November 16
is the 320th day of the year (321st in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining.
*
534 - A second and final revision of the
Codex Justinianus is published.
*
1384 -
Jadwiga is crowned
King of Poland, although she is a woman.
*
1532 -
Francisco Pizarro and his men capture
Inca Emperor
Atahualpa.
*
1632 - The
Battle of Lützen, where
king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden is killed.
*
1776 -
American Revolutionary War:
Hessian mercenaries capture
Fort Washington from the
Patriots.
* 1776 -
American Revolution: The
United Provinces (Low Countries) recognize the independence of the
United States, the first country in the world to do so. [This is a controversial statement, because other sources say that the
Kingdom of Morocco was the first to extent diplomatic recognition to the new United States.]
*
1821 -
American Old West:
Missouri trader
William Becknell arrives in
Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the
Santa Fe Trail.
*
1849 - A
Russian court sentences
Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his execution is canceled at the last minute.
*
1857 -
Second relief of Lucknow. The most
Victoria Crosses won in a single day (24).
*
1863 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Campbell's Station near
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack
Union forces.
*
1885 -
Canadian rebel leader of the
Métis and "Father of
Manitoba",
Louis Riel is executed for
treason.
*
1896 - First transmission of electricity between a power plant and a city was sent from the
Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant to industries in
Buffalo, New York.
*
1904 -
John Ambrose Fleming invents the
vacuum tube.
*
1906 -
Opera star
Enrico Caruso is charged with an
indecent act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house of
New York's
Central Park Zoo.
*
1907 -
Indian Territory and
Oklahoma Territory become
Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th
U.S. state.
* 1907 -
Cunard Line's
RMS Mauretania sister ship of
RMS Lusitania, sets sail on her maiden voyage from
Liverpool, England to
New York City.
*
1914 - The
Federal Reserve Bank of the
United States officially opens.
*
1920 -
Qantas, the
national airline of
Australia is registered as an aerial carrier under the name of "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited". Only
KLM (now part of
Air France-KLM) is older.
*
1933 - The
United States and the
Soviet Union establish formal
diplomatic relations.
*
1940 -
World War II: In response to
Germany's leveling of
Coventry, England two days before, the
Royal Air Force bombs
Hamburg.
* 1940 -
Holocaust: In occupied
Poland, German
Nazis close off the
Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
* 1940 -
New York City's
Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a
Manhattan office building used by
Consolidated Edison.
*
1943 - World War II:
American bombers strike a
hydro-electric power facility and
heavy water factory in
German-controlled
Vermork,
Norway.
*
1945 -
Cold War: The
United States Army secretly admits 88
German scientists & engineers to help in the production of
rocket technology.
*
1957 -
Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden.
*
1959 - The
Broadway musical,
The Sound of Music, starring
Mary Martin and
Theodore Bikel opens at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.
*
1965 -
Venera program: The
Soviet Union launches the
Venera 3 space probe toward
Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another
planet.
*
1973 -
Skylab program:
NASA launches
Skylab 4 with a crew of three
astronauts from
Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
* 1973 -
US President Richard Nixon signs the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the
Alaska Pipeline.
*
1977 -
Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in theaters.
*
1979 - The first line of
Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in
Bucharest,
Romania.
*
1981 -
Luke and Laura marry on the U.S.
soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in
daytime television history.
*
1988 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that the
Estonia was "sovereign" but stopped short of declaring independence.
* 1988 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in
Pakistan choose populist candidate
Benazir Bhutto to be
Prime Minister.
*
1989 - A
death squad composed of
El Salvadoran army troops kill six
Jesuit priests and two others at
Jose Simeon Canas University.
*
1996 -
Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
* 1996 - The $127.5 million
Jumbotron at
Buffalo's
HSBC Arena falls to the ice hours before a hockey game; no one is injured.
*
1997 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the
People's Republic of China releases
Wei Jingsheng, a pro-
democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
*
2000 -
Bill Clinton becomes the first serving
U.S. President to visit
Vietnam.
*
2004 -
X-43A scramjet becomes the fastest air-breathing jet flying at nearly Mach 10 at approx. 11,200 km/h or 3.11 km/s.
*
42 BC -
Tiberius,
Roman emperor (d.
37)
*
1603 -
Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (d.
1673)
*
1717 -
Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician(d.
1793)
*
1720 -
Carlo Antonio Campioni, Italian composer (d.
1788)
*
1766 -
Rodolphe Kreutzer, French violinist (d.
1831)
*
1836 -
David Kalakaua of Hawaii, Hawaiian king (d.
1891)
*
1841 -
Jules Violle, French physicist (d.
1923)
*
1862 -
Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (d.
1944)
*
1880 -
Alexander Blok, Russian poet (d.
1921)
*
1885 -
Michael Gonzi, Maltese archbishop (d.
1984)
*
1873 -
W. C. Handy, American composer (d.
1958)
*
1889 -
George Kaufman, American playwright (d.
1961)
*
1892 -
Guo Moruo, Chinese writer (d.
1978)
*
1895 -
Paul Hindemith, German composer (d.
1963)
*
1896 -
Oswald Mosley, British fascist (d.
1980)
* 1896 -
Lawrence Tibbett, American actor (d.
1960)
*
1897 -
Choudhary Rehmat Ali, Pakistani nationalist (d.
1951)
*
1905 -
Eddie Condon, American musician (d.
1973)
*
1907 -
Burgess Meredith, American actor (d.
1997)
*
1916 -
Daws Butler, voice actor (d.
1988)
*
1922 -
Gene Amdahl, American computer scientist
* 1922 -
José Saramago, Portuguese writer,
Nobel laureate*
1924 -
Mel Patton, American athlete
*
1928 -
Clu Gulager, Americfan actor
*
1930 -
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author
* 1930 -
Salvatore Riina Sicilian
mafioso*
1938 -
Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d.
2002)
*
1942 -
Willie Carson, Scottish jockey
*
1943 -
Michael Cimino, American film director
*
1946 -
Terrence McKenna, American writer
*
1952 -
Robin McKinley, writer
*
1952 -
Shigeru Miyamoto, Japanese video game designer
*
1954 -
Bruce Edwards, golf caddy (d.
2004)
*
1958 -
Marg Helgenberger, American actress
*
1961 -
Frank Bruno, British boxer
*
1962 -
Josh Silver, American musician (
Type O Negative)
*
1964 -
Dwight Gooden, American athlete
* 1964 -
Diana Krall, Canadian singer
* 1964 -
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Italian actress
*
1967 -
Lisa Bonet, American actress
* 1967 -
Craig Arnold, American poet
*
1970 -
Martha Plimpton, American actress
*
1971 -
Alexander Popov, Russian swimmer
* 1971 -
Waqar Younis, Pakistani cricketer
*
1973 -
Brendan Laney, Scottish rugby player
*
1974 -
Paul Scholes, British footballer
*
1977 -
Oksana Baiul, Ukranian figure skater
* 1977 -
Maggie Gyllenhaal, American actor
* 1977 -
Mauricio Ochmann, Mexican actor
*
1978 -
Gary Naysmith, Scottish footballer
*
1980 -
Kayte Christensen, American basketball player
*
1981 -
Allison Crowe, Canadian singer
*
1981 -
Caitlin Glass, American actor
*
1984 -
Kimberly J. Brown, American actor
*
1093 -
Saint Margaret of Scotland, wife of King
Malcolm Canmore*
1240 -
Edmund Rich, St. Edmund of Canterbury
*
1272 - King
Henry III of England (b.
1207)
*
1328 -
Prince Hisaaki, Japanese shogun (b.
1276)
*
1613 -
Trajano Boccalini, Italian satirist (b.
1556)
*
1628 -
Paolo Quagliati, Italian composer
*
1632 - King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (killed in battle) (b.
1594)
*
1695 -
Pierre Nicole, French philosopher (b.
1625)
*
1724 -
Jack Sheppard, English burglar (hanged) (b.
1702)
*
1745 -
James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman and soldier (b.
1665)
*
1773 -
John Hawkesworth, English writer
*
1779 -
Pehr Kalm, Finnish explorer and naturalist (b.
1716)
*
1790 -
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, American Continental Congressman (b.
1723)
*
1797 -
Frederick William II of Prussia (b.
1744)
*
1802 -
André Michaux, French botanist (b.
1746)
*
1806 -
Moses Cleaveland, founder of Cleveland, Ohio (b.
1754)
*
1836 -
Christian Hendrik Persoon, Dutch mycologist (b.
1761)
*
1885 -
Louis Riel, Canadian politician (b.
1844)
*
1907 -
Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma (b.
1848)
*
1911 -
Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (b.
1842)
*
1922 -
Max Abraham, German physicist (b.
1875)
*
1939 -
Pierce Butler, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b.
1866)
*
1960 -
Clark Gable, American actor (b.
1901)
*
1961 -
Sam Rayburn,
U.S. Speaker of the House (b.
1882)
*
1973 -
Alan Watts, English writer (b.
1915)
*
1981 -
William Holden, American actor (b.
1918)
*
1982 -
Arthur Askey, British comedian (b.
1900)
*
1993 -
Achille Zavatta, French clown (b.
1915)
*
1994 -
Doris Speed, British actress (b.
1899)
* 1994 -
Dino Valente, American musician (
Quicksilver Messenger Service) (b.
1943)
*
1995 -
Jack Finney, American author (b.
1911)
*
1999 -
Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1928)
*
2000 -
DJ Screw, American hiphop DJ (b.
1971)
*
2003 -
Bettina Goislard, French relief worker (b.
1974)
*
2005 -
Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1915)
* 2005 -
Robert Tisch, American football team owner (b.
1926)
* 2005 -
Donald Watson, founder of the
Vegan Society (b.
1910)
*
R.C. Saints -
Saint Margaret of Scotland ;
Gertrude the Great*Also see
November 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
International Day for Tolerance *
Finland - Svenska dagen / Ruotsalaisuuden päivä (
Day of the Swedish Identity)
*
Iceland - Dagur íslenskrar tungu (
Icelandic Language Day)
*
Thailand -
Loy Krathong festival (
2005)
*
USA - admission of Oklahoma, 46th state,
1907*
BBC: On This DayNovember 15 -
November 17 -
October 16 -
December 16 --
listing of all days
