May 16



Events

Up to 1900 
 218 – Elagabalus is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
 1527 – The 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.
 1584 - Santiago de Vera becomes the 6th Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
 1605 – Paul V becomes Pope.
 1702 – The city of Uppsala in Sweden is destroyed by fire.
 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
 1771 - Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called the "Regulators" occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
 1777 – Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
 1811 – Peninsular War: Spain, the UK and Portugal defeat France in the Battle of Albuera.
 1812 - Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. Bessarabia, mainly covering present-day Moldova, is annexed by Imperial Russia.
 1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Champion Hill - Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant defeat Confederate forces under John C. Pemberton.
 1866 – The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel (coin).
 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.
 1874 - A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys most of four villages, killing 139 people.
 1887 - In Washington, DC, Emil Berliner demonstrates the gramophone.
 1888 - Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electrical power over long distances.

1901  2000 
 1910 – The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
 1918 – The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
 1919 – United States Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
 1929 – In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
 1932 - On the return from its first voyage, French luxury steamer Georges Philippar catches fire in the Gulf of Aden, killing 54 people.
 1938 – A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
 1943 – World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron 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.
 1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser.
 1961 - Park Chung-hee leads a coup in South Korea.
 1966 – Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
 1974 – Helmut Schmidt is chosen to succeed Willy Brandt as Chancellor of Germany.
 1975 – India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
 1975 – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
 1983 - The Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.
 1988 – A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
 1991 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom becomes the first monarch to speak in front of the United States Congress.
 1992 – STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
 1995 – The leader of Aum Shinrikyo, Shoko Asahara, is arrested for his role in the Sarin Gas Attack on the Tokyo subway.
 1997 - Zaire leader Mobutu Sese Seko flees the country. Soon after, the country is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

From 2001 
 2002 – Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.
 2003 - Four suicide bombs explode in Casablanca, Morocco, killing over 40 people.
 2005 – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
 2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
 2005 – Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console is shown at a press conference (E3).
 2007 – Nicolas Sarkozy becomes President of France, succeeding Jacques Chirac.
 2007 - Alex Salmond becomes First Minister of Scotland. He is the first leader of the Scottish National Party to take this post.
 2009 – In Moscow, Alexander Rybak wins the 54th Eurovision Song Contest for Norway, scoring a record number of points under the then-existing scoring system, 387.
 2011 - The final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour begins.
 2013 - The Spanish language Wikipedia passes the milestone of a million articles.
 2014 - The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, under Narendra Modi, wins India's elections, achieving an overall parliamentary majority and defeating the ruling Indian National Congress.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1418 - John II of Cyprus (died 1458)
 1490 – Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia (died 1568)
 1540 - Paschal Baylon, Spanish friar and saint (died 1592)
 1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (died 1606)
 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (died 1689)
 1641 - Dudley North, English economist and politician (died 1691)
 1678 – Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (died 1734)
 1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (died 1782)
 1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (died 1799)
 1763 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French chemist (died 1829)
 1776 - Luigi Lambruschini, Italian cardinal (died 1854)
 1788 - Friedrich Rückert, German poet, translator and orientalist (died 1866)
 1801 – William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State and 12th Governor of New York (died 1872)
 1805 - Alexander Burnes, Scottish explorer (died 1841)
 1819 - Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (died 1890)
 1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (died 1894)
 1824 – Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States and 31st Governor of New York (died 1920)
 1827 – Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect (died 1921)
 1827 - Norman Jay Coleman, American politician (died 1911)
 1831 – David Edward Hughes, British inventor and musician (died 1900)
 1834 - Hobart B. Bigelow, Governor of Connecticut (died 1891)
 1845 – Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian biologist, won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)
 1849 - Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, British statesman (died 1917)
 1882 – Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (died 1954)
 1883 - Celal Bayar, President of Turkey (died 1986)
 1886 – Ernest Burgess, sociologist (died 1966)
 1887 - Jakob van Hoddis, German poet (died 1942)
 1888 – Royal Raymond Rife, American inventor (died 1971)
 1891 – Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (died 1948)
 1897 – Zvi Ziternik, Israeli entomologist (died 1994)
 1898 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish painter (died 1980)
 1898 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese movie director (died 1956)

1901  1950 
 1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (died 1982)
 1906 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer, diplomat and politician (died 2001)
 1909 – Margaret Sullavan, American actress (died 1960)
 1910 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter (died 1972)
 1910 - Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator, uncle of Emperor Akihito (died 2014)
 1910 - Luigi Villoresi, Italian racing driver (died 1997)
 1912 – Studs Terkel, American writer (died 2008)
 1913 – Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (died 1987)
 1913 - Sebastiano Baggio, Italian cardinal (died 1993)
 1914 - Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and ethnologist (died 2009)
 1915 - Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2010)
 1916 – Ephraim Katzir, Israeli President and scientist (died 2009)
 1917 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (died 1986)
 1917 - George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (died 2016)
 1919 – Liberace, American pianist (died 1987)
 1919 - Sik Kok Kwong, Hong Kong Buddhist monk (died 2014)
 1919 – Gisela Uhlen, German actress (died 2007)
 1920 - Martine Carol, French actress (died 1967)
 1921 - Harry Carey, Jr., American actor (died 2012)
 1923 – Merton Miller, American economist (died 2000)
 1924 – Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia
 1925 – Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian singer (died 2010)
 1925 – Robert Pierpoint, American journalist (died 2011)
 1925 - Nancy Roman, American astronomer (died 2018)
 1925 – Nilton Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013)
 1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (died 1989)
 1929 – John Conyers, American politician (died 2019)
 1929 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, writer and feminist (died 2012)
 1929 – Friedrich Nowottny, German journalist
 1929 - Alberto Terry, Peruvian footballer (died 2006)
 1929 – Betty Carter, American singer (died 1998)
 1931 - Vujadin Boskov, Serbian footballer (died 2014)
 1931 – K. Natwar Singh, Indian politician
 1931 - Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., American politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut
 1936 – Karl Lehmann, German cardinal and theologian (d. 2018)
 1936 – Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
 1936 - Manfred Stolpe, German politician
 1937 - Yvonne Craig, American actress (d. 2015)
 1937 – Antonio Rattin, Argentine footballer
 1938 - Edmond Classen, Dutch actor (d. 2014)
 1940 - Ole Ernst, Danish actor (d. 2013)
 1943 - Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician
 1943 - Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany
 1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor
 1944 - Billy Cobham, American drummer and bandleader
 1945 - Carlos Osoro, Archbishop of Valencia
 1946 – Robert Fripp, British guitarist
 1948 - Emma Georgina Rothschild, British historian
 1948 – Judy Finnigan, British TV presenter
 1948 - Mariano Gago, Portuguese engineer and politician (d. 2015)
 1948 - Jimmy Hood, Scottish politician (d. 2017)
 1949 - Karlheinz Hackl, Austrian actor (d. 2014)
 1950 – J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1987

1951  1975 
 1951 - Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
 1953 – Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 2015)
 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
 1954 - Jónína Leósdóttir, Icelandic writer
 1954 - Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut
 1955 – Olga Korbut, Belarussian gymnast
 1955 – Jack Morris, American baseball pitcher
 1955 – Hazel O'Connor, British singer
 1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
 1957 - Bob Suter, American ice hockey player (d. 2014)
 1957 - Nigel Twiston-Davies, English horse trainer
 1958 – Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
 1961 - Sarah Boyack, Scottish politician
 1961 - Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor
 1963 – Rosie Perez, American actress
 1964 - John Salley, American basketball player and actor
 1964 - Milton Jones, English comedian
 1965 - Danel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist and politician
 1965 – Krist Novoselic, American musician, former bassist for Nirvana
 1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer
 1966 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
 1969 - David Boreanaz, American actor
 1969 – Steve Lewis, American athlete
 1969 – Tucker Carlson, American print and television commentator
 1969 - Ari-Pekka Nikkola, Finnish ski jumper
 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player
 1972 - Andrzej Duda, President of Poland
 1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress
 1973 – Jason Acuña "Wee-Man", American television personality
 1974 – Laura Pausini, Italian pop singer
 1974 - Adam Richman, American actor and TV presenter (Man v. Food)
 1974 – Sonny Sandoval, American singer (P.O.D.)
 1975 – Tony Kakko, Finnish singer (Sonata Arctica)
 1975 – Tonéx, American singer

From 1976 
 1976 - Christian Califano, French rugby player
 1977 – Dolcenera, Italian singer
 1977 – Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer
 1977 – Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Canadian ice hockey player
 1978 – David Ford, English singer/songwriter
 1978 – Olga Zaitseva, Russian athlete
 1978 – Lionel Scaloni, Argentine footballer
 1979 – McKenzie Lee, English pornographic actress
 1980 – Mikel Alonso, Spanish footballer
 1980 – Michael Ryan, American ice hockey player
 1980 - Jens Spahn, German politician
 1981 – Jim Sturgess, English actor
 1982 – Joo Ji Hoon, Korean actor and model
 1982 – Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player
 1983 – Nancy Ajram, Lebanese singer
 1983 – Gordon McRory, Scottish Drummer (The Fratellis)
 1983 – Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player
 1984 – Mickie Knuckles, American female professional wrestler
 1984 – Jensen Lewis, American baseball player
 1984 – Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2011)
 1985 – Stanislav Ianevski, Bulgarian actor
 1985 – Anja Mittag, German footballer
 1985 – Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player
 1985 - Tadayoshi Okura, Japanese singer-songwriter, dancer and actor
 1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
 1986 - Andy Keogh, Irish footballer
 1987 - Olena Khomrova, Ukrainian fencer
 1990 – Thomas Sangster, English actor
 1991 – Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player
 1993 – IU, South Korean singer
 1994 - Aaron Moores, British Paralympic swimmer
 1998 - Ariel Waller, Canadian actress
 2002 - Ryan Gravenberch, Dutch footballer

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 583 – Saint Brendan, Irish navigator (b. 484)
 1265 - Simon Stock, English-French saint (b. 1165)
 1620 – William Adams, English navigator and Japanese samurai (born 1564)
 1669 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter and architect (born 1596)
 1703 – Charles Perrault, French writer (born 1628)
 1782 – Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (born 1736)
 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French scientist (born 1768)
 1882 - Reuben Chapman, 13th Governor of Alabama (born 1799)
 1891 – Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (born 1821)
 1913 - Louis Perrier, Swiss Federal Councillor (born 1849)
 1920 – Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States and 31st Governor of New York (born 1824)
 1920 - Joselito, Spanish bullfighter (born 1895)
 1926 – Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (born 1861)
 1931 – Emiliano Figueroa, President of Chile (born 1866)
 1942 – Bronislaw Malinowski, Polish anthropologist (born 1884)
 1944 – George Ade, writer (born 1866)
 1947 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English chemist, won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1861)
 1947 - Zhang Lingfu, Chinese general (born 1903)

1951  2000 
 1953 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian jazz musician (born 1910)
 1954 - Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (born 1893)
 1955 – James Agee, American writer (born 1909)
 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (born 1903)
 1963 - Oleg Penkovsky, Soviet-Russian agent (born 1919)
 1971 - Gregoire-Pierre Agagianian, Armenian cardinal (born 1895)
 1977 – Modibo Keita, 1st President of Mali (born 1915)
 1981 - Ernie Freeman, American pianist, composer and bandleader (born 1922)
 1984 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (born 1949)
 1984 – Irwin Shaw, American writer (born 1913)
 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (born 1902)
 1988 – Charles Keeping, illustrator (born 1924)
 1989 - Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and lyricist (born 1939)
 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, creator of the Muppets (born 1936)
 1990 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor and comedian (born 1925)
 1993 - Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1938)
 1994 - Alain Cuny, French actor (born 1908)

From 2001 
 2002 – Big Dick Dudley, American professional wrestler (born 1968)
 2003 – Mark McCormack, American sports business pioneer, founder of IMG (born 1930)
 2008 – Robert Mondavi, pioneer California winemaker (born 1913)
 2008 - David Mitton, English model-maker (born 1938)
 2010 – Oswaldo López Arellano, President of Honduras (born 1921)
 2010 – Hank Jones, American jazz pianist (born 1918)
 2010 – Ronnie James Dio, American musician (born 1942)
 2011 – Edward Hardwicke, British actor (born 1932)
 2013 - Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist (born 1933)
 2013 - Paul Shane, British actor (born 1940)
 2013 - Dick Trickle, racing driver (born 1941)
 2014 - Viktor Sukhodrev, Russian interpreter (born 1932)
 2015 - Yeung Kwong, Hong Kong Communist activist (born 1926)
 2015 - Moshe Levinger, Israeli rabbi (born 1935)
 2015 - Flora MacNeil, Scottish singer (born 1928)
 2015 - Dean Potter, American rock climber and BASE jumper (born 1972)
 2015 - John Templeton Jr., American physician (born 1940)
 2015 - Moshe Levinger, Israeli rabbi (born 1935)
 2015 - Elias Gleizer, Brazilian actor (born 1934)
 2016 - Bobby Freeman, American politician (born 1934)
 2016 - Romaldo Giurgola, Italian-born American-Australian architect (born 1920)
 2016 - Emilio Navaria, American country and Tejano singer (born 1962)
 2016 - Gavyn Farr Arthur, British judge (born 1951)
 2016 - Giovanni Coppa, Italian cardinal (born 1925)
 2016 - Lino Toffolo, Italian actor (born 1934)
 2016 - Aar de Goede, Dutch politician (born 1928)
 2016 - Jim McMillian, American basketball player (born 1948)
 2016 - David Rendel, British politician (born 1949)
 2016 - François Maistre, French actor (born 1925)
 2016 - Huguette Dreyfus, French harpsichordist (born 1928)
 2017 - Bernard Bosson, French politician (born 1948)
 2017 - Outi Ojala, Finnish politician (born 1946)
 2017 - Doug Somers, American professional wrestler (born 1951)
 2017 - Gunnar Möller, German actor (born 1928)
 2018 - François Bréda, Romanian writer and literary critic (born 1956)
 2018 - Joseph Campanella, American actor (born 1924)
 2018 - Diana E. Murphy, American judge (born 1934)
 2018 - Michael Slive, American college sports executive (born 1940)
 2018 - Gérard Jouannest, French pianist (born 1933)
 2018 - Eloísa Mafalda, Brazilian actress (born 1924)
 2018 - Lucian Pintilie, Romanian film director (born 1933)
 2019 - David Cervinski, Australian footballer (born 1970)
 2019 - Bob Hawke, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (born 1929)
 2019 - Ashley Massaro, American professional wrestler and television personality (born 1979)
 2019 - I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect (born 1917)
 2019 - Sol Yaged, American jazz clarinetist (born 1922)
 2021 - Bruno Covas, Brazilian lawyer and politician (born 1980)
 2021 - Rildo da Costa Menezes, Brazilian footballer (born 1942)
 2021 - M. S. Narasimhan, Indian mathematician (born 1932)

Holidays and observances 
 In the Irish Calendar – Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
 The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
 Ubaldus
 Saint Honoré
 John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 – 1393)
 Andrew Bobola
 Simon Stock
 National Day of South Sudan
 Teachers' Day (Malaysia)

Days of the year