October 16th in History

October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years), with 77 days remaining until year’s end. (Illustration: The beheading of Marie Antoinette.)
Today in History
- Marie Antoinette is guillotined (1793)
- Ether anesthesia is demonstrated for the first time (1846)
- John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (1859)
- The Cardiff Giant, a “petrified man” later revealed as a fake, is supposedly discovered in New York (1869)
- Bengal is partitioned by the British (1905)
- Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States (1916)
- The Walt Disney Company is founded (1923)
- Chinese communists begin the 長征 (Long March) (1934)
- The Luftwaffe make their first attack on British territory (1939)
- Ten top Nazi leaders (including Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, and Joachim von Ribbentrop) are hanged after being convicted of war crimes at Nürnberg (1946)
- China detonates its first nuclear weapon (1964)
- Two US athletes are kicked off the Olympic team for giving a Black Power salute (1968)
- Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ win the Nobel Peace Prize (1973)
- রহিমা বানু বেগুম (Rahima Banu) contracts the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox, but recovers (1975)
- Karol Wojtyła is elected Pope John Paul II (1978)
- Desmond Tutu receives the Nobel Peace Prize (1984)
- The Million Man March attracts between 670,000 and 1 million people to the National Mall in Washington, DC (1995)
- Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London (1998)
- The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered (2012)
Birthdays
- Noah Webster, lexicographer (1758)
- Oscar Wilde, poet and playwright (1854)
- דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן (David Ben-Gurion), first prime minister of Israel (1886)
- Eugene O’Neill, playwright (1888)
- Mícheál Ó Coileáin (Michael Collins), Irish revolutionary leader (1890)
- William O. Douglas, Supreme Court justice (1898)
- Goose Goslin, baseball player (1900)
- Cecile de Brunhoff, Babar the Elephant co-creator (1903)
- Enver Hoxha, Albanian ruler (1908)
- George Turner, Australian science fiction writer (1916)
- Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber author (1919)
- Linda Darnell, actress (1923)
- Bert Kaempfert, composer (1923)
- Angela Lansbury, actress (1925)
- Günter Grass, author (1927)
- Charles Colson, Watergate figure (1931)
- Barry Corbin, actor (1940)
- Suzanne Somers, actress (1946)
- Bob Weir, Grateful Dead member (1947)
- David Zucker, director (1947)
- Ron Taylor, actor (1952)
- Tim Robbins, actor (1958)
- Manute Bol, basketball player (1962)
- Wendy Wilson, singer (1969)
- John Mayer, singer-songwriter (1977)
Deaths
- Nicholas V, antipope (1333)
- Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, explorer and car namesake (1730)
- Григо́рий Потёмкин (Grigory Potemkin), Russian nobleman (O. S. 1791*)
- Jean de Brunhoff, Babar the Elephant co-creator (1937)
- لیاقت علی خان (Liaquat Ali Khan), assassinated first prime minister of Pakistan (1951)
- George Marshall, military officer and US Secretary of State (1959)
- Ellis Kinder, baseball player (1968)
- Leo G. Carroll, actor (1972)
- Gene Krupa, drummer (1973)
- Dan Dailey, actor (1978)
- משה דיין (Moshe Dayan), Israeli military leader and politician (1981)
- Walter Farley, Black Stallion author (1989)
- Scott O’Dell, young adult fiction author (1989)
- Cornel Wilde, actor (1989)
- Art Blakey, drummer (1990)
- Shirley Booth, actress (1992)
- Audra Lindley, actress (1997)
- James A. Michener, author (1997)
- Jean Shepherd, raconteur, A Christmas Story author (1999)
- Pierre Salinger, White House press secretary (2004)
- Deborah Kerr, actress (2007)
- Barbara Billingsley, Leave It to Beaver mother (2010)
- Eddie Yost, baseball player (2012)
Holidays
- Air Force Day (Bulgaria)
- Boss’ Day (US and Canada)
- Ada Lovelace Day (International)
- Day of Pope John Paul II (Poland)
- Death Anniversary of Liaquat Ali Khan (Pakistan)
- Dictionary Day and Learn a Word Day (US)
- Feasts of Balderic, Dulcidius, Eliphius, Gall, Lull, Magnobodus, and Mummolinus (Catholicism)
- Feral Cat Day (US)
- Festival of St. Gerald Majella and Hurricane Thanksgiving Day (US Virgin Islands)
- Let Them Eat Cake Day and Liqueur Day (unofficial)
- St. Gallus Day (Switzerland)
- St. Hedwig’s Day (Bavaria)
- Teachers’ Day (Chile)
- World Food Day (International)
- World Anaesthesia Day and Ether Day (International)