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This day in history

This day in history: 16 October

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day257 · 126

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Key facts

448 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 16 October.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
1939: World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.

Holidays and observances

Air Force Day (Bulgaria)

Boss's Day (United States)

Bu-Ma Democratic Protests Commemoration Day (South Korea)

Christian feast day: Balderic (Baudry) of Monfaucon

Christian feast day: Bertrand of Comminges

Christian feast day: Blessed Thevarparampil Kunjachan (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church / Catholic Church)

Christian feast day: Colmán of Kilroot (Colman mac Cathbaid)

Christian feast day: Eliphius

Christian feast day: Fortunatus of Casei

Christian feast day: Gall

Christian feast day: Gerard Majella

Christian feast day: Hedwig of Silesia

Events

1939World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.

1793French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

1973Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1923Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.

1953Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.

1909William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.

1946Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.

1964Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party, while Alexei Kosygin becomes the head of government.

1998Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.

1962Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

1916Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1984Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1875Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1813The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.

1934Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.

1949The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.

1991George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

1919Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.

1968Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1951The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1384Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.

1940Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1841Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.

1905The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

1968Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.

1975The Australian Coalition sparks a constitutional crisis when they vote to defer funding for the government's annual budget.

1869The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

1780The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing between 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.

1843William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a three-dimensional system of complex numbers.

2002The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.

1859Origins of the American Civil War: Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

1995The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attend.

1869Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

1964China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1590Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.

1805War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.

1834Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1995The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.

1846William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.

2017Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.

Born on this day

2005Ruby Rose Turner, American actress

2003Scott Ogden, British motorcycle racer

2001Willian Pacho, Ecuadorian footballer

1999Aaron Nesmith, American basketball player

1999Nicolò Bulega, Italian motorcycle racer

1997Aliou Dieng, Malian footballer

1997Charles Leclerc, Monégasque racing driver

1997Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player

1996Andrea Locatelli, Italian motorcycle racer

1996Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, Turkish motorcycle racer

1994Adam Elliott, Australian rugby league player

1994Halimah Nakaayi, Ugandan middle-distance runner

1993Caroline Garcia, French tennis player

1993Jovit Baldivino, Filipino singer and actor (died 2022)

1992Bryce Harper, American baseball player

1992Kostas Fortounis, Greek footballer

1992Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player

1991Jonathan Schoop, Curaçaoan baseball player

1991Shardul Thakur, Indian cricketer

1989Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player

1988Zoltán Stieber, Hungarian footballer

1986Derk Boerrigter, Dutch footballer

1986Franco Armani, Argentine footballer

1986Inna, Romanian singer

1986Nicky Adams, English-Welsh footballer

1985Alexis Hornbuckle, American basketball player

1985Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer

1985Jay Beagle, Canadian ice hockey player

1985Peter Wallace, Australian rugby league player

1985Verena Sailer, German sprinter

1984François Pervis, French track cyclist

1984Rachel Reilly, American talk show host and actress

1983Kenny Omega, Canadian wrestler

1983Loreen, Swedish singer

1983Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player

1982Alan Anderson, American basketball player

1982Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer

1982Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player

1982Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, singer, and producer

1981Anthony Reyes, American baseball player

Died on this day

2024Liam Payne, English singer-songwriter from One Direction (born 1993)

2024Ollie Olsen, Australian musician, composer and sound designer (born 1958)

2024Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas (born 1962)

2023Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1937)

2017Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese journalist and blogger (born 1964)

2017John Dunsworth, Canadian actor (born 1946)

2017Roy Dotrice, British actor (born 1923)

2017Sean Hughes, British-born Irish stand-up comedian (born 1965)

2016Calvin Carl "Kelly" Gotlieb, Canadian professor and computer scientist (born 1921)

2015James W. Fowler, American psychologist and academic (born 1940)

2015Memduh Ün, Turkish film producer, director, actor and screenwriter (born 1920)

2015Richard J. Cardamone, American lawyer and judge (born 1925)

2015Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (born 1927)

2015William James, Australian general and physician (born 1930)

2014Allen Forte, American musicologist and theorist (born 1926)

2014Ioannis Charalambopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (born 1919)

2014John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English businessman (born 1926)

2014Seppo Kuusela, Finnish basketball player and coach (born 1934)

2013Ed Lauter, American actor (born 1938)

2013George Hourmouziadis, Greek archaeologist and academic (born 1932)

2013Govind Purushottam Deshpande, Indian playwright and academic (born 1938)

2013Laurel Martyn, Australian ballerina and choreographer (born 1916)

2013Robert B. Rheault, American colonel (born 1925)

2013Saggy Tahir, Pakistani-American lawyer and politician (born 1944)

2012Bódog Török, Hungarian handball player and coach (born 1923)

2012Eddie Yost, American baseball player and coach (born 1926)

2012Frank Moore Cross, American scholar and academic (born 1921)

2012John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (born 1936)

2012Mario Gallegos, Jr., American firefighter and politician (born 1950)

2011Dan Wheldon, English race car driver (born 1978)

Quote of the day

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Aristotle

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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