On this day: 16 May
Events, births and deaths on 16 May. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Peter Lax
- Events · 2025 St. Louis tornado
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Mehmed VI
- Births · Robert Jay Lifton
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 19
- 1364(Julian date)Battle of Cocherel — 1364 battle
- 1811Battle of Albuera — 1811 battle during the Peninsular War
- 1834Battle of Asseiceira — 1834 battle of the Portuguese civil war
- 1863Battle of Champion Hill — 1863 battle of the American Civil War
- 187716 May 1877 crisis — constitutional crisis in the French Third Republic
- 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement — secret agreement signed in 1916 between France and the United Kingdom providing for the division of the Middle East at the end of the First World War
- 1918Civil war of Finland victory parade in Helsinki — 1918 military parade in Helsinki, Finland
- 1929Academy Awards — annual awards for cinematic achievements
- 19291st Academy Awards — 1929 awards ceremony
- 1943Operation Chastise — 1943 attack on German dams by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron
- 1947Taiwan Provincial Government — The government of Taiwan Province
- 1961May 16 coup — military coup in South Korea
- 1966Cultural Revolution — 1966–1976 Maoist sociopolitical movement in China
- 1968Ronan Point — 22-storey tower block in Canning Town in the London Borough of Newham, which partly collapsed on 16 May 1968
- 19721972 Svetlogorsk An-24 crash — aviation incident in the Soviet Union
- 1975Sikkim — state in northeastern India
- 20032003 Casablanca bombing — suicide attack
- 2010
- 20252025 St. Louis tornado — tornado in Missouri, United States
Births · 60
- 1718Maria Gaetana Agnesi — Italian mathematician and philanthropist (1718–1799)
- 1763Louis Nicolas Vauquelin — French professor of chemistry (1763-1829)
- 1788Friedrich Rückert — German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages (1788–1866)
- 1801William H. Seward — American lawyer and politician (1801-1872)
- 1819Johann Voldemar Jannsen — Estonian journalist and cultural activist (1819–1890)
- 1824Levi P. Morton — vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893 (1824–1920)
- 1831David Edward Hughes — Welsh-American scientist and musician (1831–1900)
- 1845Élie Metchnikoff — Russian-French immunologist, embryologist, biologist
- 1861H. H. Holmes — American con artist and serial killer (1861–1896)
- 1883Celâl Bayar — 3rd President of the Republic of Turkey (1883–1986)
- 1898Tamara de Lempicka — Polish painter (1894-1980)
- 1898Kenji Mizoguchi — Japanese film director and screenwriter (1898-1956)
- 1898Desanka Maksimović — Serbian writer (1898-1993)
- 1905Henry Fonda — American actor (1905–1982)
- 1909Margaret Sullavan — American actress
- 1910Olga Bergholz — Soviet poet
- 1912Studs Terkel — American author, historian and broadcaster (1912-2008)
- 1913Woody Herman — American jazz musician and bandleader (1913–1987)
- 1915Mario Monicelli — Italian film director and screenwriter (1915–2010)
- 1917Juan Rulfo — Mexican writer (1917–1986)
- 1919Liberace — American pianist (1919–1987)
- 1920Martine Carol — French actress (1920–1967)
- 1923Merton Miller — American economist (1923–2000)
- 1924Dawda Kairaba Jawara — 1st President of the Gambia (1924-2019)
- 1925Nílton Santos — Brazilian association football player (1925-2013)
Deaths · 60
- 290(Julian date)Emperor Wu of Jin — Emperor of the Jin Dynasty from 266 to 290
- 762(Julian date)Emperor Suzong of Tang — emperor of the Tang Dynasty
- 1182(Julian date)John Komnenos Vatatzes — Byzantine general
- 1265(Julian date)Simon Stock — English hermit
- 1375(Julian date)Liu Ji — Chinese philosopher and politician (1311–1375)
- 1412(Julian date)Gian Maria Visconti — second Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti (1388-1412)
- 1561Jan Tarnowski — Polish noble and writer
- 1620William Adams — English navigator who travelled to Japan
- 1657Andrzej Bobola — Polish Jesuit, saint of the Catholic Church
- 1669Pietro da Cortona — Italian painter and architect of the High Baroque (1596-1669)
- 1696Mariana of Austria — Queen consort of Spain (1634-1696)
- 1703Charles Perrault — French author (1628-1703)
- 1823Grace Elliott — British socialite, courtesan and memoirist; (1754-1823)
- 1830Joseph Fourier — French mathematician and physicist (1768 – 1830)
- 1861John Stevens Henslow — British botanist, priest and geologist (1796-1861)
- 1862Edward Gibbon Wakefield — UK criminal & New Zealand politician (1796-1862)
- 1882Reuben Chapman — American politician (1799–1882)
- 1890Mihkel Veske — Estonian poet and linguist (1843–1890)
- 1891Ion C. Brătianu — Romanian politician (1821–1891)
- 1910Henri-Edmond Cross — French Neo-Impressionist painter (1856–1910)
- 1913Louis Perrier — architect and politicien, member of the Swiss Federal Council (1849-1913)
- 1920Levi P. Morton — vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893 (1824–1920)
- 1926Mehmed VI — 36th and last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1918–1922)
- 1938Joseph Strauss — American structural engineer (1870–1938)
- 1943Alfred Hoche — German psychiatrist (1865-1943)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.