 - 200 of 243

• 955 Octavian, son of Duke Alberic II of Spoleto, elected Pope John XII
• 1165 Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine
• 1204 Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople

• 1220 English King Henry III lays the foundation stone for a new Lady Chapel, start of the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, in London
• 1527 Florence becomes a republic

• 1547 Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg

• 1584 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond, Blokker, and St Pietersdal, in the Dutch Republic
• 1605 Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI, becomes Pope Paul V
• 1606 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
• 1648 Battle of Zhovti Vody: Ukrainian Cossacks, commanded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Crimean Tatars led by Tuhaj Bej, defeat Polish King John II Casimir, after 18 days of battle
• 1747 William V Prince of Orange sworn in as Admiral-general of Netherlands

• 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.
• 1777 Button Gwinnett, Georgia delegate to US Continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, wounded in a duel with political rival Lachlan McIntosh
• 1792 Denmark abolishes slave trade
• 1795 Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassal state
• 1796 Lombardian Republic forms
• 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: Turks capture the Greek town of Souli

• 1861 Confederate government offers war volunteers $10 premium
• 1861 Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
• 1861 Major General Twiggs surrenders to Confederate Army in San Antonio, Texas (US Civil War)
• 1862 Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile
• 1863 Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi - bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
• 1864 Atlanta Campaign: Battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
• 1864 Battle of Bermuda Hundred, Virginia
• 1864 Last battles at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (6,666 casualties)
• 1866 US Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)

• 1872 Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
• 1874 1st recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg, Massachusetts)
• 1875 Eathquake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000

• 1877 May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
• 1879 Antonín Dvořák's "Slavonic Dances" premieres
• 1879 Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
• 1881 World's 1st electric tram enters service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
• 1884 Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo receives patent for 1st espresso machine
• 1888 CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1891 George A. Hormel & Co establishes Geo. A.Hormel & Co. (Hormel Foods Corporation) in Austin, Minnesota
• 1894 Fire in Boston destroys the South End Grounds baseball stadium and 200 other buildings
• 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 began in San Francisco by George A. Wyman (arrives in New York July 6)
• 1907 In the Pact of Cartagena, Great Britain, France, and Spain agree to maintain the status quo in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of Europe and Africa
• 1910 US Bureau of Mines forms
• 1911 Remains of a neanderthal man found on Jersey, Channel Islands

• 1914 American Horseshoe Pitchers Association organizes in Kansas City
• 1914 Ewing Field baseball park opens near Masonic Street, San Francisco. Relocated a year later.
• 1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

• 1920 Spanish matador Joselito (José Gómez Ortega) is fatally gored in his last bullfight, by "Bailador" the bull, in Talavera de la Reina, Spain
• 1922 White Star Liner Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage, from Southampton, England to New York City
• 1924 108°F (42°C) in Blitzen, Oregon
• 1927 NY Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
• 1927 US Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax

• 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 flies to France
• 1938 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
• 1938 38 die in a fire at Terminal Hotel Atlanta, Georgia

• 1939 1st AL night game, Philadelphia Shribe Park (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)
• 1939 US food stamps are 1st issued in Rochester, New York

• 1940 Nazis forbid non-professional auto workers
• 1941 First US radio performance of Robert Russell Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
• 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 and Dutch prisoners to South Burma

• 1945 Violent battles around Sugar Loaf and Half Moon, Okinawa

• 1948 CBS news correspondent George Polk's body is found in Greece

• 1948 Egyptians enter Gaza

• 1948 Israel issues its 1st postage stamps
• 1951 The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (New York International Airport) and Heathrow Airport (London), operated by El Al Israel Airlines
• 1953 Philadelphia Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a lead-off single, then retires next 27 in a row in 3-0 win over Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee

• 1954 WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast
• 1955 King Baudouin of Belgium visits Congo
• 1955 Ray Lindwall scores his 2nd Test Cricket century 118 at Bridgetown

• 1956 Egypt recognizes People's Republic of China
• 1956 England cricket spin bowler Jim Laker takes 10-88 for Surrey v Australia in tour match at The Oval, London
• 1956 Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Monte Bello Is Australia
• 1956 Kraft Theater presents an act from "Profiles in Courage"

• 1957 US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton, Connecticut
• 1958 Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mexico
• 1958 Major Irwin, USAF, flies a Lockheed Starfight F-104 A to a record 1,404.18 MPH
• 1959 WTOM-TV channel 4 in Cheboygan, Michigan begins broadcasting (NBC)
• 1960 Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US
• 1960 Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California

• 1963 Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in Faith 7, ends US Project Mercury
• 1964 USSR performs nuclear Test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1964 Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ
• 1965 18th Cannes Film Festival: "The Knack...and How to Get It" directed by Richard Lester wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film

• 1965 Bomb destroys USAF base Bien Hoa, South Vietnam
• 1965 The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand
• 1965 WNJU TV channel 47 in NY-Linden, NY (TEL) begins broadcasting
• 1966 Capitol Records releases the Beach Boys 11th studio album "Pet Sounds"; the groundbreaking work includes hit singles "Sloop John B", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", and "God Only Knows"
• 1966 National Welfare Rights Organization organizes
• 1966 Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party releases the "May 16 Notification", Chairman Mao's official justification for the Cultural Revolution
• 1966 Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating
• 1967 Philalphia voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium
• 1968 Earthquake kills 47 in Japan
• 1968 In the Stormont (Northern Ireland Parliament) by-election in the city of Londonderry (Derry) the Ulster Unionists retain the seat

• 1969 Students occupies Magden House Amsterdam

• 1969 US nuclear sub Guitarro sinks off San Francisco
• 1969 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
• 1969 Venera 5 lands on Venus, returns data on atmosphere

• 1971 Bulgaria adopts its constitution
• 1971 US 1st class postage now costs 8 cents (was 6 cents)
• 1972 Phillies' Greg Luzinski's 500' HR hits Liberty Bell monument in Philadelphia Veteran's Stadium
• 1973 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Dave Soutar

• 1974 USSR performs nuclear Test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1975 India annexes Principality of Sikkim
• 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan becomes 1st woman to reach summit of Mt Everest

• 1975 Wings release "Listen to What the Man Said" in UK

• 1977 5 die as NY Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am building in NYC
• 1977 Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
• 1977 TV drama “Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn”, starring Leigh McCloskey, follow up to "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway" premieres on US network NBC, focusing on what happened to him after Dawn left L.A. to return to her hometown
• 1979 MLB National League approves sale of Houston Astros by Ford Motors to John J McMullen for $19M

• 1980 Former Buggles members Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn replace Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes

• 1981 Houston shortstop Craig Reynolds hits 3 triples as Astros beat Chicago Cubs, 6-1
• 1982 Columbia moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating in preparation for STS-4
• 1982 Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Rep
• 1982 Stanley Cup Final, Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC: 3-peat for NY Islanders; sweep Vancouver Canucks in 4 games with a 3-1 Game 4 win

• 1983 Lebanese parliament accepts peace accord with Israel

• 1983 Sudan People's Liberation Army and Movement rebels against the Sudanese government

• 1984 Guinea-Bissau adopts constitution
• 1984 Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets to keep Twins in Minnesota Twins sell 51,863 tickets but only 6,346 fans show up for the game

• 1984 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site

• 1986 Action film "Top Gun" starring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, directed by Tony Scott, is released across the US

• 1986 Joaquín Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Rep parliamentary election

• 1986 The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.
• 1987 "Bobro 400", a barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage sets sail from NYC, beginning an unsuccessful 8 week search for a dumping site

• 1988 US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
• 1988 US Surgeon General C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin

• 1990 Dominican Republic President Joaquín Ricardo Balaguer re-elected

• 1991 Daily Planet fires cub reporter Jimmy Olson (fictional Superman character)

• 1992 "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #35
• 1992 America's Cup: America Team USA defeats Il Moro di Venezia 4-1 to win in San Diego
• 1992 Polls show Perot, Bush & Clinton could be in a deadlock
• 1992 US space shuttle STS-49 lands (maiden voyage of Endeavour)
• 1993 Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull
• 1993 Judd Nelson pleads no contest to kicking Kim Evans in the head
• 1993 Suleyman Demirel elected President of Turkey
• 1994 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Orlando, Florida on WTKS 104.1 FM
• 1994 Jacqueline Onassis admitted to hospital for cancer treatment
• 1994 Joaquín Balaguer aged 86 elected President of Dominican Republic
• 1994 Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes is sentenced to 21 years in prison for the murder of musician Euronymous and for the arson of three churches

• 1995 Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara & charged him with Nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier

• 1997 Atlanta Braves beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0 in 13 innings
• 1997 Final agreement creating Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) signed by project participants, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Chevron Corp and others

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