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.
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, led 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 Jordan River 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 - Bjorgvin Halldorsson, 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 Benitez, 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 - Esbjorn 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 Martinez, 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)
1980 - Reeyot Alemu, Ethiopian journalist
1982 - Gina Carano, American actress, television personality, model and former mixed martial artist
1982 - Boris Diaw, French basketball player
1983 - Marie 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 Sebastien 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 Eleonore 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 Andre, 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 - Ruben 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 - Jorg 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 - Hansjorg 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