August 16

Events

• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bennington - British forces are defeated by American troops.
• 1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
• 1812 - War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
• 1841 - US President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in US history.
• 1858 - US President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
• 1896 - George Carmack discovers gold in the Klondike.
• 1920 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in his head and fatally wounded with a fastball from Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. Chapman will die early the next day, becoming the only person to ever die during a major league baseball game (as of 2003).
• 1928 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, DC after killing about 20 people.
• 1930 - First colour sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, was made by Ub Iwerks
• 1954 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published.
• 1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1960 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m). He sets unbeaten (as of 2003) world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft, 614 mi/h (982 km/h).
• 1962 - The Beatles fire Pete Best and replace him with Ringo Starr.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyen Khanh replaces Duong Van Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, which the US Embassy helped draft.
• 1966 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
• 1972 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he was traveling back to Rabat.
• 1984 - Carmaker John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.
• 1987 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport killing all but one of the 156 people on-board (sole survivor was four-year old Cecelia Cichan). The crew forgot to properly set the planes flaps.

Births

• 1845 - Gabriel Lippmann, physicist (+ 1921)
• 1862 - Amos Alonzo Stagg, college sports coach (football, basketball and baseball) (+ 1965)
• 1868 - Bernarr McFadden, publisher
• 1884 - Hugo Gernsback, editor and publisher
• 1888 - T. E. Lawrence, writer, soldier
• 1894 - George Meany, labor union activist (+ 1980)
• 1902 - Georgette Heyer, novelist (+ 1975)
• 1913 - Menachem Begin, Israeli soldier and politician (+ 1992)
• 1920 - Charles Bukowski, poet (+ 1994)
• 1925 - Fess Parker, actor
• 1928 - Ann Blyth, actress
• 1930 - Frank Gifford, pro football player, sports announcer
• 1930 - Robert Culp, actor
• 1931 - Eydie Gorme, singer
• 1940 - Bruce Beresford, film director
• 1946 - Lesley Ann Warren, actress
• 1954 - James Cameron, director
• 1958 - Angela Bassett, actress
• 1959 - Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone), singer, actress
• 1960 - Timothy Hutton, Academy Award winning actor
• 1967 - Pamela Smart, murderess

Deaths

• 1864 - Confederate General John Chambliss
• 1899 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist
• 1907 - James Hector, geologist
• 1921 - King Peter I of Serbia
• 1938 - Robert Johnson, blues singer and guitarist
• 1948 - Babe Ruth, baseball player
• 1949 - Margaret Mitchell, novelist
• 1956 - Bela Lugosi, actor
• 1975 - Vladimir Kuts, Soviet long-distance runner
• 1977 - Elvis Presley, singer, actor
• 1979 - John Diefenbaker, thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada
• 1989 - Amanda Blake, actress
• 2002 - Martin Deutsch, physicist, discoverer of positronium
• 2003 - Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator

Holidays and observances

August 15 - August 17 - July 16 - September 16 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April,May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By