Wikipedia: May 16

May 16
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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 Count of Flanders crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
1527 - 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).
1866 - The United States 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 United States Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines
1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. Liberace is born.
1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
1929 - In Hollywood, California the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising ends.
1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn 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.
1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
1975 - India annexes Sikkim.
1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1988 - A report by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1988 - California v. Greenwood: In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.
1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

Births

1490 - Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia
1678 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (+ 1734)
1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician (+ 1799)
1882 - Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (+ 1954)
1891 - Richard Tauber, tenor (+ 1948)
1905 - Henry Fonda, actor (+ 1982)
1912 - Studs Terkel, writer
1913 - Woody Herman, musician, band leader (+ 1987)
1919 - Liberace, pianist (+ 1987)
1919 - Gisela Uhlen, actress
1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player, coach (+ 1989)
1929 - Friedrich Nowottny, journalist
1936 - Karl Lehmann, theologian
1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987
1953 - Pierce Brosnan, actor
1955 - Debra Winger, actress
1955 - Olga Korbut, gymnast
1958 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
1966 - Janet Jackson, singer
1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player
1973 - Tori Spelling, actress

Deaths

1703 - Charles Perrault, author
1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan
1944 - George Ade, author
1957 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
1984 - Andy Kaufman, comedian
1984 - Irwin Shaw, author
1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress
1990 - Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets
1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr, singer, actor, comedian

Holidays and Observances

In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator

See Also:

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December