On This Day — 16 May

2000s

2025

A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.

2025 Somerset–London tornado

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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

1900s

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

1943

Operation Chastise is undertaken by RAF Bomber Command with specially equipped Avro Lancasters to destroy the Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley.

Operation Chastise

1929

In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

Hollywood, Los Angeles

1925

The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.

Claudio Monteverdi

1920

In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.

Pope Benedict XV

1919

A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

Curtiss NC-4

1918

The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.

Sedition Act of 1918

1918

The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.

1918 White victory parade in Helsinki

1916

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1800s

1891

The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

International Electrotechnical Exhibition

1888

Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla

1877

The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.

16 May 1877 crisis

1874

A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.

Mill River (Northampton, Massachusetts)

1868

The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

United States Senate

1866

The United States Congress establishes the nickel.

United States Congress

1863

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, the decisive Union victory by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Champion Hill drives the Confederate army under John C. Pemberton back towards Vicksburg, Mississippi.

American Civil War

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1842

The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.

Wagon train

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1834

The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

Battle of Asseiceira

1832

Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.

Juan Godoy

1822

Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

Greek War of Independence

1812

Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.

Russian Empire

1811

Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom fight an inconclusive battle against the French at the Albuera. It is, in proportion to the numbers involved, the bloodiest battle of the war.

Peninsular War

Before 1800

1777

Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh fatally wounds Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in a duel in Savannah, Georgia.

Continental Army

1771

The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

Battle of Alamance