April 16



Events

Up to 1900 
 73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege.
 1520 - The Revolt of the Comuneros begins in Spain against the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
 1521 - Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and other estates of the empire.
 1570 – The revolt of the Comuneros begins against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
 1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the city of Salta, Argentina.
 1705 - Isaac Newton is knighted, becoming a Sir.
 1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought near Inverness, Scotland, as a Highlander army is defeated by a Lowlander army, lead by the Duke of Cumberland.
 1780 – The University of Muenster in Germany is founded.
 1799 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Mount Tabor - Napoleon Bonaparte drives the Ottoman Turks across the river Jordan near Acre, in present-day Israel.
 1818 - The United States Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot Treaty, establishing the border with Canada.
 1847 - The accidental shooting of a Maori by an English sailor results in the start of the Wanganui Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars.
 1853 – India's first passenger rail opens from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
 1862 – American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills, Virginia
 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg
 1881 – Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle in Dodge City, Kansas.
 1888 – Germany annexes Nauru.
 1894 - Manchester City F.C. is formed from Ardwick F.C.

1901  2000 
 1908 – The Natural Bridges National Monument is created in Utah.
 1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
 1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.
 1919 - Mahatma Gandhi organizes a day of "Prayer and Fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protestors in Amritsar, in the Jallianwala Massacre by British colonial troops three days earlier.
 1919 - Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army launches the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius in present-day Lithuania.
 1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo is signed, re-establishing diplomatic relations between Germany and Soviet Russia.
 1925 - A Communist assault on Saint Nedelya Church in Sofia, Bulgaria, kills 150 people.
 1941 – World War II: Italian convoy Duisburg is destroyed by British ships.
 1941 - A Fascist government led by Ante Pavelic comes to power in Croatia.
 1941 - Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only opening day no-hitter in Major League Baseball, defeating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.
 1943 – Albert Hofmann first discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
 1944 – World War II: The Allied bombing of Belgrade kills around 1,100 people.
 1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins its final assault on German forces around Berlin.
 1945 – World War II: German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo, killing around 7,000 people.
 1947 – Texas City, Texas, is set on fire after an explosion on a freighter, killing around 600 people.
 1947 – Bernard Baruch first uses the term Cold War.
 1953 – Queen Elizabeth II launches the royal yacht HMY Britannia.
 1961 - Fidel Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is officially adopting Communism.
 1962 – Walter Cronkite becomes the lead anchor of CBS Evening News.
 1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr. writes the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' while imprisoned in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against racial segregation.
 1964 – The participants of the Great Train Robbery are sentenced to prison.
 1972 – Apollo 16 is launched.
 1990 – Jack Kevorkian participates in his first assisted suicide.
 1992 – The Katina P runs aground off Maputo, Mozambique, spilling around 60,000 tons of crude oil into the Indian Ocean.
 1994 - Hutu soldiers in Rwanda begin the Massacre of Nyarubuye on the Tutsi people. By the time it ends the next day, around 2,000 people have been killed.
 1996 - Basketball: The Chicago Bulls win a record 70th game in one NBA season. The team's most famous player at the time was Michael Jordan.

From 2001 
 2001 – India and Bangladesh begin a five-day border war.
 2003 – The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, allowing 10 new members to join the EU on May 1, 2004.
 2007 – Seung-Hui Cho, kills 33 people, including himself in the Virginia Tech massacre, the worst shooting spree in modern US history.
 2012 – Anders Behring Breivik goes on trial for the July 22, 2011 Norway attacks.
 2013 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes southeast Iran, near the border with Pakistan. Damage is reported on both sides of the border.
 2014 - The MV Sewol ferry, travelling from Incheon to Jeju Island off the south coast of South Korea, sinks near Jindo Island off the southwest coast, killing 295 people.
 2014 - Scientists announce the possible discovery of a new moon of Saturn being created out of its rings.
 2016 - A large scale earthquake strikes Ecuador.
 2017 - Turkey holds a referendum on changing the constitution to that of a Presidential republic; Results indicate just over half of voters support the proposal.
 2019 - The Notre-Dame de Paris fire, which broke out the previous evening, is extinguished by firefighters.

Births

Up to 1800 
 778 – King Louis the Pious (d. 840)
 1319 – King John II of France (d. 1364)
 1488 - Jungjong of Joseon of Korea (d. 1544)
 1495 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician (d. 1557)
 1516 – Tabinshwehti, King of Burma (d. 1550)
 1619 - Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch ship doctor, salesman and colonial official (d. 1677)
 1646 - Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (d. 1708)
 1652 – Pope Clement XII (d. 1740)
 1660 – Hans Sloane, English scientist (d. 1753)
 1661 – Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, English poet and statesman (d. 1715)
 1682 – John Hadley, English inventor (d. 1744)
 1693 – Anne Sophie Reventlow, Queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1743)
 1728 - Joseph Black, Scottish scientist who discovered carbon gas (d. 1799)
 1730 - Henry Clinton, English general and politician (d. 1795)
 1786 – John Franklin, British royal navy officer and Arctic explorer (d. 1847)
 1799 - John Wesley Davis, American politician (d. 1850)

1801  1900 
 1808 - Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician (d. 1864)
 1821 – Ford Madox Brown, English painter (d. 1893)
 1823 - Gotthold Eisenstein, German mathematician and academic (d. 1852)
 1838 - Ernest Solvay, Belgian chemist (d. 1922)
 1839 – Antonio Starabba, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1908)
 1844 – Anatole France, French writer (d. 1924)
 1847 – Hans Auer, Swiss architect (d. 1906)
 1848 - Kandukuri Veerasalingam, Indian social reformer (d. 1919)
 1863 - Emile Friant, French painter (d. 1932)
 1866 - Jose de Diego, Puerto Rican statesman and journalist (d. 1918)
 1867 – Wilbur Wright of the Wright brothers, air travel pioneer (d. 1912)
 1868 - Spottiswoode Aitken, Scottish-American actor (d. 1933)
 1871 - Henry Stephenson, English actor (d. 1956)
 1871 – John Millington Synge, Irish writer (d. 1909)
 1885 – Leo Weiner, Hungarian composer and music educator (d. 1960)
 1886 – Ernst Thaelmann, German politician (d. 1944)
 1886 - Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of Woodrow Wilson (d. 1944)
 1887 – Gudjon Samuelsson, Icelandic architect (d. 1950)
 1888 - Billy Minter, English footballer (d. 1940)
 1889 – Charlie Chaplin, British actor and movie producer (d. 1977)
 1890 - Vernon Sturdee, Australian army commander (d. 1966)
 1890 – Michalis Dorizas, Greek javelin thrower (d. 1957)
 1890 - Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Russian linguist and ethnologist (d. 1938)
 1893 - Federico Mompou, Catalan composer and pianist (d. 1987)
 1894 - Ernst Ziegler, German actor (d. 1974)
 1895 - Ove Arup, English-Danish engineer (d. 1988)
 1896 – Pat Clayton, British surveyor and explorer (d. 1962)
 1896 – Tristan Tzara, Romanian poet (d. 1963)
 1900 – Polly Adler, Russian-born writer (d. 1962)

1901  1950 
 1905 – Frits Philips, Dutch businessman (d. 2005)
 1907 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor of the snowmobile (d. 1964)
 1908 - Ray Ventura, French pianist and bandleader (d. 1979)
 1911 - Guy Burgess, English-Soviet spy (d. 1963)
 1912 – Catherine Scorsese, Italian-American actress (d. 1997)
 1915 - Joan Alexander, American actress (d. 2009)
 1917 - Barry Nelson, American actor (d. 2007)
 1917 - Charlotte Salomon, German artist (d. 1943)
 1918 – Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (d. 2002)
 1919 – Merce Cunningham, American choreographer (d. 2009)
 1921 - Wolfgang Leonhard, German historian and author (d. 2014)
 1921 – Peter Ustinov, British actor (d. 2004)
 1922 – Kingsley Amis, British writer (d. 1995)
 1922 – Samuel Youd, British writer (d. 2012)
 1922 - Leo Tindemans, 43rd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2014)
 1923 - Arch A. Moore, Jr., American politician, 28th and 30th Governor of West Virginia (d. 2015)
 1924 – Henry Mancini, American composer (d. 1994)
 1924 - Rudy Pompilli, American musician (d. 1976)
 1927 - Peter Mark Richman, American actor
 1927 – Pope Benedict XVI
 1930 – Herbie Mann, American jazz flute player (d. 2003)
 1932 - Henk Schouten, Dutch footballer (d. 2018)
 1933 – Joan Bakewell, British broadcaster
 1933 - Vera Krepkina, Russian long jumper
 1933 - Marcos Alonso Imaz, Spanish footballer (d. 2012)
 1934 - Robert Stigwood, Australian-British music entrepreneur (d. 2016)
 1934 - Barrie Unsworth, Australian politician, 38th Premier of New South Wales
 1935 – Sarah Kirsch, German writer (d. 2013)
 1935 - Dominique Venner, French historian and writer (d. 2013)
 1935 - Bobby Vinton, American musician
 1936 - Derrick Sherwin, English television producer and actor (d. 2018)
 1937 - Vince Hill, English singer-songwriter and record producer
 1937 - Vadim Kuzmin, Russian physicist (d. 2015)
 1938 - Gordon Wilson, Scottish politician (d. 2017)
 1939 – Dusty Springfield, British singer (d. 1999)
 1940 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
 1940 - Konstantin K. Kuzminsky, Russian poet (d. 2015)
 1941 - Cliff Stearns, American businessman and politician
 1942 – Frank Williams, Formula One team principal
 1944 – Richard Bradshaw, British opera conductor
 1944 - Dennis Russell Davies, American conductor and pianist
 1944 - Elmar Wepper, German actor
 1945 - Tom Allen, American politician
 1946 - Margot Adler, American author, journalist and Wiccan priest (d. 2014)
 1946 - Ernst Bakker, Dutch politician (d. 2014)
 1947 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player
 1947 – Gerry Rafferty, Scottish musician (d. 2011)
 1949 - Ann Romney, wife of Mitt Romney and former First Lady of Massachusetts

1951  1975 
 1951 – Björgvin Halldórsson, Icelandic singer
 1951 – Ari Kristinsson, Icelandic director and screenwriter
 1951 - Bill Walker, American politician, former Governor of Alaska
 1952 - Bill Belichick, American football coach
 1952 - Yoshikazu Nagai, Japanese footballer
 1952 - Billy West, American voice actor
 1954 - Ellen Barkin, American actress
 1954 - Sibylle Lewitscharoff, German author
 1955 – Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
 1956 - David M. Brown, American captain, pilot and astronaut (d. 2003)
 1960 - Wahab Akbar, Filipino politician (d. 2007)
 1960 – Rafael Benítez, Spanish football manager
 1960 – Pierre Littbarski, German footballer
 1961 - Jarbom Gamlin, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (d. 2014)
 1963 – Jimmy Osmond, American singer
 1963 - Saleem Malik, Pakistani cricketer
 1964 - Esbjörn Svensson, Swedish jazz pianist (d. 2008)
 1965 - Jon Cryer, American actor, screenwriter, movie director and producer
 1965 - Martin Lawrence, American actor and comedian
 1965 - Michael Wong Man Tak, Hong Kong actor and singer
 1968 – Martin Dahlin, Swedish footballer
 1969 – Patrik Jaerbyn, Swedish ski racer
 1969 - Michael Baur, Austrian footballer
 1970 – Gabrielle, English singer
 1971 – Selena, Mexican-American singer (d. 1995)
 1971 - Natasha Zvereva, Belarussian tennis player
 1971 - Max Beesley, English actor and singer
 1971 - Peter Billingsley, American actor, director and producer
 1972 - Conchita Martínez, Spanish tennis player
 1973 - Akon, American singer
 1975 – Sean Maher, American actor

From 1976 
 1976 - Shu Qi, Taiwanese actress
 1976 - Robert Dahlqvist, Swedish guitarist and singer (d. 2017)
 1977 – Fredrik Ljungberg, Swedish footballer
 1977 - Thomas Rasmussen, Danish footballer
 1977 – Alek Wek, Sudanese model
 1978 - Lara Dutta, Indian actress and model
 1978 - Igor Tudor, Croatian footballer
 1978 - Nikki Griffin, American actress
 1979 - Sixto Peralta, Argentine footballer
 1979 – Sean Costello, American blues musician (d. 2008)
 1982 - Gina Carano, American actress, television personality, model and former mixed martial artist
 1982 - Boris Diaw, French basketball player
 1983 - Marié Digby, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress
 1984 – Claire Foy, British actress
 1985 – Luol Deng, Sudanese-British basketball player
 1985 – Brendon Leonard, New Zealand rugby player
 1985 - Sam Tillen, English footballer
 1985 – Taye Taiwo, Nigerian footballer
 1986 – Shinji Okazaki, Japanese footballer
 1986 – Paul di Resta, Scottish racing driver
 1986 - Epke Zonderland, Dutch gymnast
 1987 – Aaron Lennon, English footballer
 1987 - Aleksander Vinter, Norwegian musician
 1988 - Hayley Squires, British actress
 1990 - Lily Loveless, British actress
 1990 – Lorraine Nicholson, American actress
 1991 - Kim Kyung-jung, South Korean footballer
 1992 – Prince Sébastien of Luxembourg
 1993 – Mirai Nagasu, American figure skater
 1993 - Chance the Rapper, American singer and rapper
 1994 – Liliana Mumy, American actress
 1996 - Kento Misao, Japanese footballer
 2002 - Sadie Sink, American actress
 2008 – Princess Eléonore of Belgium

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 69 – Otho, Roman Emperor (b. 32)
 665 - Fructuosus of Braga, French archbishop and saint
 744 – al-Walid II ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad caliph
 1113 - Sviatopolk II of Kiev (b. 1050)
 1118 - Adelaide of Vasto, Italian wife of Roger II of Sicily (b. 1075)
 1198 – Duke Frederick I of Austria
 1687 - George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman and poet (b. 1628)
 1689 – Aphra Behn, dramatist (b. ca. 1640)
 1742 - Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino, Italian poet (b. 1672)
 1756 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (b. 1677)
 1783 - Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (b. 1719)
 1788 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (b. 1707)
 1828 – Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter (b. 1746)
 1846 - Domenico Dragonetti, Italian composer (b. 1763)
 1850 – Marie Tussaud, French creator of waxworks (Madame Tussaud's) (b. 1761)
 1859 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)
 1879 – Bernadette Soubirous, French Roman Catholic saint (b. 1844)
 1888 – Zygmunt Florenty Wroblewski, Polish physicist (b. 1845)
 1898 - Robert Milligan McLane, Governor of Maryland (b. 1815)
 1899 - Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet and revolutionary (b. 1875)

1901  2000 
 1904 – Samuel Smiles, Scottish writer and reformer (b. 1812)
 1914 – George William Hill, astronomer (b. 1838)
 1915 – Nelson W. Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
 1930 - Jose Carlos Mariategui, Peruvian journalist, philosopher and activist (b. 1894)
 1934 - John J. Blaine, 24th Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1875)
 1938 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
 1941 - Hans Driesch, German biologist and philosopher (b. 1867)
 1942 - Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1878)
 1946 – Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and Automobile designer (b. 1884)
 1958 – Rosalind Franklin, British chemist (b. 1920)
 1968 - Fay Bainter, American actress (b. 1893)
 1968 – Edna Ferber, American writer (b. 1885)
 1972 – Kawabata Yasunari, Japanese writer (b. 1899)
 1973 - Istvan Kertesz, Hungarian conductor (b. 1929)
 1973 - Nino Bravo, Spanish pop singer (b. 1944)
 1978 – Lucius Clay, American general (b. 1897)
 1978 - Philibert Tsiranana, President of Madagascar (b. 1912)
 1985 – Scott Brady, American actor (b. 1924)
 1988 - Khalil al-Wazir, Palestinian military leader (b. 1935)
 1991 – David Lean, American movie director (b. 1908)
 1991 - Sergio Peresson, Italian violin maker (b. 1913)
 1992 – Neville Brand, actor (b. 1920)
 1994 – Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1914)
 1995 – Iqbal Masih, Pakistani child slave (b. 1982)
 1996 - Lucille Bremer, American actress and dancer (b. 1927)
 1997 – Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. 1951)
 1997 - Roland Topor, French actor, director and painter (b. 1938)
 1998 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (b. 1913)
 1998 – Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian supercentenarian (b. 1880)

From 2001 
 2001 – Michael Ritchie, American movie director (b. 1938)
 2002 - Oliver Eggimann, Swiss footballer (b. 1919)
 2002 – Ruth Fertel, American restaurateur (b. 1927)
 2002 – Robert Urich, American actor (b. 1946)
 2003 – Graham Stuart Thomas, British horticultural artist, writer, and garden designer (b. 1909)
 2005 – Kay Walsh, British actress (b. 1911)
 2007 – Deaths in the Virginia Tech Massacre:
 Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Canadian French instructor (b. 1958)
 Kevin Granata, American professor of languages (b. 1961)
 Liviu Librescu, Romanian-born engineer and professor (b. 1930)
 Seung-Hui Cho, perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre (b. 1984)
 2007 – Maria Lenk, Brazilian swimmer (b. 1915)
 2008 - Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (b. 1917)
 2010 – Carlos Franqui, Cuban writer and political activist (b. 1921)
 2010 - Tomas Spidlik, Czech cardinal (b. 1919)
 2011 - Allan Blakeney, Canadian politician, 10th Premier of Saskatchewan (b. 1925)
 2012 – Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, Danish shipping magnate (b. 1913)
 2013 - Pat Summerall, American football player (b. 1930)
 2013 - Pentti Lund, Finnish-Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
 2013 - George Beverly Shea, Canadian-American gospel singer (b. 1909)
 2013 - Ali Kafi, Algerian politician (b. 1928)
 2014 - Gyude Bryant, Liberian politician (b. 1949)
 2014 - Ernst Florian Winter, Austrian-American historian and political scientist (b. 1923)
 2014 - Albert André, German Roman Catholic priest (b. 1930)
 2015 - Valery Belousov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1948)
 2015 - Attaphol Buspakom, Thai footballer and coach (b. 1962)
 2015 - Stanislav Gross, 5th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (b. 1969)
 2015 - Lee Remmel, American PR spokesman (b. 1924)
 2015 - Oles Buzina, Ukrainian journalist (b. 1969)
 2015 - Johnny Kemp, Bahamian singer (b. 1959)
 2015 - Heino Kleiminger, German footballer (b. 1939)
 2016 - Rubén Mendoza Ayala, Mexican politician (b. 1961) 
 2016 - Jeanette Bonnier, Swedish media proprietor, journalist and author (b. 1934)
 2016 - Rod Daniel, American film director (b. 1942)
 2016 - William M. Gray, American meteorologist (b. 1929)
 2016 - Charlie Hodge, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1933)
 2016 - Louis Pilot, Luxembourgian footballer (b. 1940)
 2016 - Helmut Rohde, German politician (b. 1925)
 2016 - Peter Rock, Chilean musician and actor (b. 1945)
 2016 - Kit West, British special effects artist (b. 1936)
 2017 - Gianni Boncompagni, Italian television presenter, producer and screenwriter (b. 1932)
 2017 - Arcan Cetin, Turkish-American terrorist (b. 1996)
 2017 - Allan Holdsworth, British guitarist and composer (b. 1946)
 2018 - Harry Anderson, American actor (b. 1952)
 2018 - Choi Eun-hee, South Korean actress (b. 1926)
 2018 - Dona Ivone Lara, Brazilian singer and composer (b. 1921)
 2018 - Ivan Mauger, New Zealand motorcycle speedway rider (b. 1939)
 2018 - Lynn Stout, American law scholar (b. 1957)
 2018 - Pamela Gidley, American actress (b. 1965)
 2018 - Henri Landwirth, Belgian-American hotelier (b. 1927)
 2018 - Paul Singer, Austrian-Brazilian economist (b. 1932)
 2019 - Ahmad Eghtedari, Iranian teacher, writer and lawyer (b. 1925)
 2019 - Guro Fjellanger, Norwegian politician (b. 1964)
 2019 - Jörg Demus, Austrian pianist (b. 1928)
 2019 - Kent Harris, American songwriter and record producer (b. 1930)
 2019 - Suzanne Twelftree, Australian wheelchair tennis player and powerlifter (b. 1956)
 2019 - Hansjörg Auer, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1984)
 2019 - David Lama, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1990)
 2019 - Jess Roskelley, American mountaineer (b. 1982)

Observances 
 Birthday of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
 Emancipation Day (Washington, DC)
 World Voice Day

Days of the year