Today In History From JJD

May 16th Past Events.

955 - Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus elected pope
1165 - Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine
1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.
1527 - Florence becomes a republic
1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
1547 - Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg
1568 - Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
1571 - Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 AM
1584 - 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal
1605 - Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V
1606 - 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
1648 - Battle of Zhovti Vody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks defeat Polish King John Casimir after 18 days of battle

1747 - Prince Willem V sworn in as admiral-general of Neth
1763 - Samuel Johnson 1st meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
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.
Astronomer Johannes Kepler 1792 - Denmark abolishes slave trade
1795 - Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state
1796 - Lombardian Republic forms
1803 - Peace of Amiens ends
1811 - Peninsular War: Allies defeat French at Albuera
1815 - The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.
1817 - Mississippi River steamboat service begins
1822 - Greek War of Independence: Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
1860 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln as candidate
1861 - Twiggs Surrender, San Antonio, Texas during US Civil war
1861 - Confederate government offers war volunteers $10 premium
1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
US President Abraham Lincoln 1862 - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile
1863 - Battle of Champion's Hill, MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
1864 - Atlanta Campaign: Battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
1864 - Battle of Bermuda Hundred, VA
1864 - Last battles at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (6,666 casualties)
1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
1866 - US Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)
1868 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor" premieres in Prague
1868 - By one vote, US Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson
1869 - Cincinnati Reds play their 1st baseball game, win 41-7
1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
1874 - 1st recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg, Mass)
1875 - Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000
17th US President Andrew Johnson 1877 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
1879 - Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing" premieres
1879 - Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
1881 - World's 1st electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1882 - 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40.00
1884 - 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40.25
1888 - CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
1891 - George A Hormel & Co introduce Spam
1894 - Fire in Boston destroys baseball stadium & 170 other buildings
1901 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Priory School" (BG)
1902 - 2 deaf-mutes face each other for 1st time as Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants, Reds win 5-3
1903 - 1st transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at SF (George Wymann)
1907 - In the Pact of Cartagena, Great Britain, France, and Spain agree to maintain the status quo in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of Europe and Africa
1910 - US Bureau of Mines forms
1911 - Remains of a neanderthal man found on Jersey, Channel Islands
1911 - Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf
1914 - American Horseshoe Pitchers Association organizes in Kansas City
1914 - Ewing Field baseball park opens near Masonic Street, San Francisco. Relocated a year later.
1916 - 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8
1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
French Soldier and National Heroine Joan of Arc 1920 - Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'arc) canonized a saint
1920 - Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull
1921 - 47th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2
1922 - White Star Liner Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage
1924 - 108°F (42°C) in Blitzen Oregon
1925 - 51st Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Flying Ebony wins in 2:07.6
1927 - NY Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
1927 - Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
1929 - 1st Academy Awards - "Wings", Emil Jennings & Janet Gaynor wins
1930 - 6th Walker Cup: US, 10-2
1931 - 57th Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on Twenty Grand wins 2:01.8
1932 - Yanks 4th straight shutout to equal record set by Cleveland & Boston
1933 - Cecil Travis becomes 1st player to get 5 hits in his 1st game
1936 - 1st British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
1936 - 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59
1938 - 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
1938 - 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta Ga)
Cricket Legend Donald Bradman 1938 - In cricket Bradman scores 278 Aust v MCC, 349 mins, 35 fours 1 six
1939 - 1st AL night game, Phila Shribe Park (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)
1939 - Food stamps are 1st issued
1940 - Nazis forbid non-professional auto workers
1940 - British Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
1941 - 1st US/radio performance of Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
1941 - Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi Ethiopia
1941 - Last great German air attack on Great Britain (Birmingham)
1941 - Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
1942 - 1st transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma
1943 - -17th] Operation Chastise - the Dambusters Raid; 617 Squadron RAF bombs Möhne & Eder dams (Ruhr valley) with bouncing bombs
1943 - German troops destroy synagogue of Warsaw
1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends after 30 days of fighting
Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill 1944 - 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
1944 - Military police attack gypsies
1945 - Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon, Okinawa
1946 - Musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC
1947 - Billie Holiday is arrested in her New York apartment for possession of narcotics
1948 - Mikhail Botvinnik wins 5-player tournament to determine world chess champion
1948 - CBS news correspondent George Polk's body is found in Greece
1948 - Chaim Weizmann elected 1st president of Israel
1948 - Egyptians enter the Gaza
1948 - Israel issues its 1st postage stamps

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 220
1558 - Andreas of Austria, Bohemia cardinal/gov of Netherlands (1598-1600)
1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
1609 - Ferdinand, Austria, cardinal of Spain/governor of Netherlands
1641 - Dudley North, financier/economist
1659 - Campegius Vitringa, Dutch theologist
1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
1748 - Antonius van Alphen, apostolic vicar of De Bosch
1761 - John Opie, artist
1763 - Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin, chemist (discovered chromium, beryllium)
1782 - John Sell Cotman, water color artist
1788 - Friedrich Rückert, German Poet, Translator and Orientalist (d. 1866)
1801 - William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, bought Alaska at 2 ¢/acre (d. 1872)
1804 - Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, educator/founder (US kindergarten)
1806 - George C Cadwalader, Major General (Union volunteers), (d. 1879)
1816 - Henry Hopkins Sibley, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1886)
1819 - Daniel Ammen, Capt (Union Navy), (d. 1898)
1821 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (d. 1894)
1822 - Eduard Hille, Dutch composer/conductor
1824 - Edmund Kirby Smith, Fla, General (Confederate Army), (d. 1893)
1824 - Levi Parsons Morton, (R) 22nd US VP (1889-93)
1827 - Petrus J H Cuypers, architect (Amsterdam Museum, Central station)
1831 - David Edward Hughes, inventor (microphone, teleprinter)
1832 - Philip Danforth Armour, founder (Armour Foods)
1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1916)
1850 - Arthur Henry Mann, organist/composer
1857 - Juan Morel Campos, composer
1858 - Frank Lynes, composer
1858 - Hanus Trnecek, composer
1860 - Herman Webster Mudgett, American Serial Killer (d. 1896)
Serial Killer H. H. Holmes (1861) 1861 - H. H. Holmes [Herman Webster Mudgett], Gilmanton, New Hampshire, American serial killer
1866 - Ernest Watson Burgess, US sociologist (ecological school)
1878 - Taylor Holmes, Newark NJ, actor (Tobor the Great, Beware My Lovely)
1880 - Julian Tannen, NY, comedian (Great Moment)
1887 - Bull Montana, Vogliera Italy, actor (Brass Buttons, Victory)
1887 - J van Hoddis, writer
1889 - Joan Collette, Dutch (male) painter (New Church, Delft)
1892 - Coenraad B van Haeringen, linguist/etymologist (Dutch Dictionary)
1892 - Richard Tauber, [Ernst Seiffert], Austria/British, tenor/conductor
1893 - Jose Calvo Sotelo, Spanish minister of Finance (1925-30)
1893 - Paul Amadeus Pisk, composer
1897 - Walther Geiser, composer
1898 - August de Schrijver, Belgian politician/founder (CVP)
1898 - Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (d. 1980)
1902 - Jan Kiepura, Sosnowiec Poland, vocalist/actor (Her Wonderful Lie)
1904 - Hugh Plaxton, Canada, ice hockey player (Olympic-gold-1928)
1905 - H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates, novelist (Feast for July, Love for Lydia)
1905 - Henry Fonda, Grand Is Nebraska, actor (Mr Roberts, On Golden Pond)
1906 - Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuela, writer/minister (Lanzas Coloradas)
1906 - Ernie McCormick, cricketer (Australian quickie of late 30's)
1906 - Nicholas Beriozoff, ballet master
1906 - Alfred Pellan, French Canadian painter (d. 1988)
1906 - Margret Rey, author and illustrator (d. 1996)
1907 - Robert Tisdall, Ireland, 400m hurdler (Olympic-gold-1932)
1908 - Hilary Preston, editor
1908 - Mohammed Roem, Indonesian foreign minister (Linggadjati)
1909 - Charles Wislon, principal (Glasgow University)
1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
1911 - Margaret Sullavan, Norfolk, Virginia, American actress (Three Comrades, The Shop Around the Corner)
1911 - Olaff J de Landell, [JB Wemmerslager van Sparwoude], writer
1912 - Studs Terkel, author/host (Stud's Place, Working), born in NYC, New York
1913 - Woody Herman, jazz clarinetist/bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds)
1914 - Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author
1916 - Adriana Caselotti, cartoon voice
1916 - Bernard Braden, broadcaster/actor (All Night Lone, Full Treatment)
1916 - Ephraim Katzir, biophysicist/president (Israel)
1916 - Irene Elizabeth Beatrice Ighodaro, doctor/social reformer
1917 - George Gaynes, Helsinki Finland, actor (Henry-Punky Brewster)
1917 - Geraint Jones, conductor/organist
1918 - Edward Thomas, historian/intelligence expert
1918 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (Pedro Paramo)
1918 - Kevin Skelton, Bishop (Lichfield)
1918 - Wilf Mannion, English former footballer (d. 2000)
1919 - Richard Mason, author
Pianist Liberace (1919) 1919 - [Wladziu Valentino] Liberace, West Allis Wisconsin, pianist (Liberace Show, Evil Chandell-Batman)
1919 - Ramon Margalef, Spanish scientist (d. 2004)
1920 - Martine Carol, [Maryse Mopurer], Saint-Mande France, actress (Nana)
1920 - Dave Philley, Paris, Texas, Major League Baseball switch-hitter (record 9 straight pinch hits), (d. 2012)
1921 - Harry Carey Jr, Saugus California, actor (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon), (d. 2012)
1921 - Robert Croften Brown, politician
1922 - Colin Cole, Principal King of Arms
1922 - Russell Wood, treasurer (Queen Elizabeth)
1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 2000)
1924 - Dawda Kairaba Jawara, president (Gambia, 1970-94)
1924 - Frank F Mankiewicz, columnist (Perfectly Clear), born in NYC, New York
1925 - Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian entertainer
1926 - Jan Zimmer, composer
1927 - John Walford, solicitor
1927 - Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer, (d. 2013)
1928 - Billy Martin, baseball 2nd baseman/manager (NY Yankees, Oakland A's)
1928 - Reginald Askew, dean (King's College London)
1928 - Hiroshi Nakajima, Chiba, Japan, doctor (WHO Director-General, 1988-98), (d. 2013)
1929 - Adrienne Cecile Rich, Balt Md, feminist writer (Diamond Cutters), (d. 2012)
1929 - John Conyers Jr, (Rep-D-MI, 1965- )
1929 - Osmo Uolevi Lindeman, composer
1929 - Claude Morin, French Canadian politician
1930 - Desmond Langley, gov (Bermuda)
1930 - Don Conicannon, government minister
1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist/composer (Hangman's Songs)
1930 - Brian Davies, Brisbane, Australia, Rugby League player, (d. 2012)

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 10 of 10
1152 - Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Henri of Anjou, handing the future King Henry II of England most of France, which is why kings of England claimed France for centuries thereafter.
Queen of France Marie Antoinette (1770) 1770 - Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
1836 - US writer Edgar Allan Poe (26) marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm
1880 - British writer Mary Anne Evans, pen name George Eliot, aged 60 marries John Cross, 20 years her junior
1981 - Pretenders' Martin Chambers weds Tracy Atkinson
1987 - Rocker David Crosby weds Jan Dance in LA
1989 - MLB player Moises Alou (22) weds Austria Melo
2006 - "Korn" bassist Fieldy (36) weds Deena Beber at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California
2009 - Actress Jennifer Freeman (23) weds NBA guard Earl Watson (29) in Beverly Hills, California
2010 - British comedian David Walliams (38) weds supermodel Lara Stone (26) at Claridge's Hotel in London

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1
2008 - "24" actor Kiefer Sutherland (37) divorces former model Elizabeth Kelly Winn (42) due to irreconcilable differences after nearly 8 years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 109
583 - Saint Brendan, Irish navigator (b. 484)
942 - Saadiah Gaon, head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, dies
1265 - Saint Simon Stock, English saint (b. 1165)
1434 - Pieter Appelmans, Flemish architect/master builder, dies at about 60
1569 - Dirk Willems, Anabaptist Martyr
1620 - William Adams, English navigator (b. 1564)
1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
1669 - Pietro da Cortona, [Berrettini], painter/architect, dies
1669 - Reyer Anslo, writer/poet, dies at about 42
1691 - Jacob Leisler, becomes 1st American colonist hanged for treason
Fairytale writer Charles Perrault (1703) 1703 - Charles Perrault, French author/fairy tale writer, dies at 75
1754 - Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, composer, dies at 76
1762 - Ernst Chreistian Hesse, composer, dies at 86
1768 - Cornelis Writer, fleet supervisor, dies at about 81
1777 - Button Gwinnet, US revolutionary leader, dies from wounds
1778 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat (b. 1718)
1782 - Daniuel Charles Solander, botanist, dies
1790 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (b. 1720)
1805 - Christian Brunings, hydraulic engineer, dies at 68
1819 - Alexander van Bylandt, military, dies at 75
1829 - William Congreve, English officer, dies at 56
1830 - Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician, dies
1835 - Felicia Dorothea Hemans, poet/hymn writer, dies
1847 - Kaspar Ett, German organist/composer, dies at 59
1862 - Lev A Ms, Russian nobleman/poet, dies at 40
1863 - Lloyd Tilghman, Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at 47
1864 - Lean Bear, Cheyenne chief, murdered
1880 - Karl August Krebs, composer, dies at 76
1891 - Ion Brătianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
1892 - John Banvard, painted worlds largest painting (3 mile canvas), dies
1892 - Theodoor J Canneel, Flemish painter, dies at 74
1903 - Eduard Rappoldi, composer, dies at 72
1904 - N I Bobrikov, Russian governor-general in Finland, dies
1910 - Henri E Cross [Delacroix], French painter, dies at 53
1913 - Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1849)
1918 - Eusapia Palladino, Napolitan, dies at 64
1920 - Levi P. Morton, United States Vice President under Benjamin Harrision (b. 1824)
1926 - Mehmed VI Vahideddin (Mohammed Osman), last sultan of Turkey, dies
1928 - Edmund William Grosse, poet/author, dies
1929 - Lilli Lehmann, soprano, dies
1932 - Ki Imukai, premier of Japan (1931-32), murdered
1932 - William Pember Reeves, politician/poet, dies
1938 - Stephen Fairbairn, oarsman/coach, dies
1942 - Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski, anthropologist, dies
1943 - Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist (b. 1865)
1944 - George Ade, US novelist/playwright (Counsel Widow), dies at 78
1944 - Leone Sinigaglia, composer, dies at 75
1944 - Max Brand, [Frederick Schiller Faust], western author, dies
1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1861)
1949 - William Newzam Prior Nicholson, painter/engraver, dies
1952 - Alec Hearne, cricketer (scored 9 in Test for Eng v South Africa 1892), dies
1952 - Frances Benjamin Johnston, early American female photgrapher
1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
1954 - Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (Vienna State Opera), dies at 61
1954 - Werner Bischof, Swiss photographer, dies accidentally at 38
1955 - James Agee, US critic/writer (Death in Family), dies in NY
1956 - H. B. Reese, American founder of Reese's (b. 1876)
1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
1958 - Jeroom Verten [Jozef F Vermetten], Flemish playwright, dies at 49
1959 - Joe Cook, Stage comedian, dies at 69
1959 - Elisha Scott, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1894)
1961 - George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (b. 1881)
1966 - Randolph Turpin, boxer, shot dead in his home
1969 - Johnny Jordan, cameraman (You Only Live Twice), dies at 44
1972 - Maxime Dumoulin, composer, dies at 79
1975 - Michael X, (Abdul Malik), hanged in Trinidad, for murder
1979 - Asa Philip Randolph, American labor leader & civil rights pioneer, dies at 90
1981 - Ernie Freeman, American pianist and arranger (b. 1922)
1983 - Carel Brons, composer, dies at 52
1984 - Andy Kaufman, comedian (Latka-Taxi), dies of cancer at 35
1984 - Irwin Shaw, US writer (Rich Man, Poor Man), dies at 71
Actress Margaret Hamilton (1985) 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz), dies at 82
1988 - Kay Baxter, best bodybuilder in the world (1983-85), dies in car crash at 42
1988 - Louise Wood, director of Girl Scouts of USA (1961-72), dies at 78
1988 - Charles Keeping, English illustrator (b. 1924)
1989 - Hassan Khaled, sheik of Lebanon, murdered
1990 - Dag Drollet, Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend killed by brother Christian
1990 - Jim Henson, puppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show), dies at 53
1990 - Sammy Davis Jr, singer/actor (Golden Boy), dies at 64
1991 - Prudence Nesbitt, British actress/TV producer, dies
1992 - Marisa Mell, actress (Hostages), dies of cancer at 53
1992 - Chalino Sanchez, Mexican musician (b, 1960)
1993 - Marv Johnson, US soul singer (You Got What it Takes), dies at 54
1994 - Alain Cuny, French actor (Lovers, Emanuelle, Camille Claudel), dies aged 85
Muppeteer Jim Henson (1990) 1994 - Barbara Jean Jones, fictional character on General Hospital, dies at 7
1994 - Phani Majumdar, film director, dies at 82
1994 - Vasek Simek, Czech/US actor (Green Card, Mistress), dies at 66
1995 - Lola Flores, singer/actress (Kuma Ching, Faraona), dies at 70
1995 - Ragnhild Marie Hatton, historian, dies at 82
1996 - Edward McInnes, German scholar, dies at 60
1996 - Mike Jeremy Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) commits suicide at 57
1996 - Pierre Debizet, resistance fighter/special agent, dies at 72
1997 - Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (b. 1903)
2000 - Bodacious the Bull Famous rodeo bull (b. 1988)
2001 - Brian Pendleton, English musician (The Pretty Things) (b. 1944)
2002 - Alec Campbell, the last surviving ANZAC (b. 1899)
2002 - Big Dick Dudley, American professional wrestler (b. 1968)
2003 - Mark McCormack, American businessman (b. 1930)

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