October 16

## Events 
### Up to 1950 
* 456 &ndash; Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
* 690 &ndash; Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
* 1590 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Great Hurricane of 1780 devastates the Caribbean.
* 1781 &ndash; George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia, after the Siege of Yorktown.
* 1793 &ndash; Marie Antoinette is executed on the guillotine.
* 1813 &ndash; Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Leipzig between Napoleon Bonaparte and the forces of the Sixth Coalition.
* 1834 &ndash; Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
* 1843 &ndash; William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non–commutative extension of complex numbers.
* 1846 &ndash; William T. G. Morton demonstrates anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
* 1859 &ndash; John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).
* 1875 &ndash; Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
* 1905 &ndash; Partition of Bengal in India.
* 1909 &ndash; William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit meeting between Presidents of the United States and Mexico.
* 1916 &ndash; In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States. 
* 1923 &ndash; The Walt Disney Company is founded.
* 1934 &ndash; Chinese Communists begin the Long March.
* 1939 &ndash; World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
* 1940 &ndash; Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
* 1945 &ndash; The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City.
* 1946 &ndash; Execution of Nazi war criminals who were sentenced in the Nuremberg Trials.
* 1949 &ndash; East Germany and the Soviet Union form diplomatic relations.

### 1951 &ndash; 2000 
* 1951 &ndash; Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is assassinated.
* 1962 &ndash; John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of military sites in Cuba.
* 1963 &ndash; Ludwig Erhard is chosen to succeed Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of Germany.
* 1964 &ndash; The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
* 1964 &ndash; Leonid Brezhnev is inaugurated as  General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with Alexei Kosygin becoming Premier.
* 1968 &ndash; 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 &ndash; In response to the October Crisis, Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.
* 1970 &ndash; The University of Augsburg in Bavaria opens.
* 1973 &ndash; Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are announced as the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
* 1975 &ndash; Rahima Banu, a two–year–old girl from Bangladesh, is the last person known to be infected with naturally–occurring smallpox.
* 1978 &ndash; Karol Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II.
* 1978 &ndash; Wanda Rutkiewicz becomes the first person from Poland, and the first European woman, to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
* 1984 &ndash; Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
* 1984 &ndash; The British TV series The Bill is first shown.
* 1986 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people.
* 1994 &ndash; The majority of voters in Finland support entry into the EU.
* 1995 &ndash; The Skye Bridge, linking the Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland, is opened.
* 1995 &ndash; Million–Man March on Washington, DC.
* 1996 &ndash; 84 people are crushed to death at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala.
* 1998 &ndash; Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London after Spain issued an arrest warrant for murder.

### From 2001 
* 2002 &ndash; The Bibliotheca Alexandrina library is opened in Alexandria, Egypt.
* 2006 &ndash; A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Hawaii, causing widespread damage.
* 2012 &ndash; Planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered orbiting a star outside the Solar System.
* 2013 &ndash; Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.
* 2013 &ndash; Erna Solberg becomes Prime Minister of Norway, succeeding Jens Stoltenberg. Solberg is Norway's second female Prime Minister, after Gro Harlem Brundtland.
* 2013 &ndash; US politicians agree to end the government shutdown, and narrowly avoid the United States being unable to repay its debts.
* 2017 &ndash; The remainder of Hurricane Ophelia hits the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
* 2017 &ndash; Maltese blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is murdered in a car bomb attack.
*2020 &ndash; Murder of Samuel Paty of Islamist terrorism happens.

## Births 
### Up to 1800 
* 1396 &ndash; William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English soldier (d. 1450)
* 1430 &ndash; King James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
* 1483 &ndash; Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
* 1535 &ndash; Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
* 1620 &ndash; Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
* 1663 &ndash; Prince Eugene of Savoy, French–born Austrian general (d. 1736)
* 1679 &ndash; Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (d. 1745)
* 1710 &ndash; Andreas Hadik, Austro–Hungarian general (d. 1790)
* 1714 &ndash; Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
* 1726 &ndash; Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
* 1729 &ndash; Pierre van Maldere, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1768)
* 1751 &ndash; Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Queen of Prussia (d. 1805)
* 1752 &ndash; Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian (d. 1827)
* 1754 &ndash; Morgan Lewis, Governor of New York (1804–07) (d. 1844)
* 1758 &ndash; Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
* 1760 &ndash; Jonathan Dayton, American politician (d. 1824)
* 1762 &ndash; Paul Hamilton, Governor of South Carolina (1804–06) and U.S. Secretary of Navy (1809–12) (d. 1816)
* 1789 &ndash; William Burton, Governor of Delaware (1859–63) (d. 1866)
* 1795 &ndash; William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and writer (d. 1876)

### 1801 &ndash; 1900 
* 1802 &ndash; Isaac Murphy, Governor of Arkansas (1864–68) (d. 1882)
* 1804 &ndash; Benjamin Russell, American artist (d. 1885)
* 1806 &ndash; William Pitt Fessenden, U.S. Secretary of Treasury (1864–65) (d. 1869)
* 1815 &ndash; Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
* 1819 &ndash; Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire (d. 1886)
* 1831 &ndash; Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (d. 1910)
* 1840 &ndash; Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
* 1841 &ndash; Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea and 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)
* 1847 &ndash; Maria Pia of Savoy (d. 1911)
* 1849 &ndash; George Washington Williams, American jurist, historian and politician (d. 1891)
* 1854 &ndash; Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
* 1854 &ndash; Karl Kautsky, Czech–born German theoretician (d. 1938)
* 1855 &ndash; Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (d. 1931)
* 1861 &ndash; J. B. Bury, Irish historian (d. 1927)
* 1863 &ndash; Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
* 1876 &ndash; Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer, rugby union and soccer player (d. 1913)
* 1878 &ndash; Eugenio Canfari, Italian sports official (d. 1962)
* 1878 &ndash; Miguel Llobet, Catalan guitarist and composer (d. 1938)
* 1878 &ndash; Maxie Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
* 1884 &ndash; Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
* 1885 &ndash; Dorando Pietri, Italian marathon runner (d. 1942)
* 1886 &ndash; David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
* 1886 &ndash; Armin T. Wegner, German poet (d. 1978)
* 1888 &ndash; Eugene O'Neill, American writer (d. 1953)
* 1890 &ndash; Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
* 1890 &ndash; Maria Goretti, Italian murder victim and saint (d. 1902)
* 1895 &ndash; Ling Hau Shang, Convicted Triad Leader (d. 1954)
* 1897 &ndash; Louis de Cazenave, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
* 1900 &ndash; Primo Conti, Italian painter and poet (d. 1988)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1901 &ndash; Federico Munerati, Italian footballer (d. 1980)
* 1903 &ndash; Big Joe Williams, American blues guitarist (d. 1982)
* 1905 &ndash; Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer (d. 1990)
* 1908 &ndash; Enver Hoxha, Albanian political leader (d. 1985)
* 1912 &ndash; Clifford Hansen, American politician, Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)
* 1914 &ndash; Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (d. 2007)
* 1918 &ndash; Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
* 1918 &ndash; Géori Boué, French soprano (d. 2017)
* 1918 &ndash; Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician (d. 2013)
* 1918 &ndash; Henri Vernes, Belgian writer and comics creator
* 1922 &ndash; Max Bygraves, English singer, songwriter and entertainer (d. 2012)
* 1923 &ndash; Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby commentator (d. 2010)
* 1923 &ndash; Linda Darnell, American actress (d. 1965)
* 1925 &ndash; Angela Lansbury, British–born actress
* 1927 &ndash; Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
* 1928 &ndash; Mary Daly, American philosopher, theologian and professor (d. 2010)
* 1928 &ndash; Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress (d. 2016)
* 1929 &ndash; Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress
* 1929 &ndash; Ivor Allchurch, Welsh footballer (d. 1997)
* 1930 &ndash; John Polkinghorne, English physicist, theologian and priest
* 1930 &ndash; Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress and singer
* 1931 &ndash; Valery Klimov, Ukrainian–Russian violinist
* 1931 &ndash; Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator (d. 2012)
* 1932 &ndash; Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, German politician and manager (d. 1991)
* 1932 &ndash; Gudbergur Bergsson, Icelandic writer
* 1936 &ndash; Akira Machida, Japanese judge, 15th Chief Justice of Japan
* 1936 &ndash; Peter Bowles, English actor
* 1936 &ndash; Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (d. 1994)
* 1938 &ndash; Nico, German musician, fashion model and actress (d. 1988)
* 1940 &ndash; Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
* 1941 &ndash; Baddeley Devesi, 1st Governor–General of the Solomon Islands (d. 2012)
* 1941 &ndash; Tim McCarver, American baseball player and sportscaster
* 1941 &ndash; Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician
* 1943 &ndash; Fred Turner, Canadian bassist (Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
* 1946 &ndash; Suzanne Somers, American actress
* 1947 &ndash; Bob Weir, American singer and musician
* 1947 &ndash; Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
* 1947 &ndash; David Zucker, American director and screenwriter
* 1950 &ndash; Angry Grandpa, American internet personality (d. 2017)

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1952 &ndash; Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton, English politician
* 1954 &ndash; Corinna Harfouch, German actress
* 1954 &ndash; Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Scottish politician
* 1956 &ndash; Marin Alsop, American conductor
* 1958 &ndash; Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
* 1959 &ndash; Tessa Munt, English politician
* 1959 &ndash; John Whittingdale, English politician
* 1960 &ndash; Bob Mould, American singer and guitarist
* 1960 &ndash; Cressida Dick, English police officer, Head of the London Metropolitan Police
* 1960 &ndash; Guy LeBlanc, Canadian keyboardist and composer (d. 2015)
* 1961 &ndash; Yahiro Kazama, Japanese footballer
* 1962 &ndash; Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (d. 2010)
* 1962 &ndash; Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer (d. 2017)
* 1962 &ndash; Flea, Australian–American musician (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
* 1964 &ndash; Kathryn Edwards, American model, actress, television personality, and philanthropist
* 1964 &ndash; James Thompson, American–Finnish author (d. 2014)
* 1965 &ndash; Steve Lamacq, British DJ
* 1965 &ndash; Tom Tolbert, American basketball player
* 1966 &ndash; Stefan Reuter, German footballer
* 1967 &ndash; Davina McCall, English television presenter
* 1968 &ndash; Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer and conductor
* 1970 &ndash; Mehmet Scholl, German footballer
* 1972 &ndash; Adrianne Frost, American comedienne, actress and author
* 1972 &ndash; Tomas Lindberg, Swedish singer-songwriter
* 1973 &ndash; Justin Credible, American wrestler
* 1973 &ndash; Thomas Myhre, Norwegian footballer
* 1974 &ndash; Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1975 &ndash; Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer
* 1975 &ndash; Kellie Martin, American actress and director

### From 1976 
* 1977 &ndash; John Mayer, American singer–songwriter
* 1979 &ndash; Erin Brown, American actress, model, movie maker and musician
* 1982 &ndash; Prithotraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, producer and singer
* 1982 &ndash; Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
* 1982 &ndash; Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
* 1983 &ndash; Rémi Ochlik, French photographer (d. 2012)
* 1983 &ndash; Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player
* 1983 &ndash; Loreen, Swedish singer
* 1984 &ndash; Shayne Ward, English singer, winner of the 2005 * X Factor*
* 1985 &ndash; Verena Sailer, German sprinter
* 1985 &ndash; Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
* 1986 &ndash; Inna, Romanian singer
* 1986 &ndash; Craig Pickering, British sprinter
* 1988 &ndash; Zoltan Stieber, Hungarian footballer
* 1988 &ndash; Max Thieriot, American actor
* 1988 &ndash; Tumua Anae, American water polo player
* 1989 &ndash; Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player
* 1990 &ndash; Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir (Yohanna), Icelandic singer
* 1990 &ndash; Amina Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48)
* 1991 &ndash; Jedward, Irish pop singers
* 1992 &ndash; Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player
* 1992 &ndash; Bryce Harper, American baseball player
* 1994 &ndash; Amelia Lily, English singer
* 1997 &ndash; Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player
* 2003 &ndash; Princess Kritika of Nepal, Nepalese princess

## Deaths 
### Up to 1900 
* 640 &ndash; Saint Gall, monk and missionary (b. around 550)
* 1333 &ndash; Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
* 1355 &ndash; Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)
* 1396 &ndash; Agnolo Gaddi, Italian painter
* 1553 &ndash; Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
* 1591 &ndash; Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
* 1628 &ndash; Francois de Malherbe, French poet (b. 1555)
* 1655 &ndash; Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician and theorist (b. 1591)
* 1730 &ndash; Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French–American explorer and politician (b. 1658)
* 1750 &ndash; Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer (b. 1687)
* 1755 &ndash; Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)
* 1791 &ndash; Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and statesman (b. 1739)
* 1793 &ndash; Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (b. 1755)
* 1793 &ndash; John Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b. 1728)
* 1796 &ndash; Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
* 1799 &ndash; Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian activist (b. 1760)
* 1822 &ndash; Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian ballet dancer (b. 1724)
* 1888 &ndash; John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1913 &ndash; Ralph Rose, American athlete (b. 1885)
* 1937 &ndash; Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
* 1944 &ndash; Jon Sveinsson, Icelandic writer (b. 1857)
* 1946 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
* 1951 &ndash; Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1895)
* 1952 &ndash; Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian–Pakistani Muslim leader and poet (b. 1876)
* 1954 &ndash; Jules Rimet, French football administrator (b. 1873)
* 1959 &ndash; George Marshall, United States Secretary of State (b. 1880)
* 1962 &ndash; Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
* 1966 &ndash; George O'Hara, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1899)
* 1971 &ndash; Robin Boyd, Australian architect (b. 1919)
* 1973 &ndash; Gene Krupa, American drummer and composer (b. 1909)
* 1975 &ndash; Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)
* 1981 &ndash; Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
* 1982 &ndash; Mario del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)
* 1983 &ndash; Jakob Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
* 1983 &ndash; Willi Ritschard, Swiss politician (b. 1918)
* 1989 &ndash; Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
* 1990 &ndash; Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (b. 1919)
* 1991 &ndash; Ole Beich, Danish bass player (b. 1955)
* 1992 &ndash; Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (b. 1898)
* 1997 &ndash; James Michener, American writer (b. 1907)

### From 2001 
* 2003 &ndash; Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
* 2004 &ndash; Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
* 2006 &ndash; Valentin Paniagua Corazao, President of Peru (b. 1936)
* 2007 &ndash; Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)
* 2007 &ndash; Tose Proeski, Macedonian singer (b. 1981)
* 2010 &ndash; Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)
* 2011 &ndash; Dan Wheldon, British auto racer (b. 1978)
* 2012 &ndash; Eddie Yost, American baseball player (b. 1926)
* 2013 &ndash; Ed Lauter, American actor (b. 1938)
* 2014 &ndash; John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English peer (b. 1926)
* 2014 &ndash; Patrick Paul D'Souza, Indian bishop (b. 1928)
* 2014 &ndash; Sumi Haru, American actress (b. 1939)
* 2014 &ndash; Tim Hauser, American musician (b. 1941)
* 2015 &ndash; Ralph Andrews, American television producer (b. 1928)
* 2015 &ndash; Francesc de Paula Burguera, Spanish journalist (b. 1928)
* 2016 &ndash; Anthony Foley, Irish rugby player and coach (b. 1973)
* 2016 &ndash; Kigeli V, former King of Rwanda (b. 1936)
* 2016 &ndash; Arsen Pavlov, Russian soldier (b. 1983)
* 2017 &ndash; Roy Dotrice, English actor (b. 1923)
* 2017 &ndash; Sean Hughes, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1965)
* 2017 &ndash; Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese blogger and journalist (b. 1964)
* 2017 &ndash; John Dunsworth, Canadian actor (b. 1946)
* 2024 &ndash; Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas (b. 1962)

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