1867 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
0490 BC – the Battle of Marathon, in which Athens defeated an invading army of Persians, may have been fought on this date in the proleptic Julian calendar – see also 12 September
0030 BC – Cleopatra commits suicide after her defeat and Mark Antony’s defeat at the battle of Actium.
0875 – The Holy Roman Emperor Louis II dies in Brescia at age 50 after having named his cousin Carloman, son of Louis the German, as his successor, but Charles the Bald persuades Carloman to go home, beats Louis the German to Rome, and makes himself emperor
1099 – A kingdom of Jerusalem is established under the Norman Godfrey of Bouillon, who is elected king and assumes the title Defender of the Holy Sepulcher He defeats an Egyptian force at Askalon August 12, but disease and starvation have reduced the Crusaders to 60,000, down from an original strength of 300,000, and most of the survivors head for home
1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1281 – The fleet of Qubilai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
1332 – Battle of Dupplin Moor where the Scots led by the regent Earl of Mar squandered their numerical advantage and following a confused attack were routed with heavy losses by Edward Balliol’s arm
1480 – Battle of Otranto – Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam
1553 – Pope Julius III orders confiscation & burning of Jewish Talmud
1676 – “King Phillip’s War” came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion.
1862 – Gen John Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX
1865 – Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.
1867 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-16/
1877 – Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.
1883 – The last quagga (quaggas were a kind of zebra) dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
1898 – The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
1903 – The Japanese Minister to Russia presents a note to the Russian Government protesting against its failure to evacuate Manchuria
1914 – World War I – Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.
1915 – “Of Human Bondage” by William Somerset Maugham was first published.
1922 – Dedication of Frederick Douglass’ home in Washington, D.C. as national shrine
1930 – Clarence Birdseye is granted a patent for method for quick freezing food (patent US 1773079 A)
1933 – Cuban dictator Machado y Morales flees after military coup
1941 – French Marshal Philippe Pétain gives full support to Nazi Germany
1941 – Sikorski-Stalin Polish-Russian agreement allows many Polish Jews to be freed for Siberian labor camp.
1943 – Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
1944 – Waffen SS troops massacre more than 500 civil people in Sant’Anna di Stazzema.
1945 – Stalin invites General Eisenhower to the National Sports Parade in Red Square, Moscow
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets – Thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in Moscow
1953 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon
1955 – Pres Eisenhower raises minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour
1960 – The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.
1962 – The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15.
1964 – Race riot in Elizabeth NJ
1966 – The Beatles hold press conference at the Astor Tower Hotel, in Chicago, Illinois; John Lennon apologizes for his “more popular than Jesus” remark
1966 – Longview, Texas radio station KLUE holds a “Beatles Bonfire” to burn Beatles records and memorabilia; station is struck by lightning the following day
1969 – Battle of the Bogside, Catholic community of Derry engage in two-day battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary
1976 – Christian militia conquer Palestinian camp Tell al-Za’tar, 2000 killed
1978 – Japan and the People’s Republic of China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People’s Republic of China
1979 – Iranian press censors start massive book burnings
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is stocked in stores for the first time, Known as the IBM PC or the IBM 5150, the computer had no disk drives and sold for about $1500.
1982 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spread to all of Latin America and the Third World
1986 – It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the Challenger disaster.
1986 – Iran fires missile at refinery near Baghdad; Iraq raids Iranian terminal at Sirri Island severely disrupting Iranian exports
1990 – American palaeontologist Sue Hendrickson found the fossilised remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex in the state of South Dakota. Sue, as the dinosaur are now informally called after its discoverer, is thought to have been 14 feet tall when alive.
1990 – Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve the Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories
1992 – The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.
1993 – U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.
1994 – Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years.
1998 – Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims.
2000 – The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.
2004 – The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages that had been sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year.
2005 – Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a sniper at his home
2008 – Russo-Georgian War: Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, negotiates ceasefire agreement between Russia and Georgia, ending a brief war hostilities after 5 days
2013 – 30 people are killed by gunmen in northeast Nigeria
2013 – 8 people are killed and 25 are injured in a suicide bomb attack in Balad, Iraq
2015 – In London archaeologists discover a mass grave of 30 bodies from the 1665 plague
2017 – “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia turns violent when car rams protesters killing 1, injuring 19
2017 – US President Donald Trump at a press conference at Trump Tower says “there is blame on both sides” in reference to violence in Charlottesville, provoking widespread condemnation
2018 – More than 200 Afghan soldiers reported killed after 3 days of attacks by taliban insurgents over multiple fronts including Ghazni city
2019 – Beginning of the ‘glitter revolution’ in Mexico City when security chief showered with pink glitter in protest of violence against women after teenager raped by police
2020 – Europe fights a new COVID-19 surge with Germany, France and Spain posting their largest daily infection totals for three months
2021 – Bennu Asteroid, size of the Empire State Building, now has 1-in-1,750 chance of hitting Earth in 2182, according to data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REX spacecraft
2021 – US Census reveal country grown more diverse, growth in Hispanic (+23%) and Asian (+36%) populations, 1st ever decline in white population (-2.6%)
2022 – British author Salman Rushdie attacked and repeatedly stabbed on stage prior to giving a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
