September 16
Events
Pre-1600
- 681 - Pope Honorius I is posthumously excommunicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council.
- 1400 - Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers.
1601–1900
- 1620 - Pilgrims set sail for Virginia from Plymouth, England in the Mayflower.
- 1701 - James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the "Old Pretender", becomes the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland on the death of his father, James II.
- 1732 - In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory and a violent explosion ensues, killing two-thirds of its inhabitants.
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Harlem Heights is fought.
- 1779 - American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah begins.
- 1810 - With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo begins Mexico's fight for independence from Spain.
- 1822 - French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a "note" read to the Academy of Sciences, reports a direct refraction experiment verifying David Brewster's hypothesis that photoelasticity is stress-induced birefringence.
- 1863 - Robert College, in Istanbul, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.
- 1880 - The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York.
- 1893 - Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma.
1901–present
- 1908 - The General Motors Corporation is founded.
- 1914 - World War I: The Siege of Przemyśl begins.
- 1920 - The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 and injuring 400.
- 1940 - World War II: Italian troops conquer Sidi Barrani.
- 1943 - World War II: The German Tenth Army reports that it can no longer contain the Allied bridgehead around Salerno.
- 1945 - World War II: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong comes to an end.
- 1953 - American Airlines Flight 723 crashes in Colonie, New York, killing 28 people.
- 1955 - The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.
- 1955 - A Soviet Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.
- 1956 - TCN-9 Sydney is the first Australian television station to commence regular broadcasts.
- 1959 - The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.
- 1961 - The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.
- 1961 - Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.
- 1961 - Pakistan establishes its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission with Abdus Salam as its head.
- 1963 - Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak. However, Singapore is soon expelled from this new country.
- 1966 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.
- 1970 - King Hussein of Jordan declares war against the Palestine Liberation Organization, the conflict came to be known as Black September.
- 1975 - Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia.
- 1975 - Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.
- 1975 - The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor makes its maiden flight.
- 1976 - Armenian champion swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.
- 1976 - Night of the Pencils: In the city of La Plata, Argentina, a group of high-school students were kidnapped and later tortured, raped and murdered during the Argentinian military dictatorship
- 1978 - The 7.4 Tabas earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. At least 15,000 people are killed.
- 1979 - Eight people escape from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon.
- 1982 - Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon takes place.
- 1987 - The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.
- 1990 - The railroad between the People's Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge.
- 1992 - The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the United States with a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.
- 1992 - Black Wednesday: The British pound is forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by currency speculators and is forced to devalue against the German mark.
- 1994 - The British government lifts the broadcasting ban imposed against members of Sinn Féin and Irish paramilitary groups in 1988.
- 1996 - Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-79 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 2004 - Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane.
- 2005 - The Camorra organized crime boss Paolo Di Lauro is arrested in Naples, Italy.
- 2007 - One-Two-Go Airlines Flight 269 carrying 130 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand, killing 90 people.
- 2007 - Security guards working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad.
- 2013 - A gunman kills twelve people at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
- 2014 - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.
- 2015 - A 8.3 earthquake strikes the Chilean city of Illapel, killing 15 people, injuring at least 34, leaving at least six missing, and causing extensive damage. One person also dies in Argentina.
- 2021 - A 6.0 earthquake strikes Lu County, Sichuan, China, killing three and injuring more than 88.
- 2021 - Inspiration4, the first private orbital crewed spaceflight, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center.
- 2022 - During the Let Yet Kone massacre, the Burmese military kills 13 villagers, including eight children, after attacking a school in Sagaing Region, Myanmar.
- 2022 - The death of Mahsa Amini occurred in Tehran, Iran, sparking worldwide protests.
Births
Pre-1600
- AD 16 - Julia Drusilla, Roman daughter of Germanicus
- 508 - Yuan Di, emperor of the Liang dynasty
- 1295 - Elizabeth de Clare, English noblewoman
- 1386 - Henry V of England
- 1462 - Pietro Pomponazzi, Italian philosopher
- 1507 - Jiajing Emperor of China
- 1541 - Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, English nobleman
- 1557 - Jacques Mauduit, French composer
1601–1900
- 1615 - Heinrich Bach, German organist and composer
- 1625 - Gregorio Barbarigo, Roman Catholic saint
- 1651 - Engelbert Kaempfer, German physician and botanist
- 1666 - Antoine Parent, French mathematician and theorist
- 1678 - Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English philosopher and politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department
- 1716 - Angelo Maria Amorevoli, Italian tenor and actor
- 1722 - Gabriel Christie, Scottish-Canadian general
- 1725 - Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist, zoologist, and author
- 1745 - Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian field marshal
- 1777 - Nathan Mayer Rothschild, German-English banker and financier
- 1782 - Daoguang Emperor of China
- 1812 - Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint, Dutch novelist
- 1822 - Charles Crocker, American businessman
- 1823 - Francis Parkman, American historian and author
- 1823 - Ludwik Teichmann, Polish anatomist
- 1827 - Jean Albert Gaudry, French geologist and paleontologist
- 1828 - Per Pålsson, Swedish murderer
- 1830 - Patrick Francis Moran, Irish-Australian cardinal
- 1837 - Pedro V of Portugal
- 1838 - James J. Hill, Canadian-American railroad executive
- 1844 - Paul Taffanel, French flute player and conductor
- 1846 - Anna Kingsford, English author, poet, and activist
- 1853 - Albrecht Kossel, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1858 - Edward Marshall Hall, English lawyer and politician
- 1858 - Bonar Law, Canadian-Scottish banker and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1859 - Yuan Shikai, Chinese general and politician, President of the Republic of China
- 1861 - Miriam Benjamin, African-American educator and inventor
- 1866 - Georg Voigt, German lawyer and politician, Mayor of Marburg
- 1870 - John Pius Boland, Irish tennis player and politician
- 1875 - James Cash Penney, American businessman and philanthropist, founded J. C. Penney
- 1876 - Marvin Hart, American boxer
- 1877 - Jacob Schick, American-Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Schick Razors
- 1878 - Karl Albiker, German sculptor, lithographer, and educator
- 1880 - Clara Ayres, American nurse
- 1880 - Alfred Noyes, English author, poet, and playwright
- 1881 - Clive Bell, English philosopher and critic
- 1883 - T. E. Hulme, English poet and critic
- 1886 - Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor and painter
- 1887 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer and educator
- 1888 - W. O. Bentley, English race car driver and engineer, founded Bentley Motors Limited
- 1888 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finnish author, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1890 - Avigdor Hameiri, Israeli author
- 1891 - Karl Dönitz, German admiral and politician, President of Germany
- 1891 - Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-German spy
- 1893 - Alexander Korda, Hungarian-English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1893 - Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian-American physiologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1895 - Zainal Abidin Ahmad, Malaysian author and scholar
- 1897 - Milt Franklyn, American composer
- 1898 - H. A. Rey, American author and illustrator, co-created Curious George
- 1899 - Hans Swarowsky, Hungarian-Austrian conductor and educator