July 16

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Events

• 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar.
• 1661 - The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
• 1769 - Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission in California. The mission later evolves into the city of San Diego.
• 1779 - American Revolutionary War: United States forces led by General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, New York from British troops.
• 1782 - First performance of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio.
• 1783 - Grants of land in Canada to American United Empire Loyalists are announced.
• 1790 - The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia (seat of government).
• 1862 - American Civil War: David G. Farragut becomes the first United States Navy rear admiral.
• 1862 - Comet Swift-Tuttle is discovered by Lewis Swift.
• 1880 - Dr. Emily Howard Stowe becomes the first woman licenced to practice medicine in Canada.
• 1930 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
• 1941 - New York Yankees' Joe DiMaggio gets a hit in his 56th consecutive game.
• 1941 - Hitler convened top Nazi leaders at his headquarters in East Prussia to dictate how they would rule the newly occupied eastern territories. Ukraine, the "jewel" in the Nazi empire, would become a German colony.
• 1942 - Holocaust: Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv: The Vichy France government orders French police officers to round up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome. In 1995, president Jacques Chirac officially recognizes the French police's responsibility.
• 1945 - Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
• 1945 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, gather in Potsdam, Germany, to decide the future of the defeated Germany.
• 1948 - The city of Nazareth, hometown of Jesus, capitulated to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel led by Ben Dunkelman, after little more than token resistance, during 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
• 1951 - The novel Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger published.
• 1951 - King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.
• 1957 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
• 1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France with Italy opens.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon.
• 1973 - Watergate Scandal: Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially-incriminating conversations.
• 1979 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
• 1980 - Ronald Reagan wins the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit.
• 1981 - Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister until retired on October 31, 2003. Making him Asia's longest-serving political leaders (22 years as Prime Minister of Malaysia).
• 1983 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: helicopter crash off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
• 1987 - The two biggest British airlines, British Airways and British Caledonian are to merge and create a carrier to compete with the giant American air corporations.
• 1990 - In the Philippines, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1600.
• 1994 - The planet Jupiter is hit by fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet.
• 1994 - The civil war in Rwanda ends.
• 1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.
• 2001 - The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation sign the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.
• 2002 - Tenacious D release their song Tribute in the US
• 2003 - The Corsicans reject a referendum for increased autonomy from France by a very thin majority: 50.98 percent against, and 49.02 percent for.
• 2004 - Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
• 2007 - An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and aftershock of 6.6 occur off the Niigata coast, Japan, killing 8 people with at least 800 injured and damaging a nuclear power plant. See 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake.

Births

• 1194 - Saint Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (d. 1253)
• 1486 - Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (d. 1530)
• 1611 - Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1644)
• 1714 - Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French military engineer (d. 1800)
• 1722 - Joseph Wilton, English sculptor (d. 1803)
• 1723 - Joshua Reynolds, English painter (d. 1792)
• 1731 - Samuel Huntington, Continental Congress president (d. 1796)
• 1796 - Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (d. 1875)
• 1821 - Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader (d. 1910)
• 1858 - Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist (d. 1931)
• 1862 - Ida B. Wells, American civil rights activist (d. 1931)
• 1870 - Lambert McKenna, Irish scholar (d. 1956)
• 1872 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (d. 1928)
• 1876 - Eugene Octave Sykes, first chairman of the FCC (d. 1941)
• 1883 - Charles Sheeler, American photographer and artist (d. 1965)
• 1884 - Anna Vyrubova, Russian memoirist (d. 1964)
• 1888 - Percy Kilbride, American actor (d. 1964)
• 1888 - Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1966)
• 1889 - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, American baseball player (d. 1951)
• 1889 - Larry Semon, American comedian (d. 1928)
• 1896 - Trygve Lie, Norwegian politician, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
• 1896 - Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German eugenicist and Nazi physician (d. 1969)
• 1896 - Evelyn Preer, American actress (d. 1932)
• 1902 - Alexander Luria, Russian psychologist (d. 1977)
• 1903 - Carmen Lombardo, Canadian musician (d. 1971)
• 1903 - Mary Philbin, American actress (d. 1993)
• 1903 - Fritz Bauer, German judge (d. 1968)
• 1906 - Vincent Sherman, American film director (d. 2006)
• 1907 - Frances Horwich, American educator and television personality (d. 2001)
• 1907 - Orville Redenbacher, American farmer and businessman (d. 1995)
• 1907 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (d. 1990)
• 1911 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (d. 1995)
• 1911 - Sonny Tufts, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1912 - Milt Bocek, American baseball player (d. 2007)
• 1915 - Barnard Hughes, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1919 - Choi Kyuha, President of South Korea (d. 2006)
• 1919 - Hermine Braunsteiner, Nazi war criminal (d. 1999)
• 1923 - Chris Argyris, American educator
• 1924 - Bess Myerson, American beauty queen
• 1925 - Cal Tjader, American musician (d. 1982)
• 1926 - Irwin Rose, American biologist, Nobel laureate
• 1928 - Anita Brookner, English novelist
• 1928 - Robert Sheckley, American author (d. 2005)
• 1928 - David C. Treen, American politician
• 1928 - Ticho Parly, Danish tenor (d. 1993)
• 1930 - Michael Bilirakis, American politician
• 1930 - Guy Béart, Egyptian-born French singer and songwriter
• 1932 - Dick Thornburgh, American politician
• 1934 - Katherine D. Ortega, 38th Treasurer of the United States
• 1934 - Don Payne, American politician
• 1936 - Buddy Merrill, American musician (The Lawrence Welk Show)
• 1937 - Richard Bryan, American politician
• 1938 - Tony Jackson, English bass player (The Searchers) (d. 2003)
• 1939 - Corin Redgrave, English actor
• 1939 - Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (d. 1995)
• 1941 - Desmond Dekker, Jamaican musician (d. 2006)
• 1942 - Margaret Smith Court, Australian tennis player
• 1943 - Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet (d. 1990)
• 1945 - Victor Sloan, Irish visual artist
• 1946 - Barbara Lee, American politician
• 1946 - Richard LeParmentier, American actor
• 1946 - Ron Yary, American football player
• 1947 - Alexis Herman, 23rd U.S. Secretary of Labor
• 1947 - Assata Shakur, American activist
• 1947 - Robert Lieberman, American film director
• 1948 - Rubén Blades, Panamanian singer and actor
• 1948 - Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist
• 1950 - Dennis Priestley, English darts player
• 1950 - Pierre Paradis, Quebec politician
• 1951 - Jean-Luc Mongrain, French-Canadian journalist
• 1952 - Stewart Copeland, American drummer (The Police)
• 1952 - Robert David Steele, American spy
• 1953 - Douglas J. Feith, American Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
• 1954 - Jeanette Mott Oxford, American politician
• 1956 - Jerry Doyle, American actor
• 1956 - Tony Kushner, American playwright
• 1957 - Alexandra Marinina, Russian writer
• 1958 - Michael Flatley, Irish-born American dancer
• 1958 - Pierre Roland Renoir, Canadian artist
• 1958 - Mike D. Rogers, American politician
• 1959 - Gary Anderson, American football player
• 1959 - Doug Herzog, American television executive
• 1960 - Terry Pendleton, American baseball player
• 1963 - Phoebe Cates, American actress
• 1963 - Srečko Katanec, Slovenian footballer and coach
• 1964 - Phil Hellmuth, American poker player
• 1964 - Miguel Indurain, Spanish cyclist
• 1965 - Claude Lemieux, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 - Daryl Mitchell, American actor
• 1965 - Tina Tyler, Canadian porn star
• 1966 - Johnny Vaughan, English writer and broadcaster
• 1967 - Will Ferrell, American comedian
• 1967 - Christopher Rocancourt, French con artist
• 1968 - Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player
• 1968 - Barry Sanders, American football player
• 1968 - Larry Sanger, American co-founder of Wikipedia
• 1969 - Kathryn Harby-Williams, Australian netballer
• 1969 - Rain Pryor, American actress
• 1970 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thai film director
• 1971 - Edward Kowalczyk, American singer (Live)
• 1971 - Corey Feldman, American actor
• 1973 - Stefano Garzelli, Italian cyclist
• 1973 - Shaun Pollock, South African cricketer
• 1973 - Tim Ryan, American politician
• 1974 - Chris Pontius, American actor and Jackass cast member
• 1975 - Bas Leinders, Belgian racing car driver
• 1975 - Ana Paula Arósio, Brazilian actress
• 1975 - Jamie Oliver, Welsh keyboardist
• 1976 - Bobby Lashley, American professional wrestler
• 1976 - Carlos Humberto Paredes, Paraguyan footballer
• 1976 - Anna Smashnova, Israeli tennis player
• 1979 - Jayma Mays, American actress
• 1979 - Chris Mihm, American basketball player
• 1980 - Jesse Jane, American pornographic actress
• 1980 - Adam Scott, Australian golfer
• 1982 - Michael Umaña, Costa Rican footballer
• 1984 - Katrina Kaif, Indian Actress
• 1984 - Hayanari Shimoda, Japanese racing driver
• 1986 - Calum Gittins, New Zealand actor
• 1989 - Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer
• 1991 - Randall Bentley, American actor
• 1994 - Mark Indelicato, American singer and actor

Deaths

• 1324 - Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (b. 1267)
• 1342 - King Charles I of Hungary
• 1546 - Anne Askew, English Protestant (burned at the stake) (b. 1521)
• 1557 - Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII of England (b. 1515)
• 1594 - Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy (b. 1558)
• 1630 - Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1562)
• 1647 - Masaniello, Neapolitan rebel (b. 1622)
• 1664 - Andreas Gryphius, German writer (b. 1616)
• 1686 - John Pearson, English theologian (b. 1612)
• 1691 - François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (b. 1641)
• 1729 - Johann David Heinichen, German composer (b. 1683)
• 1747 - Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Italian painter (b. 1665)
• 1770 - Francis Cotes, English painter (b. 1726)
• 1796 - George Howard, British field marshal (b. 1718)
• 1831 - Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, Russian general (b. 1763)
• 1879 - Edward Deas Thomson, Australian politician (b. 1800)
• 1882 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)
• 1886 - Ned Buntline, American pulp novelist (b. 1823)
• 1896 - Edmond Goncourt, French writer and critic (b. 1822)
• 1915 - Ellen White, American co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (b. 1827)
• 1916 - Ilya Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1845)
• 1917 - Philipp Scharwenka, Polish-German composer (b. 1847)
• 1947 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish humanitarian (exact date of death uncertain) (b. 1912)
• 1949 - Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet (b. 1866)
• 1953 - Hilaire Belloc, English writer (b. 1870)
• 1960 - Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (b. 1881)
• 1960 - John P. Marquand, American novelist (b. 1893)
• 1976 - Carmelo Soria, Spanish diplomat assassinated in 1976 by the Chilean DINA
• 1979 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• 1981 - Harry Chapin, American musician (b. 1942)
• 1982 - Patrick Dewaere, French actor (b. 1947)
• 1985 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1917)
• 1985 - Wayne King, American musician, songwriter and bandleader (b. 1901)
• 1989 - John Dempsey, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1915)
• 1989 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (b. 1908)
• 1990 - Robert Blackburn, Irish educationist (b. 1927)
• 1990 - Sidney Torch, English composer, conductor and organist (b. 1908)
• 1991 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (b. 1915)
• 1991 - Frank Rizzo, American politician (b. 1920)
• 1992 - Buck Buchanan, American football player (b. 1940)
• 1994 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
• 1994 - Marcel-Marie Desmarais, French Canadian priest, writer, preacher and broadcaster (b. 1908)
• 1995 - May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet (b. 1912)
• 1995 - Stephen Spender, English poet (b. 1909)
• 1996 - John Panozzo, American musician (Styx) (b. 1948)
• 1996 - Adolf von Thadden, German politician, (b. 1921)
• 1998 - John Henrik Clarke, American historian and scholar (b. 1915)
• 1999 - Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1966)
• 1999 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., American publisher (b. 1960)
• 2001 - Maurice De Bevere, Belgian cartoonist (b. 1923)
• 2001 - Terry Gordy, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)
• 2002 - John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
• 2003 - Celia Cruz, Cuban musician (b. 1924)
• 2003 - Carol Shields, Canadian author (b. 1935)
• 2004 - George Busbee, Governor of Georgia (b. 1927)
• 2005 - Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (b. 1920)
• 2005 - Prince Gu of Korea (b. 1931)
• 2005 - Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgish singer, lyricist, and entertainer (b. 1920)
• 2006 - Bob Orton, Sr., American professional wrestler (b. 1929)
• 2006 - Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (b. 1948)

Holidays and observances

• Botswana - President's Day (2nd day).
• United States - National Ice Cream Day, as made official by President Ronald Reagan. (Note: In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day.)

Liturgical feasts

Roman Catholic

• Our Lady of Mount Carmel [common]
• Saint Alexius [Paris]
• Saint Andrew and Benedict, martyrs [Gnesen, Agram]
• Saint Anthony, bishop of Carpentras [Rodez]
• Translation of Saint Bertin, abbot, confessor [Tournai]
• Saint Domninus, martyr [Puy]
• Saint Eustace, bishop, confessor [Arles, Autun]
• Saint Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, confessor
• Saint Generosus, confessor [Poitiers, Luçon]
• Saints Gondulf and Monulf, bishops, confessors [Liège]
• Saint Helier (Elier, Helerius), hermit, martyr [Coutances]
• Saint Hilarinus, martyr (sometimes confessor) [Magdeburg, Ratzeburg, Gnesen, Amiens, Arras, Beauvais]
• Saint Justinian, confessor [Limoges]
• Saint Milo
• Saints Monulph and Gondulph, bishops of Tongeren, confessors [Liège; Bruges, without Gondulph]
• Translation of Saint Osmund, bishop of Salisbury, confessor [Salisbury]
• Translation of Saint Swithun, bishop of Winchester, confessor [Norway, Orden]
• Saint Tenenanus, bishop of Léon, confessor [St. Pol de Léon]
• Saint Valentine, bishop of Trier, martyr [Trier]
• Saint Elvira
• Saint Reinhilde of Kontich
• Virgen del Carmen Colombia

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada