May 16 facts for kids

May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 229 days remain until the end of the year. May 16th is a special day with many interesting events happening throughout history. From ancient emperors to modern-day space missions and famous birthdays, let's explore some of the cool things that have taken place on this date!

Historic Events on May 16

Early History (Before 1600)

• 946 – In Japan, Emperor Suzaku stepped down, and his brother, Murakami, became the 62nd emperor.
• 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, was crowned the very first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
• 1364 – During the Hundred Years' War, a French army led by Bertrand du Guesclin defeated the Anglo-Navarrese army at the Battle of Cocherel.
• 1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin became the king of the Ava Kingdom.
• 1527 – The people of Florence in Italy kicked out the Medici family for a second time, and Florence became a republic again.
• 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigned from his important job as Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, left Scotland and went to England.
• 1584 – Santiago de Vera became the sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony in the Philippines.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1739 – The Marathas defeated the Portuguese army in the Battle of Vasai.
• 1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who would later become king of France.
• 1771 – The Battle of Alamance took place in North Carolina. This was a battle before the American Revolutionary War between local soldiers and a group of rebels called "The Regulators".
• 1811 – During the Peninsular War, the armies of Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom fought a tough battle against the French at Albuera.
• 1812 – Imperial Russia signed the Treaty of Bucharest, which ended the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire gave up Bessarabia to Russia.
• 1822 – In the Greek War of Independence, the Turks captured the Greek town of Souli.
• 1832 – Juan Godoy found a lot of silver in Chañarcillo, starting the Chilean silver rush.
• 1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira was fought, which was the final big battle of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.
• 1842 – The first large group of pioneers heading for the Pacific Northwest started their journey on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri. There were 100 pioneers in this group.
• 1866 – The United States Congress officially created the nickel coin.
• 1868 – The United States Senate tried to remove President Andrew Johnson from office, but they failed by just one vote.
• 1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed four villages and sadly killed 139 people.
• 1877 – A political crisis happened in France, which led to the National Assembly being dissolved. This event helped confirm that France would have a parliamentary government, not a presidential one.
• 1888 – Nikola Tesla gave a famous talk where he explained how to generate and use alternating current to send electricity over long distances. This is how most electricity is sent today!
• 1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany. It showed the world's first long-distance transmission of powerful, three-phase electric current, which is the most common form of electricity today.

Modern History (1901–Present)

• 1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and France signed a secret agreement called the Sykes–Picot Agreement. This agreement planned how they would divide up parts of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, like Iraq and Syria.
• 1918 – The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a crime to criticize the government during wartime. It was removed less than two years later.
• 1919 – A U.S. Navy plane, the Curtiss NC-4, started its journey from Newfoundland to Lisbon, Portugal, by way of the Azores. This was the first ever transatlantic flight!
• 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV officially made Joan of Arc a saint.
• 1929 – The very first Academy Awards ceremony took place in Hollywood. This is where the famous Oscar awards are given out!
• 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Jewish people bravely fought against Nazi forces, came to an end.
• 1943 – Operation Chastise was carried out by the British Royal Air Force. Specially equipped planes destroyed important dams in Germany's Ruhr valley.
• 1945 – The Levant Crisis began between Britain and France in Syria. France tried to stop nationalist protests but backed down after Britain threatened military action.
• 1951 – The first regular transatlantic flights started between New York City (Idlewild Airport, now JFK) and Heathrow Airport in London.
• 1959 – The beautiful Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta, was turned on for the very first time.
• 1960 – Theodore Maiman created the first working optical laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. Lasers are used in so many things today, from DVD players to medical procedures!
• 1961 – Park Chung Hee led a coup d'état (a sudden takeover of the government) to overthrow the government in South Korea.
• 1966 – The Chinese Communist Party issued the "May 16 Notice," which marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
• 1969 – The Soviet space probe, Venera 5, landed on Venus.
• 1974 – Josip Broz Tito was elected president for life of Yugoslavia.
• 1975 – Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman ever to reach the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain!
• 1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom spoke to a joint session of the United States Congress. She was the first British monarch to do so.
• 1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, fled the country.
• 2005 – Kuwait allowed women to vote after a vote in their National Assembly.
• 2011 – The STS-134 space shuttle mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center. This was the 25th and final flight for the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Famous Birthdays on May 16

Born Before 1900

• 1611 – Pope Innocent XI, who became the leader of the Catholic Church.
• 1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an amazing Italian mathematician and philosopher.
• 1763 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, a French pharmacist and chemist.
• 1801 – William H. Seward, an American politician who served as the 24th United States Secretary of State.
• 1804 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, an American educator who started the first kindergarten in the U.S.
• 1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, a Russian mathematician and statistician.
• 1827 – Pierre Cuypers, a Dutch architect who designed famous buildings like the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum.
• 1831 – David Edward Hughes, a Welsh-American physicist who helped invent the microphone.
• 1862 – Margaret Fountaine, an English expert on butterflies and moths, and a diarist.
• 1883 – Celâl Bayar, a Turkish politician who became the 3rd President of Turkey.
• 1898 – Tamara de Lempicka, a famous Polish-American painter.
• 1898 – Kenji Mizoguchi, a Japanese director and screenwriter.

Born After 1900

• 1905 – Henry Fonda, a well-known American actor.
• 1912 – Studs Terkel, an American historian and author.
• 1919 – Liberace, a very popular American pianist and entertainer.
• 1921 – Harry Carey Jr., an American actor.
• 1923 – Merton Miller, an American economist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1925 – Nancy Roman, an American astronomer who was very important to the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 1925 – Nílton Santos, a famous Brazilian footballer.
• 1928 – Billy Martin, an American baseball player and coach.
• 1929 – Betty Carter, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1929 – Adrienne Rich, an American poet and feminist.
• 1931 – Hana Brady, a Jewish-Czech girl who was a victim of the Holocaust.
• 1937 – Yvonne Craig, an American ballet dancer and actress, famous for playing Batgirl.
• 1944 – Billy Cobham, a Panamanian-American drummer and composer.
• 1944 – Danny Trejo, an American actor.
• 1946 – Robert Fripp, an English guitarist and songwriter.
• 1950 – Georg Bednorz, a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1951 – Christian Lacroix, a French fashion designer.
• 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, a famous Irish-American actor, known for playing James Bond.
• 1955 – Olga Korbut, a Soviet gymnast who won many Olympic medals.
• 1955 – Debra Winger, an American actress.
• 1961 – Kevin McDonald, a Canadian actor and screenwriter.
• 1964 – John Salley, an American basketball player and actor.
• 1965 – Krist Novoselic, an American bass player and songwriter, known from the band Nirvana.
• 1966 – Janet Jackson, a very famous American singer-songwriter and actress.
• 1969 – David Boreanaz, an American actor.
• 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, an Argentinian tennis player.
• 1973 – Tori Spelling, an American actress.
• 1974 – Laura Pausini, a popular Italian singer-songwriter.
• 1977 – Melanie Lynskey, a New Zealand actress.
• 1986 – Megan Fox, an American actress.
• 1990 – Thomas Brodie-Sangster, an English actor.
• 1991 – Grigor Dimitrov, a Bulgarian tennis player.
• 1993 – IU, a popular Korean singer-songwriter and actress.
• 2002 – Ryan Gravenberch, a Dutch footballer.

Notable Deaths on May 16

Died Before 1900

• 290 – Emperor Wu of Jin, a Chinese emperor.
• 1265 – Simon Stock, an English-French saint.
• 1375 – Liu Bowen, a Chinese military strategist and poet.
• 1561 – Jan Tarnowski, a Polish nobleman and statesman.
• 1620 – William Adams, an English sailor and navigator.
• 1669 – Pietro da Cortona, a famous Italian painter and architect.
• 1703 – Charles Perrault, a French author known for his fairy tales.
• 1830 – Joseph Fourier, a French mathematician and physicist.
• 1861 – John Stevens Henslow, a British priest and geologist who taught Charles Darwin.

Died After 1900

• 1920 – Levi P. Morton, an American politician and the 22nd U.S. Vice President.
• 1926 – Mehmed VI, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1938 – Joseph Strauss, an American engineer who helped design the Golden Gate Bridge.
• 1947 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, an English biochemist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1953 – Django Reinhardt, a legendary Belgian guitarist and composer.
• 1956 – H. B. Reese, an American candy-maker who created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
• 1957 – Eliot Ness, a famous American federal agent.
• 1979 – A. Philip Randolph, an American union leader and civil rights activist.
• 1984 – Andy Kaufman, an American actor and comedian.
• 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, an American actress famous for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
• 1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., a beloved American singer, dancer, and actor.
• 1990 – Jim Henson, the American puppeteer who created The Muppets.
• 2010 – Ronnie James Dio, an American singer-songwriter and producer.
• 2013 – Heinrich Rohrer, a Swiss physicist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 2019 – Bob Hawke, an Australian politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia.
• 2019 – I. M. Pei, a famous Chinese-American architect.

Holidays and Observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Aaron (Coptic Church)
  • Abda and Abdjesus, and companions
  • Andrew Bobola
  • Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)
  • Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)
  • Germerius
  • Honoratus of Amiens
  • John of Nepomuk
  • Margaret of Cortona
  • Peregrine of Auxerre
  • Simon Stock
  • Ubald (see Saint Ubaldo Day)
  • May 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
• Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
• National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan)
• Teachers' Day (Malaysia)

See also

In Spanish: 16 de mayo para niños