On April 16th...

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1346 The Serbian Empire was proclaimed.

1521 Martin Luther arrived at the Diet of Worms assembly.

1689 Author and playwright Aphra Behn died.

1705 Isaac Newton was knighted by Queen Anne of England.

1780 The University of Münster was founded in North Rhine-Westphalia.

1786 Arctic explorer John Franklin was born.

1797 The Spithead Mutiny began when British Royal Navy sailors protested over living and working conditions and pay near Portsmouth, England.

1804 William Maclay, signer of the Declaration of Independence, died.

1818 The U.S. Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot Treaty, establishing an unguarded border between the United States and Canada.

1828 Painter Francisco de Goya died.

1844 Novelist Anatole France was born.

1850 Madame Marie Tussaud, wax sculptor and founder of Tussaud's Wax Museum, died.

1853 The first passenger rail line in India opened, between Bori Bunder and Thane.

1854 San Salvador, El Salvador, was destroyed by an earthquake.
1854 The steamer Long Beach sank off Long Beach, New York, killing 311 persons.

1859 Historian Alexis de Tocqueville died.

1862 Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia.

1864 Inventor Thomas Blanchard died.

1867 Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, was born.

1869 Ebenezer Bassett, the first black American diplomat, began service in Haiti.

1889 Actor-director-producer Charlie Chaplin was born.

1908 Natural Bridges National Monument (Utah) was established.

1912 Harriet Quimby became the first woman pilot to cross the English Channel.

1921 Actor Peter Ustinov was born.

1924 Composer Henry Mancini was born.

1925 A Communist assault on St. Nedelya Church in Sofia, Bulgaria, killed 150 people and wounded 500.

1926 The Book of the Month Club sent out its first selections.

1927 Joseph Alois Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was born.

1929 The New York Yankees became the first Major League baseball team to wear uniform numbers.
1929 Mooney Aircraft Company was founded.

1930 Jazz flautist Herbie Mann was born.

1935 The radio program Fibber McGee and Molly debuted.
1935 Singer Bobby Vinton was born.

1939 The Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Stanley Cup.
1939 Singer Dusty Springfield was born.

1940 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark was born.

1941 Borden Dairy mascot Elsie was mortally injured in a truck accident.

1943 Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.

1945 The Russian Army entered Berlin, Germany.
1945 U. S. troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.
1945 U. S. troops landed on He Shima, Okinawa.
1945 U. S. troops liberated Colditz Castle, a high-security prisoner of war camp in Germany.

1947 Bernard Baruch coined the phrase "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1947 A freighter exploded in the port of Texas City, Texas, touching off more explosions that eventually killed almost 600 persons.
1947 Basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born.

1948 The Organization for European Economic Cooperation was formed.

1949 The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings for the Stanley Cup.

1951 The British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel, killing 75 sailors.

1952 Professional football coach Bill Belichik was born.

1953 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.

1954 The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup.

1957 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.

1959 The Bolshoi Ballet made its U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera House.

1961 The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Detroit Red Wings for the Stanley Cup.

1962 Walter Cronkite began anchoring the CBS Evening News.

1964 The Rolling Stones released their first album.
1964 Casey Stengel dedicated Shea Stadium, the new home of the New York Mets.

1965 Comedian Martin Lawrence was born.

1968 Author Edna Ferber died.

1972 The Apollo 16 mission (the fifth manned mission to the Moon) was launched.
1972 Actor Peter Billingsley was born.

1978 A passenger train crashed into a bus in Puebla, Mexico; ten passengers on the bus were killed and 16 others were injured.
1978 Lucius DuBignon Clay, American general who oversaw the Berlin Airlift, died.

1992 The tanker Katina P ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique,and spilled 60,000 tons of crude oil into the ocean.

2002 Actor Robert Urich died.

2004 The pcean liner Queen Mary 2 embarked on her first transtlantic crossing.

2007 A gunman killed 32 persons and wounded another 23 at Virginia Tech before committing suicide.

2008 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution by lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

2013 A magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed 37 persons in Khash, Iran.
2013 A gold mine collapse in Kyekyewere, Ghana, killed 16 persons.

2014 The South Korean ferry MV Sewol sank en route from Incheon to Jeju, killing 304 persons, mostly students.

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This page was last updated on June 28, 2018.