October 16



Events

Up to 1950 
 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
 690 - Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
 1590 - Composer Carlo Gesualdo murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria, at the Palazzo San Saverio in Naples.
 1780 - Great Hurricane of 1780 devastates the Caribbean.
 1781 - George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia, after the Siege of Yorktown.
 1793 – Marie Antoinette is executed on the guillotine.
 1813 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Leipzig between Napoleon Bonaparte and the forces of the Sixth Coalition.
 1834 - Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
 1843 - William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers.
 1846 - William T. G. Morton demonstrates anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).
 1875 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
 1905 - Partition of Bengal in India.
 1909 - William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit meeting between Presidents of the United States and Mexico.
 1916 - In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States. 
 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded.
 1934 – Chinese Communists begin the Long March.
 1939 - World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
 1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
 1945 - The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City.
 1946 – Execution of Nazi war criminals who were sentenced in the Nuremberg Trials.
 1949 - East Germany and the Soviet Union form diplomatic relations.

1951  2000 
 1951 – Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is assassinated.
 1962 - John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of military sites in Cuba.
 1963 – Ludwig Erhard is chosen to succeed Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of Germany.
 1964 - The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
 1964 - Leonid Brezhnev is inaugurated as  General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with Alexei Kosygin becoming Premier.
 1968 - At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for their part in the Black Power Salute.
 1970 – In response to the October Crisis, Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.
 1970 - The University of Augsburg in Bavaria opens.
 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are announced as the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
 1975 - Rahima Banu, a two-year-old girl from Bangladesh, is the last person known to be infected with naturally-occurring smallpox.
 1978 – Karol Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II.
 1978 - Wanda Rutkiewicz becomes the first person from Poland, and the first European woman, to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
 1984 – Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
 1984 - The British TV series The Bill is first shown.
 1986 – Reinhold Messner reaches the top of Lhotse in the Himalayas with Hans Kammerlander. Messner becomes the first person to climb all the mountains over 8000 metres high.
 1987 – The southern part of the United Kingdom is hit by a major storm which causes a lot of damage, especially with fallen trees, and kills 18 people.
 1991 - George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people.
 1994 - The majority of voters in Finland support entry into the EU.
 1995 – The Skye Bridge, linking the Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland, is opened.
 1995 - Million-Man March on Washington, DC.
 1996 – 84 people are crushed to death at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala.
 1998 – Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London after Spain issued an arrest warrant for murder.

From 2001 
 2002 - The Bibliotheca Alexandrina library is opened in Alexandria, Egypt.
 2006 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Hawaii, causing widespread damage.
 2012 - Planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered orbiting a star outside the Solar System.
 2013 - Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.
 2013 - Erna Solberg becomes Prime Minister of Norway, succeeding Jens Stoltenberg. Solberg is Norway's second female Prime Minister, after Gro Harlem Brundtland.
 2013 - US politicians agree to end the government shutdown, and narrowly avoid the United States being unable to repay its debts.
 2017 - The remainder of Hurricane Ophelia hits the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
 2017 - Maltese blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is murdered in a car bomb attack.
2020 - Murder of Samuel Paty of Islamist terrorism happens.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English soldier (d. 1450)
 1430 – King James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
 1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
 1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
 1620 - Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
 1663 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (d. 1736)
 1679 - Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (d. 1745)
 1710 – Andreas Hadik, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1790)
 1714 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
 1726 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
 1729 - Pierre van Maldere, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1768)
 1751 – Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Queen of Prussia (d. 1805)
 1752 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian (d. 1827)
 1754 – Morgan Lewis, Governor of New York (1804-07) (d. 1844)
 1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
 1760 - Jonathan Dayton, American politician (d. 1824)
 1762 – Paul Hamilton, Governor of South Carolina (1804–06) and U.S. Secretary of Navy (1809–12) (d. 1816)
 1789 – William Burton, Governor of Delaware (1859–63) (d. 1866)
 1795 – William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and writer (d. 1876)

1801  1900 
 1802 – Isaac Murphy, Governor of Arkansas (1864-68) (d. 1882)
 1804 - Benjamin Russell, American artist (d. 1885)
 1806 – William Pitt Fessenden, U.S. Secretary of Treasury (1864-65) (d. 1869)
 1815 – Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
 1819 – Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire (d. 1886)
 1831 - Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (d. 1910)
 1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
 1841 – Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea and 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)
 1847 - Maria Pia of Savoy (d. 1911)
 1849 - George Washington Williams, American jurist, historian and politician (d. 1891)
 1854 - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
 1854 - Karl Kautsky, Czech-born German theoretician (d. 1938)
 1855 - Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (d. 1931)
 1861 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian (d. 1927)
 1863 – Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
 1876 – Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer, rugby union and soccer player (d. 1913)
 1878 - Eugenio Canfari, Italian sports official (d. 1962)
 1878 - Miguel Llobet, Catalan guitarist and composer (d. 1938)
 1878 – Maxie Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
 1884 - Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
 1885 - Dorando Pietri, Italian marathon runner (d. 1942)
 1886 - David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
 1886 - Armin T. Wegner, German poet (d. 1978)
 1888 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer (d. 1953)
 1890 - Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
 1890 - Maria Goretti, Italian murder victim and saint (d. 1902)
 1895 - Ling Hau Shang, Convicted Triad Leader (d. 1954)
 1897 - Louis de Cazenave, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
 1900 - Primo Conti, Italian painter and poet (d. 1988)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Federico Munerati, Italian footballer (d. 1980)
 1903 - Big Joe Williams, American blues guitarist (d. 1982)
 1905 - Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer (d. 1990)
 1908 - Enver Hoxha, Albanian political leader (d. 1985)
 1912 - Clifford Hansen, American politician, Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)
 1914 - Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (d. 2007)
 1918 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
 1918 - Géori Boué, French soprano (d. 2017)
 1918 - Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician (d. 2013)
 1918 - Henri Vernes, Belgian writer and comics creator
 1922 - Max Bygraves, English singer, songwriter and entertainer (d. 2012)
 1923 - Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby commentator (d. 2010)
 1923 - Linda Darnell, American actress (d. 1965)
 1925 - Angela Lansbury, British-born actress
 1927 - Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
 1928 - Mary Daly, American philosopher, theologian and professor (d. 2010)
 1928 - Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress (d. 2016)
 1929 - Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress
 1929 - Ivor Allchurch, Welsh footballer (d. 1997)
 1930 - John Polkinghorne, English physicist, theologian and priest
 1930 - Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress and singer
 1931 - Valery Klimov, Ukrainian-Russian violinist
 1931 - Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator (d. 2012)
 1932 - Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, German politician and manager (d. 1991)
 1932 - Gudbergur Bergsson, Icelandic writer
 1936 - Akira Machida, Japanese judge, 15th Chief Justice of Japan
 1936 - Peter Bowles, English actor
 1936 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (d. 1994)
 1938 - Nico, German musician, fashion model and actress (d. 1988)
 1940 - Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
 1941 - Baddeley Devesi, 1st Governor-General of the Solomon Islands (d. 2012)
 1941 - Tim McCarver, American baseball player and sportscaster
 1941 - Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician
 1943 - Fred Turner, Canadian bassist (Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
 1946 - Suzanne Somers, American actress
 1947 - Bob Weir, American singer and musician
 1947 - Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
 1947 - David Zucker, American director and screenwriter
 1950 - Angry Grandpa, American internet personality (d. 2017)

1951  1975 
 1952 - Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton, English politician
 1954 - Corinna Harfouch, German actress
 1954 - Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Scottish politician
 1956 - Marin Alsop, American conductor
 1958 - Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
 1959 - Tessa Munt, English politician
 1959 - John Whittingdale, English politician
 1960 - Bob Mould, American singer and guitarist
 1960 - Cressida Dick, English police officer, Head of the London Metropolitan Police
 1960 - Guy LeBlanc, Canadian keyboardist and composer (d. 2015)
 1961 - Yahiro Kazama, Japanese footballer
 1962 - Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (d. 2010)
 1962 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer (d. 2017)
 1962 - Flea, Australian-American musician (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
 1964 - James Thompson, American-Finnish author (d. 2014)
 1965 - Steve Lamacq, British DJ
 1965 - Tom Tolbert, American basketball player
 1966 - Stefan Reuter, German footballer
 1967 - Davina McCall, English television presenter
 1968 - Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer and conductor
 1970 - Mehmet Scholl, German footballer
 1972 - Adrianne Frost, American comedienne, actress and author
 1972 - Tomas Lindberg, Swedish singer-songwriter
 1973 - Justin Credible, American wrestler
 1973 - Thomas Myhre, Norwegian footballer
 1974 - Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
 1975 - Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer
 1975 - Kellie Martin, American actress and director

From 1976 
 1977 - John Mayer, American singer-songwriter
 1979 - Erin Brown, American actress, model, movie maker and musician
 1982 - Prithotraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, producer and singer
 1982 - Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
 1982 - Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
 1983 - Rémi Ochlik, French photographer (d. 2012)
 1983 - Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player
 1983 - Loreen, Swedish singer
 1984 - Shayne Ward, English singer, winner of the 2005  X Factor
 1985 - Verena Sailer, German sprinter
 1985 - Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
 1986 - Inna, Romanian singer
 1986 - Craig Pickering, British sprinter
 1988 - Zoltan Stieber, Hungarian footballer
 1988 - Max Thieriot, American actor
 1988 - Tumua Anae, American water polo player
 1989 - Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player
 1990 - Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir (Yohanna), Icelandic singer
 1990 - Amina Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48)
 1991 - Jedward, Irish pop singers
 1992 - Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player
 1992 - Bryce Harper, American baseball player
 1994 - Amelia Lily, English singer
 1997 - Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player
 2003 - Princess Kritika of Nepal, Nepalese princess

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 640 – Saint Gall, monk and missionary (b. around 550)
 1333 - Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
 1355 - Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)
 1396 - Agnolo Gaddi, Italian painter
 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
 1591 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
 1628 - Francois de Malherbe, French poet (b. 1555)
 1655 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician and theorist (b. 1591)
 1730 - Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French-American explorer and politician (b. 1658)
 1750 - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer (b. 1687)
 1755 - Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)
 1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and statesman (b. 1739)
 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (b. 1755)
 1793 - John Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b. 1728)
 1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
 1799 - Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian activist (b. 1760)
 1822 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian ballet dancer (b. 1724)
 1888 – John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)

1901  2000 
 1913 - Ralph Rose, American athlete (b. 1885)
 1937 - Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
 1944 – Jon Sveinsson, Icelandic writer (b. 1857)
 1946 - Nazi war criminals executed following Nuremberg trials:
Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader (b. 1892)
Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1884)
Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, SS officer (b. 1903)
 1947 - Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1895)
 1952 - Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian-Pakistani Muslim leader and poet (b. 1876)
 1954 – Jules Rimet, French football administrator (b. 1873)
 1959 – George Marshall, United States Secretary of State (b. 1880)
 1962 - Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
 1966 - George O'Hara, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1899)
 1971 - Robin Boyd, Australian architect (b. 1919)
 1973 - Gene Krupa, American drummer and composer (b. 1909)
 1975 - Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)
 1981 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
 1982 – Mario del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)
 1983 - Jakob Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
 1983 - Willi Ritschard, Swiss politician (b. 1918)
 1989 - Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
 1990 – Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (b. 1919)
 1991 - Ole Beich, Danish bass player (b. 1955)
 1992 - Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (b. 1898)
 1997 – James Michener, American writer (b. 1907)

From 2001 
 2003 – Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
 2004 - Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
 2006 – Valentin Paniagua Corazao, President of Peru (b. 1936)
 2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)
 2007 – Tose Proeski, Macedonian singer (b. 1981)
 2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)
 2011 – Dan Wheldon, British auto racer (b. 1978)
 2012 - Eddie Yost, American baseball player (b. 1926)
 2013 - Ed Lauter, American actor (b. 1938)
 2014 - John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English peer (b. 1926)
 2014 - Patrick Paul D'Souza, Indian bishop (b. 1928)
 2014 - Sumi Haru, American actress (b. 1939)
 2014 - Tim Hauser, American musician (b. 1941)
 2015 - Ralph Andrews, American television producer (b. 1928)
 2015 - Francesc de Paula Burguera, Spanish journalist (b. 1928)
 2016 - Anthony Foley, Irish rugby player and coach (b. 1973)
 2016 - Kigeli V, former King of Rwanda (b. 1936)
 2016 - Arsen Pavlov, Russian soldier (b. 1983)
 2017 - Roy Dotrice, English actor (b. 1923)
 2017 - Sean Hughes, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1965)
 2017 - Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese blogger and journalist (b. 1964)
 2017 - John Dunsworth, Canadian actor (b. 1946)

Observances 
 Teacher's Day (Poland, Chile)
 World Food Day (FAO)
 Air Force Day (Bulgaria)
 World Anesthesia Day

Days of the year