What Happened on May 16
Important Events
- 1920 Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'arc) canonized a saint
- 1943 Operation Chastise: No. 617 Squadron RAF begins the famous Dambusters Raid, bombing the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley with bouncing bombs
- 1944 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
- 1989 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing and formally end a 30-year rift
- 2013 Human stem cells are successfully cloned
May 16 in Film & TV
- 1929 1st Academy Awards: "Wings", Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor win
- 1986 "Top Gun", directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise premieres
May 16 in Music
- 1946 "Annie Get Your Gun" musical by Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields opens at Imperial Theater NYC, starring Ethel Merman and featuring "There's no Business Like Show Business"
May 16 in Sport
- 1948 First chess world championship since WWII; Russian player Mikhail Botvinnik wins a 5-player tournament to begin 20-year Russian domination
- 1985 Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year
Did You Know?
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California
On May 16, 1960
Famous Birthdays
H. H. Holmes
(1861 - 1896)- Henry Fonda
(1905 - 1982) - Liberace
(1919 - 1987) - Pierce Brosnan
67 Years Old - Janet Jackson
54 Years Old - Megan Fox
34 Years Old
H. H. Holmes
Henry Fonda
Liberace
Pierce Brosnan
Janet Jackson
Megan FoxFamous Weddings
- 1770 Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
- 1836 American writer Edgar Allan Poe (26) marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm
- 1981 Pretenders' Martin Chambers weds Tracy Atkinson
Famous Divorces
- 2008 "24" actor Kiefer Sutherland (37) divorces former model Elizabeth Kelly Winn (42) due to irreconcilable differences after nearly 8 years of marriage
Charles Perrault
Django Reinhardt
Margaret Hamilton
Jim Henson
Bob Hawke
I. M. PeiArticles, Photos and Quiz
Silence is Golden At The First Oscars
The first Academy Awards ceremony took place on this day before just 250 guests. All the movies nominated for what would become known as an Oscar were silent
May 16, 1929Mikhail Kalashnikov Meets Eugene Stoner
The inventor of the AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov (right), meets the inventor of the M-16, Eugene Stoner (left)
May 16, 1990Weekly Quiz for May 13-20
Test your knowledge of historical events in our multi-choice weekly history quiz for May 13-20. Number 7 will leave you truly stumped then amazed!
May in History
How Australia Was Born
Captain Arthur Phillip commanded a fleet of British ships carrying convicts to New South Wales on this day, effectively founding the British colony of Australia.
May 13, 1787Pope 'Turned Vatican Into Whorehouse'
Pope John XII who died – some say he was murdered – on this day lived a life of sin, corruption and murder. But is his reputation as the worst pope deserved?
May 14, 964 ADTaxman Delivers Cruel Blow to Miss Whiplash
If I agreed to your demand for cash payment it means that you would be living off immoral earnings, celebrated Madam tells the tax authority.
May 15, 1990Theodore Roosevelt, the Cowboy President
President Theodore Roosevelt began a camping trip on this day with naturalist, writer and conservationist John Muir. The trip had a profound effect on Roosevelt
May 17, 1903
