May 16

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

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 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
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 influential 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 cinemas.
2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
2005 - Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console is shown at a press conference (E3).

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
1946 - 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)
1963 - Rosie Perez, actress
1965 - Krist Novoselic, musician, former bassist for Nirvana
1966 - Janet Jackson, singer
1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
1969 - Tucker Carlson, print and television commentator
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
The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Ubaldus
- Saint Honoré
- John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 - 1393)
- Adrew Bobola
- Simon Stock
Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
Adelaide Cup day - South Australia (2005)

External links

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