On This Day — 16 April

2024

The historic Børsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, is severely damaged by a fire.

Børsen

2018

The New York Times and The New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.

The New York Times

2016

Ecuador's worst earthquake in nearly 40 years kills 676 and injures more than 230,000.

2016 Ecuador earthquake

2014

The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks near Jindo Island, killing 304 passengers and crew and leading to widespread criticism of the South Korean government, media, and shipping authorities.

South Korea

2013

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Sistan and Balochistan province, Iran, killing at least 35 people and injuring 117 others.

Moment magnitude scale

2013

The 2013 Baga massacre is started when Boko Haram militants engage government soldiers in Baga.

2013 Baga massacre

2012

The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo, Norway.

Trial of Anders Behring Breivik

2012

The Pulitzer Prize winners are announced. It was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.

2012 Pulitzer Prize

2008

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Baze v. Rees decision that execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

Supreme Court of the United States

2007

Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho murders 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.

Virginia Tech shooting

2003

The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the European Union.

Treaty of Accession 2003

2001

India and Bangladesh begin a five-day border conflict, but are unable to resolve the disputes about their border.

Bangladesh

1972

Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Apollo program

1963

U.S. civil rights campaigner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his open letter from Birmingham Jail, sometimes known as "The Negro Is Your Brother", while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting against segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr.

1961

In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.

Fidel Castro

1948

The Organization of European Economic Co-operation is formed.

OECD

1947

An explosion on board a freighter in port causes Texas City in the state of Texas, United States, to catch fire, killing almost 600 people.

Texas City disaster

1947

Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Bernard Baruch

1945

World War II: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.

Red Army

1945

World War II: The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

United States Army

1945

World War II: More than 7,000 die when the German transport ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine.

MV Goya

1944

World War II: Allied forces start bombing Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.

Allied bombing of Yugoslavia in World War II

1943

Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD. He intentionally takes the drug three days later on April 19.

Albert Hofmann

1941

World War II: The Italian-German Tarigo convoy is attacked and destroyed by British ships.

World War II

1941

World War II: The Nazi-affiliated Ustaše is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis powers after Operation 25 is effected.

Ustaše

1925

During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.

Communism

1922

The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed.

Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

1919

Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops three days earlier.

Mahatma Gandhi

1919

Polish–Lithuanian War: The Polish Army launches the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius in modern Lithuania.

Polish–Lithuanian War

1917

Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland.

Russian Revolution

1912

Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

Harriet Quimby

1910

The oldest indoor ice hockey arena used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time.

Ice hockey

1908

Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.

Natural Bridges National Monument

1881

In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

Dodge City, Kansas

1878

The Senate of the Grand Duchy of Finland issues a declaration establishing a city of Kotka on the southern part islands from the old Kymi parish.

Senate of Finland

1863

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg Campaign, gunboats commanded by acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter run downriver past Confederate artillery batteries at Vicksburg.

Vicksburg campaign

1862

American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.

American Civil War

1862

American Civil War: The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia, becomes law.

District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act

1858

The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is dissolved.

Wernerian Natural History Society

1853

The Great Indian Peninsula Railway opens the first passenger rail in India, from Bori Bunder to Thane.

Great Indian Peninsula Railway

1847

Shooting of a Māori by an English sailor results in the opening of the Wanganui Campaign of the New Zealand Wars.

Māori people

1838

The French Army captures Veracruz in the Pastry War.

French Army

1818

The United States Senate ratifies the Rush–Bagot Treaty, limiting naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

United States Senate

1799

French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor: Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

French Revolutionary Wars

1797

The Spithead mutiny begins, immobilising the Channel fleet.

Spithead and Nore mutinies

1780

Franz Friedrich Wilhelm von Fürstenberg founds the University of Münster.

Franz Friedrich Wilhelm von Fürstenberg

1746

The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland.

Battle of Culloden

1582

Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.

Conquistador

1520

The Revolt of the Comuneros begins in Spain against the rule of Charles V.

Revolt of the Comuneros

1346

Stefan Dušan, "the Mighty", is crowned Emperor of the Serbs at Skopje, his empire occupying much of the Balkans.

Stefan Dušan

682

Pope Leo II is elected head of the Catholic Church, although he will not be consecrated until 17 August.

Pope Leo II

556

Pope Pelagius I is consecrated following Imperial approval by Emperor Justinian I.

Byzantine Papacy

73

Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the First Jewish–Roman War.

AD 73

69

Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Roman emperor Otho commits suicide.

AD 69

-1457

Battle of Megiddo: The first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail.

1450s BC