August 16

Events
Up to 1900
1 BC China: Wang Mang is declared marshal of the state. Emepror Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no living heirs.
1513 Battle of Guinegate: Henry VIII of England and his imperial allies defeat French forces who are then forced to retreat.
1728 Vitus Bering reaches the Diomede Islands between Siberia and Alaska in the now-named Bering Strait.
1777 American Revolutionary War: American troops defeat British forces at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1780 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - British forces defeat American forces near Camden, South Carolina.
1787 Lieutenant William Bligh takes command of HMAV Bounty.
1801 Horatio Nelson fails in an attempt to attack a French fleet in Boulogne-sur-Mer on France's English Channel coast.
1812 War of 1812 - American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit, without a fight, to the British Army.
1812 Arnold Abbuehl, Joseph Bortis and Alois Volker become the first people to climb the mountain Finsteraarhorn in the Swiss Alps.
1819 Peterloo Massacre: 17 people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, UK.
1858 US President James Buchanan inaugurates a new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. A weak line forces the service to close after just a few weeks.
1863 Fighting starts between the Dominican Republic and Spain over Dominican independence.
1868 Arica, in Peru (now in Chile) is hit by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake. Resulting tsunamis kill thousands of people.
1870 Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
1896 Klondike Gold Rush: Keish, George Carnack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon, northwestern Canada.
1901 2000
1906 A magnitude 8.2 earthquake strikes Valparaiso, Chile, killing almost 3,900 people.
1913 Tohoku Imperial University becomes the first university in Japan to allow female students to study at its institution.
1914 World War I: The Battle of Cer begins troops of Austria-Hungary enter Serbian territory.
1930 The first colour sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is created by Ub Iwerks.
1930 The first British Empire Games begin in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In later years, these games become better known as the Commonwealth Games.
1935 The first successful climb of Gunnbjorn Fjeld, the highest mountain in Greenland, takes place.
1936 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany end.
1936 Spanish Civil War: Republican troops land on Mallorca, starting the Battle of Mallorca.
1942 German U-Boat U-507 sinks three civilian Brazilian ships off Brazil's coast. They are Araraguara (131 killed), Anibal Benevelo (150 killed) and Baependy (270 killed).
1944 First flight of a Junkers Ju 287 aircraft.
1945 Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor, and ruler of Manchuria, is captured by Soviet troops.
1945 An assassination attempt is made on Prime Minister of Japan Kantaro Suzuki.
1945 Poland cedes 46 % of its previous territory to the Soviet Union.
1946 Mass riots begin in Kolkata, killing 4,000 people in 3 days.
1954 The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.
1960 Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1960 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico.
1962 The Beatles fire Pete Best and hire Ringo Starr.
1962 Algeria joins the Arab League.
1964 A coup occurs in South Vietnam, where President Duong Van Minh is replaced by Nguyen Khanh.
1972 An unsuccessful coup attempt is made in Morocco, as the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires at the plane of King Hassan II of Morocco, who is flying back to the capital, Rabat, at the time.
1974 The Ramones play their first show in the New York City nightclub CBGB's.
1975 Police arrest serial killer Ted Bundy.
1976 A magnitude 7.9 earthquake strikes the island of Mindanao, Philippines.
1976 ABBA's hit single Dancing Queen is released.
1977 Singer, musician and actor Elvis Presley dies at the age of 42, leading to a worldwide outpouring of grief.
1987 A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft of Northwest Airlines crashes in Detroit, killing 154 people, leaving only one survivor.
1988 The dam of the Bagauda Reservoir in Nigeria breaks, killing 23 people.
1989 A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips.
From 2001
2004 Heavy rains cause a river to flood the small coastal town of Boscastle in Cornwall, England.
2004 The Cassini Huygens space probe discovers two moons of Saturn.
2005 A West Caribbean Airlines plane crashes near Machiques in Northwestern Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.
2007 Tropical Storm Erin makes landfall near Lamar, Texas.
2008 The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 423 meters (1,389 feet).
2012 South African police shoot 34 miners dead during an industrial dispute at the Marikana Mine.
2012 Ecuador agrees to give asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who remains in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
2013 Over 80 protestors are killed in violence across Egypt, two days after hundreds of people were killed in Cairo.
2013 The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas sinks off Cebu, Philippines, killing at least 61, and leaving over 59 missing. The accident happened as a result of a collision with a cargo ship.
2013 In addition to the 10,000-meter title six days earlier, Mo Farah also wins the 5,000-meter title at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow. He is only the second man to hold these titles in both the Olympics and World Championships at the same time.
2018 American singer Aretha Franklin dies aged 76 on the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, and on Madonna's 60th birthday.
Births
Up to 1900
1355 Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster (d. 1382)
1378 Hongxi Emperor, Chinese Emperor (d. 1425)
1397 Albert II of Germany, nobleman (d. 1439)
1401 Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault (d. 1436)
1557 Agostino Carracci, Italian painter (d. 1602)
1564 Federico Borromeo, Italian cardinal (d. 1631)
1573 Anna of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1598)
1596 Frederick V, Elector Palatine (d. 1632)
1604 Bernard of Saxony-Weimar, German general (d. 1639)
1645 Jean de la Bruyere, French writer (d. 1696)
1650 Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian mapmaker (d. 1718)
1682 Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1712)
1744 Pierre Mechain, French physician (d. 1804)
1761 Yevstingney Fomin, Russian composer (d. 1800)
1798 Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1859)
1802 Isaac Adams, American inventor (d. 1883)
1815 John Bosco, Italian Catholic priest (d. 1888)
1820 Andrew Rainsford Wetmore, 1st Premier of New Brunswick (d. 1892)
1821 Arthur Cayley, English mathematician (d. 1895)
1831 John Jones Ross, 7th Premier of Quebec (d. 1901)
1832 Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (d. 1920)
1842 Jakob Rosanes, Ukrainian-German mathematician, chess player and academic (d. 1922)
1845 Gabriel Lippmann, French physicist (d. 1921)
1849 Johan Kjeldahl, Danish chemist (d. 1900)
1855 James McGowen, Australian politician, 18th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1922)
1856 Aparicio Saravia, Uruguayan politician and military leader (d. 1904)
1860 Jules Laforgue, French poet (d. 1887)
1862 Amos Alonzo Stagg, American baseball player and coach (d. 1965)
1864 Elsie Inglis, Scottish physician and suffragist (d. 1917)
1865 James Joseph Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia (d. 1951)
1869 Leon Kauffman, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1952)
1871 Zakaria Paliashvili, Georgian composer (d. 1933)
1876 Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator (d. 1942)
1882 Christian Mortensen, Danish-American supercentenarian (d. 1998)
1884 Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-American writer (d. 1967)
1887 Hugh Dalton, British politician (d. 1962)
1888 T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), British writer and soldier (d. 1935)
1888 Armand J. Piron, American violinist, bandleader and composer (d. 1943)
1891 Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (d. 1971)
1892 Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (d. 1983)
1895 Albert Cohen, Swiss novelist (d. 1981)
1901 1950
1902 Georgette Heyer, British writer (d. 1974)
1904 Minoru Genda, Japanese military aviator and politician (d. 1989)
1904 Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist (d. 1971)
1905 Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician (d. 1980)
1906 Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1989)
1908 Orlando Cole, American cello teacher (d. 2010)
1911 E. F. Schumacher, German-British economist (d. 1977)
1912 Ted Drake, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1995)
1913 Menachem Begin, 6th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1992)
1920 Charles Bukowski, American writer (d. 1994)
1924 Fess Parker, American actor (d. 2010)
1928 Ann Blyth, American actress and singer
1928 Eydie Gorme, American singer (d. 2013)
1928 Ara Guler, Armenian-Turkish photojournalist (d. 2018)
1929 Helmut Rahn, German footballer (d. 2003)
1929 Bill Evans, American jazz musician, composer and bandleader (d. 1980)
1930 Robert Culp, American actor (d. 2010)
1930 Frank Gifford, American football player and announcer (d. 2015)
1930 Leslie Manigat, 43rd President of Haiti (d. 2014)
1930 Wolfgang Volz, German actor (d. 2018)
1933 Stuart Roosa, American astronaut (d. 1994)
1934 Diana Wynne Jones, British writer (d. 2011)
1934 Pierre Richard, French actor
1935 Andreas Stamatiadis, Greek footballer and coach
1937 Lorraine Gary, American actress
1938 Rocco Granata, Italian singer
1938 Bill Masterton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1968)
1939 Valery Ryumin, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut
1939 Trevor McDonald, Trinidadian-British broadcaster and journalist
1939 Sean Brady, Irish cardinal and Archbishop of Armagh
1940 Bruce Beresford, Australian director
1940 John Craven, British journalist
1940 Aleksander Mandziara, Polish footballer and coach (d. 2015)
1941 Ahmed al-Mirghani, President of Sudan (d. 2008)
1942 Lesley Turner, Australian tennis player
1944 Kevin Ayers, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1945 Suzanne Farrell, American ballet dancer
1946 Lesley Ann Warren, American actress
1946 Massoud Barzani, First President of Iraqi Kurdistan
1947 Ephraim Inoni, Prime Minister of Cameroon
1947 Carol Moseley Braun, American lawyer and politician
1948 Earl Blumenauer, American politician
1948 Annemarie Huber-Hotz, Swiss Federal Chancellor (d. 2019)
1949 Scott Asheton, American musician (The Stooges)
1950 Hasely Crawford, Trinidadian athlete
1950 Jack Unterweger, Austrian murderer (d. 1994)
1951 1975
1951 Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, President of Nigeria (d. 2010)
1953 Kathie Lee Gifford, American talk show host, singer and actress
1954 James Cameron, Canadian movie director
1954 George Galloway, British politician
1956 Vahan Hovhannisyan, Armenian politician (d. 2014)
1956 R. R. Patil, Indian politician (d. 2015)
1957 Laura Innes, American actress
1957 Phil Murphy, American politician, diplomat and investment banker, 56th Governor of New Jersey
1958 Madonna, American singer and actress
1958 Angela Bassett, American actress
1958 Oscar Collodo, Swiss-Italian rugby player and coach
1960 Timothy Hutton, American actor
1960 Franz Welser-Most, Austrian conductor
1962 Ayub Bachchu, Bangladeshi singer-songwriter (d. 2018)
1962 Steve Carell, American actor and comedian
1963 Christine Cavanaugh, American voice actress (d. 2014)
1964 Jimmy Arias, American tennis player
1964 Barry Venison, English footballer and journalist
1967 Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish-British television personality
1970 Fabio Casartelli, Italian cyclist (d. 1995)
1970 Manisha Koirala, Nepalese Bollywood actress
1970 Seth Peterson, American actor
1971 Matthew Bingley, Australian footballer
1971 Dirk Lehmann, German footballer
1971 Stefan Klos, German footballer
1971 Rulon Gardner, American wrestler
1972 Stan Lazaridis, Australian footballer
1972 Emily Robison, American country music singer (Dixie Chicks)
1972 Frankie Boyle, Scottish comedian
1974 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Guyanese cricketer
1974 Ivan Hurtado, Ecuadorean footballer
1975 Didier Agathe, French footballer
1975 Tamara Natalie Madden, Jamaican-American artist (d. 2017)
From 1976
1976 Jonatan Johansson, Finnish footballer
1978 Fu Mingxia, Chinese diver
1979 Cleo Lemon, American NFL player
1980 Hwangbo, South Korean singer, rapper and actress
1980 Vanessa Carlton, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1980 Robert Hardy, British musician (Franz Ferdinand)
1981 Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguayan footballer
1982 Joleon Lescott, English footballer
1983 Poom Jensen, Thai royal (d. 2004)
1983 Nikolaos Zisis, Greek basketball player
1984 Candice Dupree, American basketball player
1984 Matteo Anesi, Italian speed skater
1987 Carey Price, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 Kevin Schmidt, American actor
1989 Wang Hao, Chinese athlete
1991 G.E.M., Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress
1991 Kwon Ri-se, South Korean singer (d. 2014)
1991 Evanna Lynch, Irish actress
1991 Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Canadian actress
1993 Cameron Monaghan, American actor
1997 Greyson Chance, American singer
1997 Piper Curda, American actress and singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
1027 King Giorgi I of Georgia (b. 998)
1297 John II of Trebizond (b. 1262)
1358 Albert II, Duke of Austria (b. 1298)
1419 Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, King of Bohemia (b. 1361)
1443 Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (b. 1434)
1445 Margaret of Scotland, Consort of Louis XI of France (b. 1424)
1532 John, Elector of Saxony (b. 1468)
1705 Jakob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and scientist (b. 1654)
1791 Charles-Francois de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1719)
1836 Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (b. 1755)
1880 Herschel Vespasian Johnson, American politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1812)
1886 Ramakrishna, Bengali saint (b. 1836)
1888 John Pemberton, American inventor of Coca-Cola (b. 1831)
1893 Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist (b. 1825)
1899 Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
1900 Eca de Queiroz, Portuguese writer (b. 1845)
1901 2000
1910 Pedro Montt, President of Chile (b. 1849)
1911 Patrick Francis Moran, Irish-Australian cardinal (b. 1830)
1921 Peter I of Serbia (b. 1844)
1937 Rodolfo Chiari, President of Panama (b. 1869)
1938 Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
1940 Henri Desgrange, French journalist (b. 1865)
1945 Takijiro Onishi, Japanese naval leader (b. 1891)
1948 Babe Ruth, American baseball player (b. 1895)
1949 Margaret Mitchell, American writer (b. 1900)
1951 Louis Jouvet, French actor and producer (b. 1887)
1956 Bela Lugosi, Hungarian actor (b. 1882)
1957 Irving Langmuir, American chemist (b. 1881)
1959 Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (b. 1879)
1961 Maulvi Abdul Haq, Indian Urdu educator and linguist (b. 1870)
1972 Pierre Brasseur, French actor (b. 1905)
1973 Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-American biochemist (b. 1888)
1975 Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian distance runner (b. 1927)
1977 Elvis Presley, American singer and actor (b. 1935)
1978 Tjarda von Starkenborgh Stachouwer, Dutch nobleman and statesman (b. 1888)
1979 John Diefenbaker, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1895)
1986 Jaime Saenz, Bolivian writer (b. 1921)
1989 Amanda Blake, American actress (b. 1929)
1989 Jean-Hilaire Aubame, Prime Minister of Gabon (b. 1912)
1991 Luigi Zampa, Italian movie director (b. 1905)
1993 Stewart Granger, British actor (b. 1913)
1998 Dorothy West, American author (b. 1907)
From 2001
2002 Abu Nidal, Palestinian political leader (b. 1937)
2003 Idi Amin, Dictator of Uganda (b. around 1928)
2004 Ivan Hlinka, Czech ice hockey coach (b. 1950)
2005 Frere Roger, Swiss monk and mystic (b. 1915)
2006 Alfredo Stroessner, President of Paraguay (b. 1912)
2007 Max Roach, American musician and composer (b. 1924)
2008 Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (The Dubliners) (b. 1934)
2009 Warren E. Earnes, 46th Governor of Missouri (b. 1923)
2010 Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek military officer (b. 1923)
2010 Nicola Cabibbo, Italian physicist (b. 1935)
2011 Andrej Bajuk, Slovenian banker and politician (b. 1943)
2012 Abune Paulos, Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch (b. 1935)
2012 William Windom, American actor (b. 1923)
2013 Roy Bonisteel, Canadian journalist and television host (b. 1930)
2014 Peter Scholl-Latour, German historian and author (b. 1924)
2014 Fernand St. Germain, American politician (b. 1928)
2015 Shuja Khanzada, Pakistani politician (b. 1943)
2016 Joao Havelange, Brazilian football official, President of FIFA (b. 1916)
2017 Vera Glagoleva, Russian actress (b. 1956)
2017 David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, British peer (b. 1928)
2017 Roger Pinto Molina, Bolivian politician (b. 1960)
2017 Jon Shepodd, American actor (b. 1924)
2017 Vicente Sota, Chilean politician (b. 1924)
2018 Benny Andersen, Danish writer and pianist (b. 1929)
2018 Donald E. Edwards, American general (b. 1937)
2018 Aretha Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
2018 Kim Yong-chun, North Korean politician (b. 1936)
2018 Yelena Shushunova, Russian gymnast (b. 1969)
2018 Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (b. 1924)
2019 Gustavo Barreiro, Cuban-American politician (b. 1959)
2019 Princess Christina of the Netherlands (b. 1947)
2019 Peter Fonda, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1940)
2019 Felice Gimondi, Italian cyclist (b. 1942)
2019 Faisal Masud, Pakistani physician and educator (b. 1954)
2019 Jose Napoles, Cuban-Mexican boxer (b. 1940)
2019 Richard Williams, Canadian-British animator and director (b. 1933)
Observances
Battle of Bennington Day (Vermont)
Days of the year