January 16 facts for kids

January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 349 days remain until the end of the year (350 in leap years).

January 16th is a day filled with many important events throughout history, from ancient times to the modern era. It's a day when empires rose, new laws were made, and famous people were born or passed away. Let's explore some of the most interesting moments that happened on this day!

Historical Events

Ancient Times and Middle Ages

• 1458 BC – Hatshepsut, a powerful female pharaoh of ancient Egypt, passed away at 50 years old. She was buried in the Valley of the Kings.
• 27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was given the special title of Augustus by the Roman Senate. This moment marks the official start of the mighty Roman Empire.
• 378 – A general named Siyaj Kʼakʼ took control of Tikal, an important city for the Maya people. This helped expand the power of King Spearthrower Owl from Teotihuacán.
• 550 – During the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths, led by King Totila, captured the city of Rome after a long siege. They managed to do this by paying off the soldiers guarding the city.
• 929 – Emir Abd al-Rahman III created the Caliphate of Córdoba in Spain. This was a very important Islamic state in Europe.
• 1120 – During the Crusades, a meeting called the Council of Nablus took place. Here, some of the first written laws for the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem were created.
• 1362 – A terrible natural disaster, the Saint Marcellus's flood, caused the deaths of at least 25,000 people along the shores of the North Sea.
• 1537 – The Bigod's Rebellion began in England. This was an armed uprising by people who were unhappy with the changes happening during the English Reformation.
• 1547 – Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy became the very first Tsar of Russia. This changed the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow into the Tsardom of Russia.
• 1556 – Philip II of Spain became the new King of Spain.
• 1572 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk was found guilty of trying to overthrow the queen.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1605 – The first part of Don Quixote, a famous book by Miguel de Cervantes, was published in Madrid, Spain.
• 1707 – The Parliament of Scotland agreed to the Act of Union. This important step led to the creation of Great Britain.
• 1716 – King Philip V of Spain issued the Nueva Planta decree for Catalonia. This law removed many of Catalonia's own rules and institutions, making it a province of the new Kingdom of Spain.
• 1757 – Forces from the Maratha Empire defeated a large army from the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.
• 1780 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent took place at sea.
• 1786 – Virginia passed the Statute for Religious Freedom, a law written by Thomas Jefferson that protected religious freedom.
• 1809 – In the Peninsular War, British forces defeated the French army at the Battle of La Coruña.
• 1847 – As part of the westward expansion of the United States, John C. Frémont was named the Governor of the new California Territory.
• 1862 – The Hartley Colliery disaster, a mining accident, killed 204 men and boys. This tragedy led to a new law in the UK requiring all mines to have at least two ways to escape.
• 1878 – During the Russo-Turkish War, Russian soldiers liberated Plovdiv from Ottoman rule in the Battle of Philippopolis.
• 1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. This law created the United States Civil Service, changing how government jobs were given out.
• 1900 – The United States Senate approved the Anglo-German treaty of 1899. In this agreement, the United Kingdom gave up its claims to the Samoan islands.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1909 – Ernest Shackleton's expedition discovered the magnetic South Pole.
• 1919 – Nebraska became the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This meant that Prohibition, which banned alcohol, would become law across the United States a year later.
• 1920 – The League of Nations, an organization created to promote world peace, held its very first council meeting in Paris, France.
• 1942 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany began sending Jewish people from the Łódź Ghetto to the Chełmno extermination camp.
• 1942 – TWA Flight 3 crashed, killing all 22 people on board, including the famous film star Carole Lombard.
• 1945 – During World War II, Adolf Hitler moved into his underground bunker, known as the Führerbunker.
• 1969 – Space Race: The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 made history by performing the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit. This also included the first time astronauts transferred from one spacecraft to another using a space walk.
• 1979 – Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah and his family left Iran for good and moved to Egypt.
• 1991 – Coalition Forces began fighting Iraq, starting the Gulf War.
• 1992 – Officials from El Salvador and rebel leaders signed the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City. This agreement ended the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War, which had caused at least 75,000 deaths.
• 1995 – A large avalanche hit the Icelandic village of Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people. Sadly, 14 of them died.
• 2001 – Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was killed by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa.
• 2001 – U.S. President Bill Clinton gave former President Theodore Roosevelt a special award, the Medal of Honor, for his bravery in the Spanish–American War.
• 2002 – War in Afghanistan: The UN Security Council voted to stop all weapons sales and freeze the money of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
• 2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia launched for its final mission, STS-107. The shuttle tragically broke apart 16 days later when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
• 2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's new president. She became the first woman elected as a head of state in Africa.
• 2011 – Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) was formed. Its goal was to reorganize Syria based on ideas of democratic confederalism.
• 2012 – The Mali War began when Tuareg militias started fighting the Malian government for independence.
• 2020 – The first impeachment of Donald Trump officially moved into its trial phase in the United States Senate.
• 2020 – The United States Senate approved the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA.

Famous Births

Born Before 1900

• 972 – Emperor Shengzong of Liao, an important emperor of the Liao Dynasty.
• 1093 – Isaac Komnenos, a son of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
• 1245 – Edmund Crouchback, an English politician.
• 1362 – Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, a duke in Ireland.
• 1409 – René of Anjou, who became the King of Naples.
• 1477 – Johannes Schöner, a German astronomer and mapmaker.
• 1501 – Anthony Denny, a close friend of King Henry VIII of England.
• 1516 – Bayinnaung, a powerful king of Burma.
• 1558 – Jakobea of Baden, a German noblewoman.
• 1616 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, a French duke.
• 1626 – Lucas Achtschellinck, a Belgian painter.
• 1630 – Guru Har Rai, an important Sikh Guru.
• 1634 – Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, a Norwegian author and poet.
• 1653 – Johann Conrad Brunner, a Swiss anatomist.
• 1675 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, a French soldier and diplomat.
• 1691 – Peter Scheemakers, a Belgian sculptor.
• 1728 – Niccolò Piccinni, an Italian composer.
• 1749 – Vittorio Alfieri, an Italian poet and playwright.
• 1757 – Richard Goodwin Keats, an English admiral.
• 1807 – Charles Henry Davis, an American admiral.
• 1815 – Henry Halleck, an American general and scholar.
• 1821 – John C. Breckinridge, an American general and the 14th Vice President of the United States.
• 1834 – Robert R. Hitt, an American lawyer and politician.
• 1836 – Francis II of the Two Sicilies, a king.
• 1838 – Franz Brentano, a German philosopher and psychologist.
• 1844 – Ismail Qemali, the first Prime Minister of Albania.
• 1851 – William Hall-Jones, the 16th Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• 1853 – Johnston Forbes-Robertson, an English actor.
• 1853 – André Michelin, a French businessman who co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company.
• 1870 – Jüri Jaakson, an Estonian politician.
• 1872 – Henri Büsser, a French composer and conductor.
• 1874 – Robert W. Service, an English-Canadian poet and author.
• 1875 – Leonor Michaelis, a German biochemist.
• 1876 – Claude Buckenham, an English cricketer and footballer.
• 1878 – Harry Carey, an American actor and director.
• 1880 – Samuel Jones, an American high jumper.
• 1882 – Margaret Wilson, an American author.
• 1885 – Zhou Zuoren, a Chinese author and translator.
• 1888 – Osip Brik, a Russian writer and critic.
• 1892 – Homer Burton Adkins, an American chemist.
• 1893 – Daisy Kennedy, an Australian-English violinist.
• 1894 – Irving Mills, an American music publisher.
• 1895 – Edith Frank, the mother of Anne Frank.
• 1898 – Margaret Booth, an American film editor.
• 1898 – Irving Rapper, an American film director.
• 1900 – Frank Zamboni, an American inventor, known for the ice resurfacer.

Born After 1900

• 1901 – Fulgencio Batista, a Cuban colonel and the ninth President of Cuba.
• 1902 – Eric Liddell, a Scottish runner and missionary, famous from the movie Chariots of Fire.
• 1908 – Ethel Merman, a famous American actress and singer.
• 1910 – Dizzy Dean, an American baseball player and sportscaster.
• 1911 – Eduardo Frei Montalva, the 28th President of Chile.
• 1917 – Carl Karcher, an American businessman who founded Carl's Jr. restaurants.
• 1924 – Katy Jurado, a Mexican actress.
• 1925 – Peter Hirsch, a German-English metallurgist.
• 1928 – William Kennedy, an American novelist and journalist.
• 1931 – Johannes Rau, the eighth Federal President of Germany.
• 1932 – Dian Fossey, an American zoologist who studied gorillas.
• 1933 – Susan Sontag, an American novelist and critic.
• 1935 – A. J. Foyt, a famous American race car driver.
• 1935 – Udo Lattek, a German footballer and manager.
• 1942 – René Angélil, a Canadian singer and manager.
• 1944 – Jill Tarter, an American astronomer and biologist.
• 1946 – Kabir Bedi, an Indian actor.
• 1948 – John Carpenter, an American director, producer, and composer.
• 1949 – Anne F. Beiler, an American businesswoman who founded Auntie Anne's.
• 1950 – Debbie Allen, an American actress, dancer, and choreographer.
• 1952 – Fuad II, the last King of Egypt.
• 1956 – Martin Jol, a Dutch footballer and manager.
• 1959 – Sade, a Nigerian-English singer-songwriter.
• 1963 – James May, an English journalist and television presenter.
• 1969 – Roy Jones Jr., a famous American boxer.
• 1974 – Kate Moss, an English model and fashion designer.
• 1979 – Aaliyah, an American singer and actress.
• 1980 – Lin-Manuel Miranda, an American actor, playwright, and composer, known for Hamilton.
• 1980 – Albert Pujols, a Dominican-American baseball player.
• 1985 – Joe Flacco, an American football player.
• 1996 – Jennie, a South Korean singer from the group Blackpink.

Notable Deaths

Passed Away Before 1900

• 654 – Gao Jifu, a Chinese politician.
• 970 – Polyeuctus of Constantinople, a Byzantine patriarch.
• 1263 – Shinran Shonin, a Japanese religious leader.
• 1373 – Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, an English earl.
• 1391 – Muhammad V of Granada, a Nasrid emir.
• 1400 – John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, an English politician.
• 1443 – Erasmo of Narni, an Italian mercenary.
• 1547 – Johannes Schöner, the German astronomer and cartographer born on this day, also passed away on this day.
• 1554 – Christiern Pedersen, a Danish publisher.
• 1585 – Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, an English admiral.
• 1595 – Murad III, an Ottoman sultan.
• 1635 – Mariana de Jesús Torres, a Spanish nun.
• 1710 – Emperor Higashiyama, a Japanese emperor.
• 1711 – Joseph Vaz, an Indian-Sri Lankan priest and saint.
• 1794 – Edward Gibbon, a famous English historian.
• 1809 – John Moore, a Scottish general.
• 1817 – Alexander J. Dallas, an American lawyer and the sixth United States Secretary of the Treasury.
• 1864 – Anton Schindler, an Austrian writer.
• 1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli, an Italian composer.
• 1891 – Léo Delibes, a French composer.

Passed Away After 1900

• 1901 – Arnold Böcklin, a Swiss painter.
• 1901 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, an American soldier and politician.
• 1906 – Marshall Field, an American businessman who founded Marshall Field's department stores.
• 1917 – George Dewey, an American admiral.
• 1919 – Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, the fifth President of Brazil.
• 1942 – Carole Lombard, the American actress who died in a plane crash mentioned earlier.
• 1957 – Arturo Toscanini, a famous Italian conductor.
• 1962 – Frank Hurley, an Australian photographer and director.
• 1967 – Robert J. Van de Graaff, an American physicist who invented the Van de Graaff generator.
• 1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., the American singer-songwriter who created Alvin and the Chipmunks.
• 1981 – Bernard Lee, an English actor known for playing M in James Bond films.
• 2001 – Auberon Waugh, an English author and journalist.
• 2009 – John Mortimer, an English lawyer and author.
• 2009 – Andrew Wyeth, an American painter.
• 2010 – Glen Bell, an American businessman who founded Taco Bell.
• 2013 – André Cassagnes, a French inventor who created the Etch A Sketch.
• 2014 – Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese lieutenant who continued fighting World War II for decades after it ended.
• 2015 – Yao Beina, a Chinese singer.
• 2017 – Eugene Cernan, an American astronaut and the last man to walk on the Moon.
• 2019 – John C. Bogle, an American businessman and investor.
• 2020 – Christopher Tolkien, a British academic and editor, son of J.R.R. Tolkien.
• 2021 – Phil Spector, an American record producer.
• 2022 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, a former President of Mali.

Holidays and Observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Pope Benjamin (Coptic)
  • Berard of Carbio
  • Blaise (Armenian Apostolic)
  • Fursey
  • Joseph Vaz
  • Honoratus of Arles
  • Pope Marcellus I
  • Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Coptic Church)
  • Titian of Oderzo
  • Eve of Saint Anthony observed with ritual bonfires in San Bartolomé de Pinares
  • January 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
• Teacher's Day (Myanmar)
• Teachers' Day (Thailand)

See also

In Spanish: 16 de enero para niños