November 16
November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years ) in the Gregorian Calendar , with 45 days remaining.
Events
534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
1384 - Hedwig is crowned King of Poland , although she is a woman.
1532 - Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa .
1776 - American Revolutionary War : Hessian mercenaries capture Fort Washington from the Patriots .
1821 - American Old West : Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail .
1849 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his execution is canceled at the last minute.
1857 - The relief of Lucknow . The most Victoria Crosses won in a single day (24).
1863 - American Civil War : Battle of Campbell's Station near Knoxville, Tennessee . Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces.
1885 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba ", Louis Riel is executed for high treason .
1896 - First transmission of electrical power between two cities was sent from Niagara Falls to industries in Buffalo, New York . (See War of Currents .)
1904 - John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube .
1906 - Opera star Enrico Caruso is charged with an indecent act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house of New York 's Central Park Zoo .
1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state .
1914 - The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.
1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations .
1940 - World War II : In response to Germany leveling Coventry two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg .
1940 - Holocaust : In Poland , Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
1940 - New York City 's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison .
1943 - World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German -controlled Vermork , Norway .
1945 - Cold War : The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
1957 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden.
1965 - Venera program : The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus , the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet .
1969 - The first episode of The Clangers is broadcast by the BBC .
1973 - Skylab program : NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
1973 - US President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline .
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1979 - The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in Bucharest , Romania .
1980 - Louis Althusser murders his wife and immediately confesses.
1981 - Luke and Laura marry on General Hospital ; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history.
1988 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that the Estonia was "sovereign" but stopped short of declaring independence.
1988 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters inPakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister .
1989 - A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University .
1990 - Rocky V is the 5th and final Rocky sequel to open in theaters, starring Sylvester Stallone .
1996 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
1997 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng , a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
2000 - Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US President to visit Vietnam .
2001 - The first Harry Potter Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2004 - X-43A scramjet becomes the fastest air-breathing jet flying at nearly Mach 10 at approx. 11,200 km/h or 3.11 km/s
Births
42 BC - Tiberius , Roman emperor (d. 37 )
1717 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert , French mathematician and encyclopædist (d. 1793 )
1720 - Carlo Antonio Campioni , composer (d. 1788 )
1766 - Rodolphe Kreutzer , French violinist (d. 1831 )
1836 - David Kalakaua of Hawaii , last king of the Kingdom of Hawaii (d. 1891 )
1862 - Charles Turner , Australian bowler , in Bathurst (d. 1944 )
1873 - W. C. Handy , American blues composer (d. 1958 )
1889 - George Kaufman , playwright (d. 1961 )
1894 - Richard Coudenhove Kalergi , politician (d. 1972 )
1895 - Paul Hindemith , German composer (d.1963 )
1896 - Lawrence Tibbett , American actor and singer (d. 1960 )
1896 - Oswald Mosley , British fascist (d. 1980 )
1905 - Eddie Condon , jazz musician (d. 1973 )
1907 - Burgess Meredith , actor (d. 1997 )
1916 - Daws Butler , voice actor (d. 1988 )
1922 - José Saramago , author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1998
1922 - Gene Amdahl , computer scientist
1924 - Mel Patton , American athlete
1924 - James Bond , fictional character
1928 - Clu Gulager , American actor
1930 - Chinua Achebe , Nigerian author
1937 - Lothar Späth , German politician
1938 - Robert Nozick , philosopher
1943 - Michael Cimino , film director
1952 - Shigeru Miyamoto , video game legend
1958 - Marg Helgenberger , American actress
1964 - Diana Krall , singer
1967 - Lisa Bonet , actress
1971 - Waqar Younis , International cricketer ( Pakistan , Surrey , Glamorgan )
1974 - Paul Scholes , International footballer ( Manchester United , England )
1977 - Oksana Baiul , figure skating champion
1981 - Allison Crowe , singer-songwriter
Deaths
1272 - Henry III of England (b. 1207 )
1328 - Prince Hisaaki , 8th Kamakura shogun of Japan (b. 1276 )
1632 - Gustavus Adolphus , King of Sweden (b. 1594 )
1724 - Jack Sheppard , notorious burglar hanged at Tyburn , London
1797 - Frederick William II of Prussia (b. 1744 )
1802 - André Michaux , French botanist (b. 1746 )
1836 - Christian Hendrik Persoon , Dutch mycologist (b. 1761 )
1885 - Louis Riel , Canadian Metis political leader
1911 - Albert Alonzo Ames , mayor of Minneapolis (b. 1842 )
1939 - Pierce Butler , U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1866 )
1960 - Clark Gable , actor
1961 - Sam Rayburn , U.S. Speaker of the House
1973 - Alan Watts , philosopher, writer, lecturer, and religious expert
1981 - William Holden , actor
1994 - Doris Speed , soap opera actress
2003 - Bettina Goislard , UNHCR relief worker
Holidays and observances
International Day for Tolerance http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/tolerance/index.html
External links
November 15 - November 17 - October 16 - December 16 -- listing of all days
Top Encyclopedia Articles
