On This Day — 16 October

2017

Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.

Hurricane Ophelia (2017)

2013

Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

Lao Airlines Flight 301

2002

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

1999

The magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake strikes Southern California

1999 Hector Mine earthquake

1998

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.

Augusto Pinochet

1996

Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.

Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores disaster

1995

The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attend.

Million Man March

1995

The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.

Skye Bridge

1991

George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

Luby's shooting

1984

Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Desmond Tutu

1978

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

October 1978 conclave

1975

Indonesian troops kill the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists, in Portuguese Timor.

Balibo Five

1975

Three-year-old Rahima Banu, from Bangladesh, is the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.

Rahima Banu

1975

The Australian Coalition sparks a constitutional crisis when they vote to defer funding for the government's annual budget.

1975 Australian constitutional crisis

1973

Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Henry Kissinger

1970

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act during the October Crisis.

War Measures Act

1968

Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

1968

Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

Rodney riots

1968

Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Yasunari Kawabata

1964

China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

Project 596

1964

Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party, while Alexei Kosygin becomes the head of government.

Leonid Brezhnev

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

Cuban Missile Crisis

1953

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.

Cuba

1951

The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

Liaquat Ali Khan

1949

The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.

Greek Civil War

1947

The Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.

Turtle Islands, Tawi-Tawi

1946

Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.

Nuremberg trials

1943

Holocaust in Italy: Raid on the Roman Ghetto.

Raid on the Roman Ghetto

1940

Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

Warsaw Ghetto

1939

World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.

World War II

1934

Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.

Long March

1923

Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney

1919

Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.

German Workers' Party

1916

Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

Margaret Sanger

1909

William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.

William Howard Taft

1905

The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

Partition of Bengal (1905)

1891

A diplomatic incident between the United States and Chile occurred after U.S. sailors were attacked in Valparaíso, nearly leading to war.

Baltimore crisis

1882

The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

Nickel Plate Road

1875

Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

Brigham Young University

1869

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

Cardiff Giant

1869

Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

Girton College, Cambridge

1859

Origins of the American Civil War: Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

Origins of the American Civil War

1846

William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.

William T. G. Morton

1843

William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a three-dimensional system of complex numbers.

William Rowan Hamilton

1841

Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.

Queen's University at Kingston

1836

Great Trek: Afrikaner voortrekkers repulse a Matabele attack, but lose their livestock.

Battle of Vegkop

1834

Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

Burning of Parliament

1817

Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.

Giovanni Belzoni

1817

Simón Bolívar sentences Manuel Piar to death for challenging the racial-caste in Venezuela.

Manuel Piar

1813

The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.

Battle of Leipzig

1805

War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.

Battle of Ulm

1793

French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

Marie Antoinette

1793

War of the First Coalition: French victory at the Battle of Wattignies forces Austria to raise the siege of Maubeuge.

Battle of Wattignies

1780

American Revolutionary War: The British-led Royalton raid is the last Native American raid on New England.

Royalton raid

1780

The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing between 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.

Great Hurricane of 1780

1736

Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth.

William Whiston

1590

Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.

Carlo Gesualdo

1384

Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.

Jadwiga of Poland

1311

The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time.

Council of Vienne

955

King Otto I defeats a Slavic revolt in what is now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Battle on the Raxa

912

Abd ar-Rahman III becomes the eighth Emir of Córdoba.

Abd al-Rahman III

690

Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.

Wu Zetian

456

Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.

Ricimer