November 16th in History

Spanish soldiers commanded by Francisco Pizarro attack the escort of Incan emperor Atahualpa
(from Edward R. Shaw’s Discoverers and Explorers, 1900)
On This Day in History
- Francisco Pizarro captures the Incan emperor Atahualpa (1532 CE)
- Missouri trader William Becknell pioneers the Santa Fe Trail (1822 CE)
- A Russian court sentences Фёдор Достое́вский (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) to death, later commuted to four years hard labor in Siberia (1849 CE)
- Oklahoma becomes the 46th US state (1907 CE)
- LSD is first synthesized (1938 CE)
- The Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world (1940 CE)
- UNESCO is founded (1945 CE)
- The Soviet Union launches Venera 3 (1965 CE)
- NASA launches Skylab 4 (1973 CE)
- Nixon authorizes the Alaska Pipeline (1973 CE)
Births
- Tiberius, emperor of Rome (42 BCE)
- Kalākaua, “the Merrie Monarch,” king of Hawai’i (1836 CE)
- W. C. Handy, composer, “father of the blues” (1873 CE)
- Paul Hindesmith, composer (1895)
- Oswald Mosley, British fascist (1896)
- چودھری رحمت علی (Choudry Rahmat Ali), created the name “Pakistan,” an acronym for “Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan) (1895)
- Burgess Meredith, actor (1907)
- Daws Butler, voice actor (1916)
- Jo Jo White, basketball player (1946)
- David Leisure, actor, “Joe Isuzu” pitchman (1950)
- Marg Helgenberger, actress (1958)
- Dwight Gooden, baseball player (1964)
- Lisa Bonet, actress (1967)
- Оксана Баюл (Oksana Baiul), figure skater (1977)
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, actress (1977)
Deaths
- Henry III, English monarch (1272)
- Jack Sheppard, English robber (1724)
- Bob Smith, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (1950)
- Clark Gable, actor (1960)
- Alan Watts, philosopher (1973)
- Tommy Flanagan, jazz pianist (2001)
- Milton Friedman, economist (2006)
- Edward Woodward, actor (2009)
Holidays
- Admission Day (Oklahoma)
- Dagur Íslenskrar Tungu (Icelandic Language Day) (Iceland)
- International Day for Tolerance (Worldwide)
- National Button Day (US, informal)
- Statia and America Day (St. Eustatius, West Indies)
- Taassünni Päev (Day of Declaration of Sovereignty) (Estonia)
November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321th in leap years), with 45 days remaining until year’s end.