October 16

### 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.

### 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 – Kathryn Edwards, American model, actress, television personality, and philanthropist
- 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

### 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)
- 2024 – Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas (b. 1962)

## Observances

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