On This Day — 16 July

2019

A 100-year-old building in Mumbai, India, collapses, killing at least 10 people and leaving many others trapped.

Mumbai

2015

Four U.S. Marines and a United States Navy Sailor are killed in the a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

United States Marine Corps

2013

As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.

Bihar school meal poisoning incident

2013

Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn resumes between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist forces, beginning the Rojava–Islamist conflict.

Syrian civil war

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.

Teoh Beng Hock

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.

2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake

2005

An Antonov An-24 crashes near Baney in Bioko Norte, Equatorial Guinea, killing 60 people.

Antonov An-24

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.

Millennium Park

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.

John F. Kennedy Jr.

1994

The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

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 Luzon earthquake

1990

The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Verkhovna Rada

1983

Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.

British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918

1979

Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

President of Iraq

1965

The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.

Mont Blanc Tunnel

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.

Army of the Republic of Vietnam

1957

KLM Flight 844 crashes off the Schouten Islands in present day Indonesia (then Netherlands New Guinea), killing 58 people.

KLM Flight 844

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.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1951

King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin of Belgium.

Leopold III of Belgium

1951

J. D. Salinger publishes his popular yet controversial novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

J. D. Salinger

1950

Chaplain–Medic massacre: American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

Chaplain–Medic massacre

1950

Uruguay beats hosts Brazil 2–1 to win the World Cup in a match dubbed as the Maracanazo.

Uruguay national football team

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.

Nazareth

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.

Miss Macao

1945

Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Manhattan Project

1945

World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.

Heavy cruiser

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 Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

The Holocaust

1941

Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as an MLB record.

Joe DiMaggio

1935

The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Parking meter

1931

Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

Emperor of Ethiopia

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.

Augusto César Sandino

1916

Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.

Max Reger

1915

Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.

Henry James

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.

Delaware River

1910

John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.

John Robertson Duigan

1909

Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.

Persian Constitutional Revolution

1862

American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.

David Farragut

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.

American Civil War

1858

The last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.

Lourdes apparitions

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.

Anthony Mary Claret

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.

La Paz

1790

The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

Washington, D.C.

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.

American Revolutionary War

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.

Junípero Serra

1683

Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.

Qing dynasty

1661

The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

Banknote

1536

Jacques Cartier, navigator and explorer, returns home to St. Malo after claiming Stadacona (Quebec), Hochelaga (Montreal) and the River of Canada (St. Lawrence River) region for France.

Jacques Cartier

1377

King Richard II of England is crowned.

Richard II of England

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.

Carmelites

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.

Arjona, Spain

1228

Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized.

Francis of Assisi

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.

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

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.

Papal legate

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.

Battle of Spercheios

622

The Hijrah of Muhammad begins, marking the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Hijrah