November 16th in History

Michael Dobson | November 16

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.