July 16

Events

Pre-1600

• 622 - The Hijrah of Muhammad begins, marking the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
• 997 - Battle of Spercheios: Bulgarian forces of Tsar Samuel are defeated by a Byzantine army under general Nikephoros Ouranos at the Spercheios River in Greece.
• 1054 - Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian churches through the act of placing a papal bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the formal start of the East–West Schism.
• 1212 - Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: After Pope Innocent III calls European knights to a crusade, the forces of kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Peter 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.
• 1228 - Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized.
• 1232 - The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence and names its native Muhammad ibn Yusuf as ruler. This marks the Muhammad's first rise to prominence; he later established the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in Spain.
• 1251 - Celebrated by the Carmelite Order–but doubted by modern historians–as the day when Saint Simon Stock had a vision of the Virgin Mary.
• 1377 - King Richard II of England is crowned.
• 1536 - Jacques Cartier, navigator and explorer, returns home to St. Malo after claiming Stadacona, Hochelaga and the River of Canada region for France.

  1601–1900

• 1661 - The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
• 1683 - Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
• 1769 - Father Junípero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, California.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1849 - Antonio María Claret y Clará founds the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, popularly known as the Claretians in Vic, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
• 1858 - The last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.
• 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.

  1901–present

• 1909 - Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.
• 1910 - John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.
• 1915 - Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.
• 1915 - At Treasure Island on the Delaware River in the United States, the First Order of the Arrow ceremony takes place and the Order of the Arrow is founded to honor American Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.
• 1927 - Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.
• 1931 - Emperor Haile Selassie 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 an MLB record.
• 1942 - Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup : The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.
• 1945 - Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
• 1945 - World War II: The heavy cruiser leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.
• 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.
• 1950 - Chaplain–Medic massacre: American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
• 1950 - Uruguay beats hosts Brazil 2–1 to win the World Cup in a match dubbed as the Maracanazo.
• 1951 - King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin of Belgium.
• 1951 - J. D. Salinger publishes his popular yet controversial novel, The Catcher in the Rye.
• 1956 - Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; due to changing economics, all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas.
• 1957 - KLM Flight 844 crashes off the Schouten Islands in present day Indonesia, killing 58 people.
• 1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
• 1965 - South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, is hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission is launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida, USA.
• 1979 - Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
• 1983 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
• 1990 - The Luzon earthquake strikes the Philippines with an intensity of 7.7, affecting Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac.
• 1990 - The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
• 1994 - The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.
• 1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, die when the aircraft he is piloting crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
• 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.
• 2005 - An Antonov An-24 crashes near Baney in Bioko Norte, Equatorial Guinea, killing 60 people.
• 2007 - An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.
• 2009 - Teoh Beng Hock, an aide to a politician in Malaysia is found dead on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the offices of the Anti-Corruption Commission, sparking an inquest that gains nationwide attention.
• 2013 - As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.
• 2013 - Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn resumes between the People's Protection Units and Islamist forces, beginning the Rojava–Islamist conflict.
• 2015 - Four U.S. Marines and a United States Navy Sailor are killed in the a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 2019 - A 100-year-old building in Mumbai, India, collapses, killing at least 10 people and leaving many others trapped.

  Births

Pre-1600

• 1194 - Clare of Assisi, Italian nun and saint
• 1486 - Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter
• 1517 - Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, English duchess
• 1529 - Petrus Peckius the Elder, Dutch jurist, writer on international maritime law

  1601–1900

• 1611 - Cecilia Renata of Austria
• 1661 - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Canadian captain, explorer, and politician
• 1714 - Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French engineer and author
• 1722 - Joseph Wilton, English sculptor and academic
• 1723 - Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic
• 1731 - Samuel Huntington, American jurist and politician, 18th Governor of Connecticut
• 1748 - Cyrus Griffin, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 16th President of the Continental Congress
• 1796 - Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter and etcher
• 1821 - Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader and author, founded Christian Science
• 1841 - Nikolai von Glehn, Estonian-German architect and activist
• 1858 - Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor
• 1862 - Ida B. Wells, American journalist and activist
• 1863 - Anderson Dawson, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Queensland
• 1870 - Lambert McKenna, Irish priest, lexicographer, and scholar
• 1870 - Ellen Oliver, British suffragette
• 1871 - John Maxwell, American golfer
• 1872 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian pilot and explorer
• 1872 - Frank Cooper, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Queensland
• 1880 - Kathleen Norris, American journalist and author
• 1882 - Violette Neatley Anderson, American judge
• 1883 - Charles Sheeler, American photographer and painter
• 1884 - Anna Vyrubova, Russian author
• 1887 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player and manager
• 1888 - Percy Kilbride, American actor
• 1888 - Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1889 - Arthur Bowie Chrisman, American author
• 1895 - Wilfrid Hamel, Canadian businessman and politician, 35th Mayor of Quebec City
• 1896 - Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German biologist and eugenicist
• 1896 - Trygve Lie, Norwegian trade union leader and politician, 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations
• 1898 - Lady Eve Balfour, British farmer, educator, and founding figure in the organic movement