16 May
Notable Births
Ryan Gravenberch
b. 2002
Dutch footballer (born 2002)
Luis García Jr.
b. 2000
American baseball player (born 2000)
Louisa Chirico
b. 1996
American tennis player (born 1996)
Kathinka von Deichmann
b. 1994
Liechtenstein tennis player (born 1994)
Johannes Thingnes Bø
b. 1993
Norwegian biathlete (born 1993)
Karol Mets
b. 1993
Estonian footballer
IU (entertainer)
b. 1993
South Korean singer and actress (born 1993)
Jeff Skinner
b. 1992
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1992)
Kirstin Maldonado
b. 1992
American singer-songwriter (born 1992)
Grigor Dimitrov
b. 1991
Bulgarian tennis player (born 1991)
Joey Graceffa
b. 1991
American YouTuber (born 1991)
Ashley Wagner
b. 1991
American figure skater (born 1991)
Amanda Carreras
b. 1990
British tennis player
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
b. 1990
English actor (born 1990)
Darko Šarović
b. 1990
Serbian medical doctor and athlete (born 1990)
Omar Strong
b. 1990
American basketball player
Behati Prinsloo
b. 1989
Namibian model (born 1988)
Janet Jackson
b. 1966
American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer (born 1966)
Pierce Brosnan
b. 1953
Irish actor (born 1953)
Ivan Sutherland
b. 1938
American computer scientist and Internet pioneer
Notable Deaths
Domingos Maubere
d. 2025
East Timorese Catholic priest and activist (1952–2025)
Dabney Coleman
d. 2024
American actor (1932–2024)
Bruno Covas
d. 2021
Former mayor of São Paulo, Brazil
Piet Blauw
d. 2019
Dutch politician (1937–2019)
Bob Hawke
d. 2019
Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991
I. M. Pei
d. 2019
Chinese-American architect (1917–2019)
Moshe Levinger
d. 2015
Israeli rabbi and convict (1935–2015)
Vito Favero
d. 2014
Italian cyclist (1932–2014)
Frankie Librán
d. 2013
Puerto Rican baseball player (1948–2013)
Heinrich Rohrer
d. 2013
Swiss physicist (1933–2013)
Paul Shane
d. 2013
English actor and comedian
Dick Trickle
d. 2013
American racing driver (1941-2013)
James Abdnor
d. 2012
American politician
Chuck Brown
d. 2012
American go-go musician (1936–2012)
Ernie Chan
d. 2012
Chinese-American comic book artist (1940-2012)
Kevin Hickey
d. 2012
American baseball player (1956–2012)
Edward Hardwicke
d. 2011
English actor (1932–2011)
Ronnie James Dio
d. 2010
American heavy metal singer (1942–2010)
Hank Jones
d. 2010
American jazz pianist and bandleader (1918–2010)
A. Philip Randolph
d. 1979
American civil rights activist (1889–1979)
On This Day in History
All 55 ›
2025
A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.
2025 Somerset–London tornado
2014
Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.
Gikomba bombings
2011
STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.
STS-134
2005
Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.
Kuwait
2003
In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
Morocco
1997
Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.
Mobutu Sese Seko
1991
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
Elizabeth II
1988
A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
Surgeon General of the United States
1975
Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Junko Tabei
1974
Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.
Josip Broz Tito
1972
An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.
Antonov An-24
1969
Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
Venera program
1966
The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
Chinese Communist Party
1961
Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
Park Chung Hee
1960
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
Theodore Maiman
1959
The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.
Tritons' Fountain
1954
Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.
Kengir uprising
1951
The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
Transatlantic flight
1945
Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.
Levant Crisis
1943
The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
The Holocaust