The Trinity nuclear test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, July 16, 1945. Mushroom cloud after 10 seconds.

Today in History

• The Islamic calendar begins (622)
• The first banknotes in Europe are issued (1661)
• The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the US (1790)
• American Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run (1861)
• The world’s first parking meter is installed (1935)
• Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins with the first successful detonation of a nuclear weapon (1945)
• Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, takes off from Cape Kennedy (1969)

Birthdays

• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science (1821)
• Roald Amundsen, explorer (1872)
• Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (1887)
• Orville Redenbacher, popcorn magnate (1907)
• Barbara Stanwick, actress (1907)
• Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer (1911)
• Sherri Stoner, voice actress and screenwriter (1965)
• Will Ferrell, actor and comedian (1967)
• Barry Sanders, football player (1968)

Deaths

• Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII (1557)
• Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady (1882)
• Boris Artzybasheff, artist (1965)
• Harry Chapin, musician (1981)
• John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of US President John F. Kennedy (1999)
• Johnny Winter, musician (2014)
• George Romero, filmmaker (2017)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Civil Engineers Day (Honduras)
• Family History Day (US)
• Holocaust Memorial Day (France)
• National Ice Cream Day (US)
• World Snake Day

July 16 is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years). There are 168 days remaining until the end of the year.