/year

May 16 in history

205 sourced entries recorded on May 16, from 268 BCE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 268 BCEAshoka becomes emperor of the Maurya Empire.source
  • 218Julia Maesa, an aunt of the assassinated Emperor Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus, and declares her grandson Elagabalus, age 14, emperor of Rome.source
  • 946Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne after a 16-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother Murakami, who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.source
  • 1023From his capital at Mainz in Germany, Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, issues a grant of lands in Tragoess (now in Austria) to the Göss Abbey.source
  • 1204Baldwin, Count of Flanders, is crowned emperor of the Latin Empire a week after his election by the members of the Fourth Crusade.source
  • 1223Mstislav Mstislavich leads a small detachment of his own men, and some Polovtsians to the far bank of the Dnieper River – where they attack a part of the Mongol advance guard. The Mongols promptly fleeing into the steppes. Mstislavich pursues them and captures their commander named Gemyabek or Hamabek who seeks refuge behind a wooden fence surrounding a Polovtsian burial site. The captive's fate is sealed when the Polovtsians ask Mstislavich to hand him over – to execute.source
  • 1303King Edward I of England assembles 7,500 troops at Roxburgh to prepare for a resumption of his campaign against the Kingdom of Scotland, to begin after concluding peace between England and France. In advance of the invasion, Edward orders that three pre-fabricated pontoon bridges be built and transported, in a fleet of 27 ships. After crossing into Scotland, Edward and his soldiers burns hamlet and towns, granges and granaries. Meanwhile, Richard Óg de Burgh, "the Red Earl" with forces from Ireland capture the castles of Rothesay and Inverkip.source
  • 1321Johan de Bosco, a French person diagnosed with leprosy, claims that a fellow leper, "Geraldus" is attempting to spread their disease by contaminating wells, fountains, and rivers with bags of powder that will give leprosy to anyone who drinks from the water source. Rumors spread in southern France that French Jews are responsible, and is known as the 1321 lepers' plot.source
  • 1426In Burma, Kale Kye-Taung Nyo, ruler of the Kingdom of Ava, flees his capital. He is succeeded by Mohnyin Thado, who receives Thinkhaya III of Toungoo.source
  • 1439Pope Eugene, already found to be in contempt of the Council of Basel, is declared by the Council to be a heretic.source
  • 1466Jahan Shah, Sultan of the Empire of Qara Qoyunlu that comprises most of what is now Iran, and parts of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq, begins an attempt to reclaim imperial territories from his younger brother, Uzun Hasan, and sets off from Tabriz with a large army.source
  • 1511Five Roman Catholic cardinals, including Federico di Sanseverino, sign a document calling upon Pope Julius II to convene a council in Pisa to discuss reform of the Roman Catholic Church, to take place on September 1. After the Pope threatens him with excommunication, Sanseverino elects not to attend.source
  • 1527In Florence, the Piagnon, a group devoted to the memory of Girolamo Savonarola, drive out the Medici for a second time, re-establishing the Republic of Florence until 1530.source
  • 1532Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.source
  • 1546Writing from Portuguese India, Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier asks King João III of Portugal, proposing what will become the Goa Inquisition of 1561.source
  • 1568Mary, Queen of Scots, flees across the Solway Firth from Scotland to England but on May 19 is placed in custody in Carlisle Castle on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I, her cousin.source
  • 1568Mary, Queen of Scots, flees across the Solway Firth from Scotland to England but on May 19 is placed in custody in Carlisle Castle on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I of England, her cousin.source
  • 1573The Henry, Duke of Anjou, son of the late King Henry II of France is elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Polish nobility, after being nominated on May 11.source
  • 1599The Kalmar Bloodbath takes place in Kalmar, Sweden.source
  • 1605Camillo Borghese, Cardinal Vicar of Rome and cardinal-priest of Sant'Eusebio is elected the 233rd pope, and takes the name of Pope Paul V. Another "Year of Three Popes" will not occur until 373 years later, in 1978. Borghese is elected as a compromise candidate after the physical disagreements during the conclave.source
  • 1625May 15–16 – Rebellious farmers are hanged in Vocklamarkt, Upper Austria.source
  • 1629May 14–28 – Huguenot rebellions: After a 15-day siege, Louis XIII of France captures Privas.source
  • 1644Action of 16 May 1644source
  • 1648England's Commonwealth Army massacres 70 Cornish royalists at Penzance, leading to a rebellion against England's Parliamentarians.source
  • 1648Parliamentarians massacre 70 Cornish royalists at Penzance, leading to a local rising which is put down in The Gear Rout.source
  • 1662hearth tax is introduced in England, Wales and Scotland.source
  • 1662The hearth tax is introduced in England and Wales.source
  • 1690The Battle of Port Royal takes place in Nova Scotia after an invasion by a militia of 446 soldiers and 226 sailors from the Massachusetts Bay Colony on seven warships. With only 90 French colonial soldiers to defend Port-Royal, Acadian Governor Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Menneval surrenders before the end of the day.source
  • 1691Jacob Leisler is hanged for treason.source
  • 1695Thomas Tenison enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first Primate of All England since the Reformation to be installed in person at Canterbury Cathedral.source
  • 1696A total lunar eclipse is visible in western Europe and Africa.source
  • 1702Much of the city of Uppsala, Sweden is destroyed in a fire.source
  • 1717Voltaire is sentenced to eleven months in the Bastille and banished from Paris for criticizing the Duc D'Orléans; while in prison he writes his first play, Oedipe ("Oedipus")source
  • 1728Saint Margaret of Cortona, the patron saint of the falsely accused, homeless people and mental illness sufferers, is canonized.source
  • 1750Two weeks after police in Paris arrest six teenagers for gambling in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, rioting breaks out when a rumor spreads that plainclothes policemen are hauling off small children between the ages of five and ten years old, in order to provide blood to an ailing aristocrat. Over the next two weeks, rioting breaks out in other sections of Paris. Police are attacked, including one who is beaten to death by the mob, until order is restored and police reforms are announced.source
  • 1750Two weeks after police in Paris arrest six teenagers for gambling in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, rioting breaks out when a rumor spreads that plainclothes policemen are hauling off small children between the ages of five and ten years old, in order to provide blood to an ailing aristocrat. Over the next two weeks, rioting breaks out in other sections of the city. Police are attacked, including one who is beaten to death by the mob, until order is restored and police reforms are announced.source
  • 1760Three British Royal Navy ships under the command of Commodore Robert Swanton on HMS Vanguard arrive to break the siege of Quebec before Marshal Lévis can recapture the city from the British.source
  • 1763James Boswell is introduced to Samuel Johnson at Thomas Davies's bookshop in London.source
  • 1767Ahmed al-Ghazzal, the emissary from Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah of Morocco to the Spanish Empire, makes a triumphant return to Marrakesh with almost 300 Muslims who had been held captive in Spain, as well as sacred Islamic manuscripts that had been seized by the Spanish in 1612. The negotiation of the release had started with al-Ghazzal's meeting with Spain's King Carlos III on August 21, 1766.source
  • 1768Evan Lloyd is fined £50 after being found guilty of libel against William Price.source
  • 1770The new Opéra royal de Versailles, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, is inaugurated.source
  • 177014-year-old Marie Antoinette of Austria marries Louis-Auguste (who in 1774 becomes King Louis XVI) at the Palace of Versailles.source
  • 177014-year-old Marie Antoinette of Austria marries Louis-Auguste (who in 1774 becomes King Louis XVI) at the Palace of Versaillessource
  • 1771War of the Regulation – Battle of Alamance: Regulators reject an appeal by Governor Tryon to disperse peacefully. Governor Tryon's forces crush the rebellion, causing many Regulators to move to frontier areas outside of North Carolina.source
  • 1772A treaty between Christian VII and the Bey of Algiers brings an end to the Danish-Algerian War.source
  • 1772End of the Dano–Algerian War.source
  • 1776May 15–26 – American Revolution: Battle of the Cedars – British forces skirmish with the American Continental Army around Les Cèdres, Quebec.source
  • 1777Gwinnett–McIntosh duel: Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.source
  • 1792Denmark declares transatlantic slave trade illegal after 1803 (though slavery continues until 1848)source
  • 1792The Medal of Merit is established.source
  • 1797HDMS Najaden in battle with local ships off Tripoli.source
  • 1806A British Order in Council of 16 May 1806 declares all ports from Brest (France) to the Elbe to be under a state of blockade by the British Royal Navy.source
  • 1806The Order in Council of 16 May 1806 declares all ports from Brest (France) to the Elbe to be under a state of blockade by the Royal Navy.source
  • 1810Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes his book Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours).source
  • 1811Peninsular War – Battle of Albuera: Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain defeat the French.source
  • 1811The Earl of Caledon issues a proclamation to establish circuit courts in the Cape Colony. These courts, composed of two members from the Court of Justice, were designed to hear both civil and criminal cases in the outlying districts of Swellendam, George, Uitenhage, Graaff-Reinet, and Tulbagh. The system introduced public trials and the use of oral (viva voce) testimony for the first time at the Cape. According to legal historian H.J. Erasmus, this extended legal protection to Khoikhoi laborers and other "black employees". This led to the notable "Black Circuit" in 1812, where numerous charges were brought against white colonists on behalf of Khoikhoi servants.source
  • 1812Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War (1806–12) and annexing Bessarabia to Imperial Russia.source
  • 1816Beau Brummell flees England by way of the port of Dover, sailing to France in order to escape his gambling debts.source
  • 1822Nairs, the upper caste in British Raj, attack Sandar women for covering their upper body and breasts.source
  • 1823William White and others arrive in the St Michael to reinforce the Wesleyan missionaries in the Bay of Islands.source
  • 1832Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.source
  • 1833James Busby meets 22 leading chiefs at Paihia and reads them a message from King William IV.source
  • 1843French conquest of Algeria: Battle of the Smala - French troops led by Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, are victorious over Algerian forces led by Emir Abdelkader.source
  • 1846The Revolution of Maria da Fonte begins in Portugal. It will be by royalist troops on February 22, 1847.source
  • 1846Māori led by Te Mamaku attack the fortified outpost at Boulcott's farm near the modern-day Belmont in the Hutt Valley. Six troopers and an unknown number of Māori are killed as the attack is repulsed.source
  • 1846Under the leadership of British Prime Minister Robert Peel, the British Parliament repeals the Corn Laws, replacing the old Colonial mercantile trade system with Free Trade.source
  • 1850Battleship Le Napoléon is launched.source
  • 1856The Vigilance Committee is founded in San Francisco, California. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18.source
  • 1862Habeas Corpus Act restricts the right of English courts to issue writs of habeas corpus in British colonies or dominions.source
  • 1866The United States Congress approves the minting of a nickel 5-cent coin (nickel), eliminating its predecessor, the half dime.source
  • 1866The U.S. Congress approves the minting of a nickel 5-cent coin (nickel), eliminating its predecessor, the half dime.source
  • 1868May 16 and 26 – President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.source
  • 1874The Mill River dam collapses in Massachusetts, killing 139 people.source
  • 1876British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum.source
  • 1876German American "Napoleon of crime" Adam Worth steals Gainsborough's Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire from a London gallery three weeks after its sale at Christie's for 10,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction at this time. It is not recovered until 1901.source
  • 1876Adam Worth steals the Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire from Agnew's gallery in Old Bond Street, London three weeks after its sale at Christie's for 10,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction at this time. It is not recovered until 1901.source
  • 187716 May 1877 crisis in France: Parliament passes a no-confidence motion against the government appointed by President MacMahon.source
  • 1881The world's first regular electric tram service is started near Berlin, by Siemens & Halske.source
  • 1881Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, world's first electric tramway, starts in Berlin.source
  • 1884Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).source
  • 1884Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.source
  • 1897May 10 – 19 zinc miners die of carbon monoxide poisoning at Snaefell Mine on the Isle of Man.source
  • 1897The Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily, the third largest opera house—after the Palais Garnier in Paris and the K. K. Hof-Opernhaus in Vienna—was inaugurated with a performance of Verdi's Falstaff conducted by Leopoldo Mugnone.source
  • 1901TS King Edward is launched at William Denny and Brothers' shipyard in Dumbarton. The first commercial merchant vessel propelled by steam turbines, she enters excursion service on the Firth of Clyde on 1 July.source
  • 1915May 15–21 – The Far Eastern Championship Games take place in Shanghai.source
  • 1916Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of WWI and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, into French and British spheres of influence.source
  • 1917Ole Olsen Malm, physician, veterinarian, civil servant and politician (born 1854).source
  • 1918The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.source
  • 1920Canonization of Joan of Arc: Over 30,000 people attend the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presides over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is richly decorated.source
  • 1925The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1639/40) takes place in Paris.source
  • 1929The 1st Academy Awards are presented in a 15-minute ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, honoring the best movies of 1927 and 1928, Wings (1927) winning Best Picture. Gerald Duffy (died 1928) receives the only Academy Award for Best Title Writing ever awarded (for his intertitles to the silent film The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927)).source
  • 1930Rafael Trujillo is elected president of the Dominican Republic.source
  • 1934Firedamp explosion in Fief-de-Lambrechies and Pâturages kills 57.source
  • 1935Thomas Mackay Cooper becomes Solicitor General for Scotland, replacing Douglas Jamiesonsource
  • 1936Ford Romania open their factory in Bucharest capable of assembling 2,500 cars a year.source
  • 1936May 16–17. Left-wing intellectuals gather to participate in the Lwów Anti-Fascist Congress of Cultural Workers.source
  • 1940President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900,000,000 to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.source
  • 1943May 16–17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.source
  • 1945Éamon de Valera replies in a radio broadcast to Winston Churchill's criticism of Irish neutrality.source
  • 1948New York City Fire Department Rescue 5 is founded for Staten Island.source
  • 1949The Tokyo Stock Exchange resumes operations, after a four-year shutdown.source
  • 1954Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.source
  • 195416 May-26 June – Kengir uprisingsource
  • 1954The Hipódromo de Techo is founded in Bogotá.source
  • 1957Paul-Henri Spaak becomes the new Secretary General of NATO.source
  • 1960Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the U-2 reconnaissance plane flights over the Soviet Union, thus aborting their summit meeting scheduled for Paris this year.source
  • 1960Theodore Maiman operates the first laser.source
  • 1961Park Chung Hee takes over in a military coup, in South Korea.source
  • 1962The opening of Hualien Airport in Hualien County.source
  • 1966The Chinese Communist Party issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.source
  • 1966The Beach Boys releases the album Pet Sounds.source
  • 1967The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of Fo Guang Shan in Dashu Township, Kaohsiung County.source
  • 1968Ronan Point, a 23 floor tower block in Canning Town, east London, partially collapses after a gas explosion, killing 5.source
  • 19681968 Tokachi earthquakesource
  • 1969The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament.source
  • 1969Venera program: Soviet space probe Venera 5 lands on Venus.source
  • 19721972 Balkans Cup: Albania is defeated by Greece 0–2 at Anthi Karagianni Stadium, Kavalasource
  • 1972The establishment of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Xinyi District, Taipei City.source
  • 1974Helmut Schmidt becomes the new Chancellor of West Germany.source
  • 197416 May–9 June – The 57th Giro d'Italia was held. Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx won the race, with Italians Gianbattista Baronchelli and Felice Gimondi finishing second and third.source
  • 1975Sikkim accedes to India after a referendum and abolishes the Chogyal, its monarchy.source
  • 1975Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
  • 1976Farakka Long March was led by Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, demanded demolition of the Farakka Barrage constructed by India to divert flow of Ganges waters inside its territory, triggering the drying up of river Padma and desertification of Bangladesh.source
  • 1977A 20-passenger S-61L topples sideways at takeoff from the roof of the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan. Four passengers are killed by the turning rotors and a woman at street level is killed by a falling blade.source
  • 1982The New York Islanders sweep the Vancouver Canucks in four games to win the 1982 Stanley Cup Final in ice hockey.source
  • 1983Nationalist Democracy Party founded.source
  • 1983Michael Jackson performs the Moonwalk for the first time while performing "Billie Jean" on the Motown 25 television special.source
  • 1985Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey announce the discovery of the ozone hole.source
  • 1985The first case of HIV is diagnosed at the Communicable Diseases Centre (present day National Centre for Infectious Diseases). The patient is subsequently warded at the CDC.source
  • 1986The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.source
  • 1986Paramount Pictures releases Top Gun.source
  • 1988May 16–18 – 1988 Gilgit massacre: A revolt by the Shias of Gilgit (in northern Pakistan) is ruthlessly suppressed by the Zia-ul Haq regime.source
  • 1988The government devalues the Icelandic króna by 10 percent to support the struggling fishing industry amid sliding export prices.source
  • 1989May 12–25 – San Bernardino train disaster: Southern Pacific freight locomotive SP 7551 East derails in a residential area of San Bernardino, California, killing four and destroying seven houses. On May 25, as a direct result of the derailment, the Calnev Pipeline explodes, killing an additional two people and destroying eleven more houses and 21 cars.source
  • 1991Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress during a 13-day royal visit in Washington, D.C.source
  • 1992May 16–17 – Bosnian War: U.N. peacekeepers withdraw from Sarajevo.source
  • 1995Following the Tokyo subway sarin attack two months earlier, Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara. Further police operations result in over two hundred arrests and thirteen members of the cult, including Asahara, are sentenced to death.source
  • 1997First Congo War ends when president Mobutu Sese Seko is exiled from Zaire.source
  • 1997Yaşar Kemal won Peace Prize of the German Book Tradesource
  • 1997U.S. President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and their families.source
  • 2005Prime Minister Zenawi bans demonstrations in the capital of Addis Ababa after allegations by the opposition that the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front has been involved in harassment of opposition members and electoral fraud.source
  • 2005The United Nations World Food Program states that North Korea is in dire need of food aid.source
  • 2007A 6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes in remote northern Laos, and is felt as far away as Bangkok, Thailand, and Hanoi, Vietnam, where shoppers fled malls and high-rise buildings are evacuated. In Luang Prabang, 92 km. from the epicenter, residents said they felt only minor shaking. There were no reports of injuries or severe damage.source
  • 20082008 Ijegun pipeline explosion occurs killing between 10 and 100 people.source
  • 2009May 11–24 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, landing at Edwards Air Force Base May 24.source
  • 2009May 12–16 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 takes place in Moscow, Russia, and is won by Norwegian entrant Alexander Rybak with the song "Fairytale".source
  • 2011The European Union agrees to a €78 billion rescue deal for Portugal. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund.source
  • 2012British musician Oz Bayldon, representing Music4children, establishes a Guinness World Record by performing the highest concert on land, at 6,676 m (21,246 ft), on Mera Peak.source
  • 2013The Nakolo Wind Turbine, the first wind farm in Tonga, is commissioned in Tongatapu.source
  • 2013May 14–18 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 takes place in Malmö, Sweden, and is won by Danish entrant Emmelie de Forest with the song "Only Teardrops".source
  • 2013May 16-18: Malta participates in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.source
  • 2014The Battle of Benghazi leads to the start of the Second Libyan Civil War.source
  • 2014May 13–19 – 2014 Southeast Europe floods. 57 deaths in Serbia.source
  • 2019May 14–18 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 takes place in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is won by Dutch entrant Duncan Laurence with the song "Arcade".source
  • 2020Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman responsible for supporting the Rwandan genocide, is arrested in Asnières-sur-Seine, France, after 26 years as a fugitive.source
  • 20222022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Siege of Mariupol ends in a Russian victory as Ukrainian troops are evacuated from Mariupol.source
  • 2022Yemen Airways operates its first commercial flight from Sanaa since 2016 under the U.N.-brokered truce.source
  • 2024Foreign minister Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz writes to the Council of Europe for member nations to consider Kosovo entry into the council.source
  • 2025May 13–17 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is held in Basel, Switzerland. Austrian contestant JJ wins with the song "Wasted Love".source

Births

  • 1418John II of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458 (died 1458)source
  • 1606May 16 (bapt.) – John Bulwer, British doctor (died 1656)source
  • 1611Pope Innocent XI (died 1689)source
  • 1678Andreas Silbermann, German organ builder (died 1734)source
  • 1692Dolly Pentreath, last known native speaker of the Cornish language prior to its revival in 1904 (died 1777)source
  • 1710William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (died 1782)source
  • 1718Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (died 1799)source
  • 1771Louis Henri Loison, French general (died 1816)source
  • 1801William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State (died 1872)source
  • 1818Willem Cornelis Janse van Rensburg, the second president of the South African Republic, is born on the farm near Beaufort West in the Cape Colonysource
  • 1966Janet Jackson, African-American R&B singersource
  • 1969Tucker Carlson, American political commentatorsource
  • 1977Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actresssource
  • 2004Azizi Asadel, Indonesian singer, dancer, and actresssource

Deaths

  • 290Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor of the Jin Dynasty (born 236)source
  • 290Emperor Wu of Jin, founder of the Western Jin Dynasty, dies after a 25-year reign. He reunified north and south, but gave away many dukedoms to his kinsmen. Crown Prince Sima Zhong succeeds his father, and has to deal with conflicts among the aristocratic families in China.source
  • 366Ajabel, Christian priest and martyrsource
  • 747Petronax, Italian monk and abbot (born 675)source
  • 895Qian Kuan, Chinese noblemansource
  • 934Meng Hanqiong, eunuch official of Later Tangsource
  • 995Fujiwara no Michitaka, Japanese nobleman (born 953)source
  • 1115Lambert of Arras, Flemish bishopsource
  • 1127Gens du Beaucet, French hermit and saint (born 1104)source
  • 1164Héloïse, French scholar and abbesssource
  • 1182John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine generalsource
  • 1209Ji Gong (or Daoji), Chinese Buddhist monk (born 1130)source
  • 1211Mieszko IV Tanglefoot, duke of Poland (born 1130)source
  • 1265Simon Stock, English prior, canonized (born c. 1165)source
  • 1375Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, officer, statesman and poet (born 1311)source
  • 1412Gian Maria Visconti, Duke of Milansource
  • 1412Gian Maria Visconti, the Duke of Milan since 1402, is assassinated in front of the church of San Gottardo in Milan by a party of Milanese Ghibellines on the orders of his terminally ill rival, Facino Cane. Visconti is stabbed in the leg and then in his head. Filippo Maria Visconti, Gian Maria's son, becomes the new Duke of Milan.source
  • 1561Jan Tarnowski, Polish noble (born 1488)source
  • 1620William Adams, English navigator and samurai (born 1564)source
  • 1669Pietro da Cortona, Italian artist (born 1596)source
  • 1696Mariana of Austria, Queen consort of Spain (born 1634)source
  • 1703Charles Perrault, French author (born 1628)source
  • 1730John Evans, clergyman, 50?source
  • 1828William Congreve, British rocket pioneer (born 1772)source
  • 1862Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English theorist of colonization (born 1796)source
  • 1891Ion C. Brătianu, Prime Minister between 1876 and 1888 (born 1821).source
  • 1926Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan (born 1861)source
  • 1942Bronisław Malinowski, Polish anthropologist (born 1884)source
  • 1984Andy Kaufman, 35, American comediansource
  • 1990Sammy Davis Jr., 64, American singer ("The Candy Man") and actor (Ocean's 11, The Cannonball Run), throat cancer.source
  • 1990Jim Henson, 53, American puppeteer (The Muppets) and film director (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal), toxic shock syndrome.source
  • 2013Dick Trickle, 71, American NASCAR driver, suicide by gunshot.source