July 16

July 16 is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 168 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar.
• 1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East-West Schism.
• 1212 – Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: after Pope Innocent III calls European knights to a crusade, forces of Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeat those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain.
• 1377 – Coronation of Richard II of England.
• 1661 – The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
• 1683 – Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
• 1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego.
• 1779 – American Revolutionary War: light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.
• 1782 – First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
• 1790 – The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.
• 1809 – The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.
• 1861 – American Civil War: at the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25 mile march into Virginia for what will become The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.
• 1862 – American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.
• 1880 – Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
• 1915 – Henry James becomes a British citizen, to highlight his commitment to England during the first World War.
• 1931 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
• 1935 – The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
• 1941 – Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as a MLB record.
• 1942 – Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv): the government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.
• 1945 – World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
• 1945 – Manhattan Project: the Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
• 1948 – Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
• 1948 – The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.
• 1951 – King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.
• 1951 – The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is published for the first time by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1957 – United States Marine major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.
• 1960 – USS George Washington a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first ballistic missile while submerged.
• 1965 – The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
• 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• 1973 – Watergate Scandal: former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
• 1979 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
• 1981 – Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister; his 22 years in office, ending with retirement on 31 October 2003, made him Asia's longest-serving political leader.
• 1983 – Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
• 1990 – Luzon Earthquake stroke in Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac, Philippines, with an intensity of 7.7.
• 1990 – The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
• 1993 – The Slackware operating system is first released.
• 1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter. Impacts continue until July 22.
• 1999 – John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are also killed.
• 2004 – Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
• 2007 – 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake: an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 8 people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

Births

• 1194 – Saint Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (d. 1253)
• 1486 – Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (d. 1530)
• 1611 – Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria, Austrian-born Queen consort of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, wife of King Władysław IV Vasa (d. 1644)
• 1714 – Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French military engineer (d. 1800)
• 1722 – Joseph Wilton, English sculptor (d. 1803)
• 1723 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter (d. 1792)
• 1731 – Samuel Huntington, American statesman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd Governor of Connecticut and 7th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1796)
• 1749 – Cyrus Griffin, American statesman, 16th and last president of the Continental Congress (d. 1810)
• 1796 – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (d. 1875)
• 1821 – Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader (d. 1910)
• 1858 – Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist (d. 1931)
• 1862 – Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, American civil rights activist (d. 1931)
• 1870 – Lambert McKenna, Irish Jesuit priest and scholar of the Irish language (d. 1956)
• 1872 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1928)
• 1880 – Kathleen Thompson Norris, American novelist (d. 1966)
• 1883 – Charles Sheeler, American photographer and artist (d. 1965)
• 1884 – Anna Vyrubova, Russian memoirist (d. 1964)
• 1888 – Percy Kilbride, American actor (d. 1964)
• 1888 – Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1966)
• 1888 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player (d. 1951)
• 1889 – Larry Semon, American film comedy actor (d. 1928)
• 1896 – Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German biologist and eugenicist (d. 1969)
• 1896 – Trygve Lie, Norwegian diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (d. 1968)
• 1896 – Evelyn Preer, American actress (d. 1932)
• 1902 – Alexander Luria, Russian psychologist (d. 1977)
• 1903 – Carmen Lombardo, Canadian singer and composer (d. 1971)
• 1903 – Mary Philbin, American stage and film actress (d. 1993)
• 1903 – Fritz Bauer, German judge (d. 1968)
• 1904 – Goffredo Petrassi, Italian composer (d. 2003)
• 1906 – Vincent Sherman, American film director (d. 2006)
• 1907 – Frances Horwich, American educator and television personality (d. 2001)
• 1907 – Orville Redenbacher, American farmer and businessman (d. 1995)
• 1907 – Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (d. 1990)
• 1910 – Stan McCabe, Australian cricketer (d. 1968)
• 1911 – Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Sonny Tufts, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1912 – Milt Bocek, American baseball player (d. 2007)
• 1915 – Barnard Hughes, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1918 – Bayani Casimiro, Filipino dancer and actor (d. 1989)
• 1919 – Choi Kyu-hah, South Korean politician, 4th President of South Korea (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian concentration and extermination camp guard (d. 1999)
• 1920 – Anwar Hussain, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2002)
• 1920 – Anatole Broyard, American literary critic and essayist (d. 1990)
• 1923 – Chris Argyris, American educator
• 1924 – Bess Myerson, American beauty queen
• 1925 – Cal Tjader, American vibraphonist, percussionist and panist (d. 1982)
• 1926 – Irwin Rose, American biologist, Nobel laureate
• 1927 – John Warr, English cricketer
• 1928 – Anita Brookner, English novelist
• 1928 – Robert Sheckley, American science fiction writer (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Dave Treen, American politician, 51st Governor of Louisiana (d. 2009)
• 1928 – Ticho Parly, Danish tenor (d. 1993)
• 1928 – Andrzej Zawada, Polish mountaineer (d. 2000)
• 1930 – Michael Bilirakis, American politician
• 1930 – Guy Béart, Egyptian-born French singer and songwriter
• 1932 – Max McGee, American football player (d. 2007)
• 1932 – Dick Thornburgh, American politician
• 1934 – Don Payne, American politician
• 1936 – Buddy Merrill, American musician (The Lawrence Welk Show)
• 1936 – Venkatraman Subramanya, Indian cricketer
• 1936 – Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese politician
• 1937 – Richard Bryan, American politician
• 1938 – Tony Jackson, English bass player (The Searchers) (d. 2003)
• 1939 – Corin Redgrave, English actor and political activist (d. 2010)
• 1939 – Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (d. 1995)
• 1941 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican ska and reggae singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
• 1941 – Mišo Kovač, Croatian singer
• 1941 – Dag Solstad, Norwegian novelist, short-story writer and dramatist
• 1942 – Margaret Court, Australian tennis player
• 1943 – Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet (d. 1990)
• 1943 – Jimmy Johnson, American football coach
• 1946 – Barbara Lee, American politician
• 1946 – Richard LeParmentier, American actor
• 1946 – Ron Yary, American football player
• 1946 – Toshio Furukawa, Japanese voice actor
• 1947 – Alexis Herman, American politician, 23rd U.S. Secretary of Labor
• 1947 – Assata Shakur, American BPP and BLA activist
• 1948 – Rubén Blades, Panamanian singer and actor
• 1948 – Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist
• 1948 – Kevin McKenzie, South African cricketer
• 1950 – Pierre Paradis, Quebec politician
• 1950 – Dennis Priestley, English darts player
• 1950 – Tom Terrell, American journalist, musicologist and DJ (d. 2007)
• 1951 – Jean-Luc Mongrain, French-Canadian journalist
• 1952 – Stewart Copeland, American drummer (The Police)
• 1952 – Robert David Steele, American spy
• 1952 – Ken McEwan, South African cricketer
• 1953 – Douglas J. Feith, American Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
• 1954 – Jeanette Mott Oxford, American politician
• 1956 – Jerry Doyle, American actor
• 1956 – Tony Kushner, American playwright
• 1957 – Alexandra Marinina, Russian writer
• 1958 – Michael Flatley, American dancer
• 1958 – Pierre Roland Renoir, Monaco-born Canadian painter
• 1958 – Mike D. Rogers, American politician
• 1959 – Gary Anderson, American football player
• 1959 – Doug Herzog, American television executive
• 1959 – Zoran Jolevski, Macedonian diplomat, Ambassador to the USA
• 1960 – Terry Pendleton, American baseball player
• 1963 – Phoebe Cates, American actress
• 1963 – Srečko Katanec, Slovenian footballer and coach
• 1964 – Phil Hellmuth, American poker player
• 1964 – Miguel Indurain, Spanish cyclist
• 1965 – Claude Lemieux, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 – Tina Tyler, Canadian porn actress
• 1966 – Johnny Vaughan, English writer and broadcaster
• 1967 – Will Ferrell, American comedian
• 1967 – Christopher Rocancourt, French con artist
• 1968 – Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player
• 1968 – Barry Sanders, American football player
• 1968 – Larry Sanger, American co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of Citizendium
• 1968 – Henry Hate, American-born English tattoo artist
• 1969 – Kathryn Harby-Williams, Australian netballer
• 1969 – Daryl Mitchell, American actor
• 1969 – Rain Pryor, American actress
• 1970 – Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thai film director
• 1971 – Ed Kowalczyk, American singer (Live)
• 1971 – Corey Feldman, American actor
• 1973 – Stefano Garzelli, Italian cyclist
• 1973 – Shaun Pollock, South African cricketer
• 1973 – Tim Ryan, American politician
• 1973 – Graham Robertson, American filmmaker and author
• 1974 – Jeremy Enigk, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft)
• 1974 – Chris Pontius, American actor and Jackass cast member
• 1974 – Wendell Sailor, Australian rugby league and union player
• 1975 – Bas Leinders, Belgian racing car driver
• 1975 – Ana Paula Arósio, Brazilian actress
• 1975 – Jamie Oliver, Welsh keyboardist (Lostprophets)
• 1976 – Bobby Lashley, American professional wrestler
• 1976 – Carlos Humberto Paredes, Paraguyan footballer
• 1976 – Anna Smashnova, Israeli tennis player
• 1976 – Tomasz Kuchar, Polish rally driver
• 1977 – Bryan Budd, British soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 2006)
• 1978 – Taj Anwar, American model and social activist
• 1979 – Jayma Mays, American actress
• 1979 – Chris Mihm, American basketball player
• 1979 – Mai Nakamura, Japanese swimmer
• 1980 – Jesse Jane, American pornographic actress and erotic model
• 1980 – Justine Joli, American pornographic actress, adult model and ballerina
• 1980 – Adam Scott, Australian golfer
• 1981 – Giuseppe Di Masi, Italian footballer
• 1981 – Zach Randolph, American basketball player
• 1982 – Michael Umaña, Costa Rican footballer
• 1983 – Duncan Keith, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1984 – Katrina Kaif, Indian actress
• 1984 – Hayanari Shimoda, Japanese racing driver
• 1986 – Calum Gittins, New Zealand actor
• 1987 – AnnaLynne McCord, American actress
• 1987 – Andrew James Allen, American actor
• 1989 – Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer
• 1990 – James Maslow, American singer and actor (Big Time Rush)
• 1991 – Randall Bentley, American actor
• 1994 – Mark Indelicato, American singer and actor

Deaths

• 1216 – Pope Innocent III (b. 1160 or 1161)
• 1324 – Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (b. 1267)
• 1342 – King Charles I of Hungary (b. 1288)
• 1546 – Anne Askew, English Protestant (burned at the stake) (b. 1521)
• 1557 – Anne of Cleves, German-born fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England (b. 1515)
• 1594 – Thomas Kyd, English playwright (b. 1558)
• 1647 – Masaniello, Neapolitan rebel (b. 1622)
• 1664 – Andreas Gryphius, German writer (b. 1616)
• 1686 – John Pearson, English theologian (b. 1612)
• 1691 – François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (b. 1641)
• 1729 – Johann David Heinichen, German composer (b. 1683)
• 1747 – Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Italian painter (b. 1665)
• 1770 – Francis Cotes, English painter (b. 1726)
• 1796 – George Howard, British field marshal (b. 1718)
• 1831 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, Russian general (b. 1763)
• 1850 – Julia Glover, Irish-born actress (b. c. 1779)
• 1868 – Dimitri Pisarev, Russian writer and social critic (b. 1840)
• 1879 – Edward Deas Thomson, Australian politician (b. 1800)
• 1882 – Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)
• 1886 – Ned Buntline, American pulp novelist (b. 1823)
• 1896 – Edmond Goncourt, French writer and critic (b. 1822)
• 1915 – Ellen White, American co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (b. 1827)
• 1916 – Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1845)
• 1917 – Philipp Scharwenka, German composer (b. 1847)
• 1947 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish humanitarian (exact date of death uncertain) (b. 1912)
• 1949 – Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov, Russian poet (b. 1866)
• 1953 – Hilaire Belloc, English writer (b. 1870)
• 1960 – Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (b. 1881)
• 1960 – John P. Marquand, American novelist (b. 1893)
• 1976 – Carmelo Soria, Spanish diplomat (assassinated) (b. 1921)
• 1979 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• 1981 – Harry Chapin, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
• 1982 – Patrick Dewaere, French actor (b. 1947)
• 1982 – Charles Robberts Swart, South African politician, 1st State President of South Africa (b. 1894)
• 1985 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1917)
• 1985 – Wayne King, American saxophonist, songwriter and bandleader (b. 1901)
• 1989 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (b. 1908)
• 1990 – Robert Blackburn, Irish educationist (b. 1927)
• 1990 – Sidney Torch, English composer, conductor and organist (b. 1908)
• 1991 – Robert Motherwell, American painter (b. 1915)
• 1991 – Frank Rizzo, American politician (b. 1920)
• 1992 – Buck Buchanan, American football player (b. 1940)
• 1994 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
• 1994 – Marcel-Marie Desmarais, French-Canadian priest, writer, preacher and broadcaster (b. 1908)
• 1995 – May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet (b. 1912)
• 1995 – Stephen Spender, English poet (b. 1909)
• 1996 – John Panozzo, American drummer (Styx) (b. 1948)
• 1996 – Adolf von Thadden, German politician (b. 1921)
• 1998 – John Henrik Clarke, American historian and scholar (b. 1915)
• 1999 – John F. Kennedy, Jr., American publisher (b. 1960)
• 1999 – Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1966)
• 1999 – Hiromi Yanagihara, Japanese singer (b. 1979)
• 2001 – Morris, Belgian cartoonist (b. 1923)
• 2001 – Terry Gordy, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)
• 2002 – John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
• 2003 – Celia Cruz, Cuban salsa singer (b. 1924)
• 2003 – Carol Shields, American-born Canadian novelist (b. 1935)
• 2004 – George Busbee, American politician, 77th Governor of Georgia (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Prince Gu of Korea (b. 1931)
• 2005 – Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgish singer, lyricist and entertainer (b. 1920)
• 2006 – Bob Orton, Sr., American professional wrestler (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, American politician, 13th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (b. 1948)
• 2007 – Caterina Bueno, Italian singer and folk music historian (b. 1943)
• 2008 – Jo Stafford, American singer of traditional pop music (b. 1917)
• 2010 – James Gammon, American actor (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Gondulphus of Tongeren
  • Helier
  • Our Lady of Mount Carmel

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada