October 16 facts for kids

October 16th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from ancient empires to modern times. It's a day when important leaders rose to power, big battles were fought, and new discoveries were made. Many famous people were also born or passed away on this date.

Historical Events

Ancient Times (Before 1600)

• 456 – A powerful Roman general named Ricimer won a battle at Piacenza. This made him a very important figure in the Western Roman Empire.
• 690 – Empress Wu Zetian became the ruler of the Tang dynasty in China. She was a very strong and influential empress.
• 912 – Abd al-Rahman III became the eighth Emir of Córdoba, a powerful leader in what is now Spain.
• 955 – King Otto I won a battle against a Slavic uprising in a region that is now part of Germany.
• 1311 – The Council of Vienne, an important meeting of church leaders, began for the first time.
• 1384 – Jadwiga of Poland was crowned King of Poland. Even though she was a woman, she was given the title "King" to show her high status and authority.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1736 – A mathematician named William Whiston had predicted a comet would hit Earth, but luckily, it didn't happen!
• 1780 – During the American Revolutionary War, the British-led Royalton raid was the last major attack by Native Americans on New England.
• 1780 – The Great hurricane of 1780, one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes ever, finally ended. It caused the deaths of many thousands of people in the Caribbean islands.
• 1793 – During the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette was executed.
• 1793 – In the War of the First Coalition, France won the Battle of Wattignies. This victory forced Austria to stop their attack on Maubeuge.
• 1805 – In the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon's army surrounded the Austrian army at Ulm. This was a major victory for Napoleon.
• 1813 – Napoleon's army was attacked by a group of European countries in the three-day Battle of Leipzig.
• 1817 – Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni discovered the amazing Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
• 1834 – A large part of the historic Palace of Westminster in London, where the British Parliament meets, was destroyed by fire.
• 1841 – Queen's University at Kingston was founded in Canada.
• 1843 – William Rowan Hamilton invented quaternions, a new way to understand numbers in three dimensions.
• 1846 – William T. G. Morton used ether to put a patient to sleep during surgery. This was a big step forward in medicine, making operations less painful.
• 1847 – The famous novel Jane Eyre was published in London.
• 1859 – John Brown led a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, trying to start a slave rebellion.
• 1869 – The "discovery" of the Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, was announced.
• 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge was founded. It was the first college in England where women could live and study.
• 1875 – Brigham Young University was founded in Provo, Utah.

Modern Era (1901–Present)

• 1905 – The Partition of Bengal took place in India, dividing the region.
• 1909 – U.S. President William Howard Taft and Mexican President Porfirio Díaz held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries. They narrowly avoided an assassination attempt.
• 1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning clinic in the United States.
• 1919 – Adolf Hitler gave his first public speech at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.
• 1923 – Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, started the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Today, it's known as The Walt Disney Company.
• 1934 – Chinese Communists began the Long March, a difficult journey to escape from Nationalist forces.
• 1939 – World War II: A British Royal Air Force squadron stopped the first German air raid on Britain.
• 1940 – The Warsaw Ghetto was created in Poland, where Jewish people were forced to live during the Holocaust.
• 1943 – During the Holocaust, a raid took place on the Jewish community in the Roman Ghetto in Italy.
• 1946 – The Nuremberg Trials concluded for some of the main leaders found guilty by the International Military Tribunal.
• 1947 – The Philippines took control of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.
• 1949 – The Greek Communist Party announced a temporary cease-fire, which ended the Greek Civil War.
• 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated.
• 1953 – Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro gave his famous "History Will Absolve Me" speech. He was sentenced to prison for leading an attack on a military base.
• 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis began. U.S. President John F. Kennedy learned that nuclear missiles were being placed in Cuba, leading to a tense standoff that lasted 13 days.
• 1964 – China detonated its first nuclear weapon.
• 1964 – Leonid Brezhnev became the new leader of the Soviet Communist Party.
• 1968 – American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were removed from the U.S. Olympic team after their Black Power salute during the Olympics.
• 1968 – Yasunari Kawabata became the first Japanese person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1970 – Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau used the War Measures Act during the October Crisis to deal with a serious situation.
• 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1975 – Indonesian troops killed the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists, in Portuguese Timor.
• 1975 – Three-year-old Rahima Banu from Bangladesh was the last known person to naturally get smallpox, a disease that has now been wiped out.
• 1978 – Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected as Pope John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian pope since 1523.
• 1984 – Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against apartheid in South Africa.
• 1995 – The Million Man March, a large gathering, took place in Washington, D.C., with hundreds of thousands of people attending.
• 1995 – The Skye Bridge in Scotland was officially opened.
• 1996 – A terrible crush at a football match in Guatemala City led to the deaths of many fans and injured many more.
• 1998 – Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London.
• 2002 – The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opened in Egypt, a modern library built to honor the famous ancient Library of Alexandria.
• 2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashed in Laos, killing 49 people.
• 2017 – Storm Ophelia hit the U.K. and Ireland, causing a lot of damage and power outages.

Famous Births

Born Before 1900

• 1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, an English admiral.
• 1430 – James II of Scotland, a Scottish king.
• 1555 – Nicholas Ridley, an English bishop and martyr.
• 1588 – Luke Wadding, an Irish historian and friar.
• 1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, a French painter and sculptor.
• 1678 – Anna Waser, a Swiss painter.
• 1758 – Noah Webster, an American who created the first American dictionary.
• 1803 – Robert Stephenson, a famous English railway and civil engineer.
• 1841 – Itō Hirobumi, the first Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1854 – Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish playwright, novelist, and poet.
• 1861 – Austen Chamberlain, an English politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1886 – David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel.
• 1888 – Eugene O'Neill, an American playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1890 – Michael Collins, an important Irish general and politician.

Born After 1900

• 1903 – Cecile de Brunhoff, a French author and pianist, known for the Babar the Elephant books.
• 1908 – Olivia Coolidge, an English-American author.
• 1925 – Angela Lansbury, a beloved English-American actress and singer.
• 1927 – Günter Grass, a German novelist and poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1930 – John Polkinghorne, an English physicist and priest.
• 1940 – Barry Corbin, an American actor.
• 1947 – Bob Weir, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, famous from the Grateful Dead.
• 1948 – Hema Malini, a famous Indian actress and politician.
• 1958 – Tim Robbins, an American actor and director.
• 1959 – Gary Kemp, an English musician and actor, known from the band Spandau Ballet.
• 1962 – Manute Bol, a Sudanese-American basketball player and activist.
• 1962 – Flea, an Australian-American bass player and actor, known from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• 1967 – Davina McCall, a popular English television host.
• 1974 – Paul Kariya, a Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1975 – Jacques Kallis, a famous South African cricketer.
• 1977 – John Mayer, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
• 1980 – Sue Bird, an Israeli-American basketball player.
• 1983 – Loreen, a Swedish singer.
• 1992 – Bryce Harper, an American baseball player.
• 1997 – Charles Leclerc, a Monégasque Formula One racing driver.
• 1997 – Naomi Osaka, a Japanese tennis player.

Notable Deaths

Died Before 1900

• 786 – Lullus, an archbishop of Mainz.
• 976 – Al-Hakam II, a caliph from the Umayyad dynasty.
• 1333 – Antipope Nicholas V, a religious leader.
• 1523 – Luca Signorelli, an Italian painter.
• 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, a German painter and engraver.
• 1555 – Hugh Latimer, an English bishop and saint.
• 1591 – Gregory XIV, a pope of the Catholic Church.
• 1621 – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, a Dutch organist and composer.
• 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, a French-American explorer who founded Detroit.
• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France.
• 1793 – John Hunter, a Scottish-English surgeon and philosopher.
• 1810 – Nachman of Breslov, a Ukrainian religious leader.

Died After 1900

• 1909 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, a German poet and playwright.
• 1937 – Jean de Brunhoff, a French author, known for creating the Babar the Elephant character.
• 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1959 – George Marshall, an American general and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1973 – Gene Krupa, a famous American drummer.
• 1981 – Moshe Dayan, an Israeli general and politician.
• 1989 – Walter Farley, an American author, known for his horse stories.
• 1990 – Art Blakey, an American jazz drummer.
• 1992 – Shirley Booth, an American actress.
• 1997 – James A. Michener, a well-known American author.
• 2007 – Deborah Kerr, a Scottish actress.
• 2007 – Toše Proeski, a Macedonian singer-songwriter.
• 2011 – Dan Wheldon, an English race car driver.
• 2017 – Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist and blogger.
• 2023 – Martti Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Holidays and Observances

• Air Force Day (Bulgaria)
• Boss's Day (United States)
• Christian feast day:
  • Gerard Majella
  • Hedwig of Silesia
  • Hugh Latimer (Anglicanism)
  • Nicholas Ridley (Anglicanism)
• Pope John Paul II Day (Poland)
• Death anniversary of Liaquat Ali Khan (Pakistan)
• Teachers' Day (Chile)
• World Food Day (International)
• Bu-Ma Democratic Protests Commemoration Day (South Korea)

See also

In Spanish: 16 de octubre para niños