August 16

is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap_years) in the Gregorian_Calendar. There are 137 days remaining.

Events

  • forces are defeated by American troops.
  • - The British defeat the Americans near Camden,_South_Carolina.
  • surrenders Fort_Detroit without a fight to the British_Army.
  • 1841 - U.S. President John_Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the establishment of the Second_Bank_of_the_United_States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White_House in the most violent demonstration on White_House grounds in U.S. history.
  • 1858 - U.S. President James_Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic_telegraph_cable cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria_of_the_United_Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
  • 1896 - George_Carmack discovers gold in the Klondike.
  • 1920 - Ray_Chapman of the Cleveland_Indians is hit in his head and fatally wounded with a fastball from Carl_Mays of the New_York_Yankees. Chapman will die early the next day, becoming the only person to ever die during a major league baseball game (as of 2003).
  • 1928 - Murderer Carl_Panzram is arrested in Washington,_DC after killing about 20 people.
  • 1930 - First colour sound cartoon, called ''Fiddlesticks'', was made by Ub_Iwerks
  • 1954 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of ''Sports_Illustrated'' is published.
  • 1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United_Kingdom.
  • 1960 - by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft, 614 mi/h (982 km/h).
  • 1962 - The_Beatles fire Pete_Best and replace him with Ringo_Starr.
  • , General Nguyen_Khanh replaces Duong_Van_Minh as South_Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, which the U.S. Embassy helped draft.
  • begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet_Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
  • 1972 - The Royal_Moroccan_Air_Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan_II_of_Morocco's plane while he was traveling back to Rabat.
  • 1984 - Carmaker John_De_Lorean is acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.
  • 1987 - A McDonnell_Douglas_MD-82 carrying Northwest_Airlines_flight_255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit_Metropolitan_Airport killing all but one of the 156 people on-board (sole survivor was four-year old Cecelia Cichan). The crew forgot to properly set the planes flaps.
  • 1993 - The Debian GNU/Linux_distribution is founded by Ian_Murdock.

    Births

  • 1845 - Gabriel_Lippmann, physicist (d. 1921)
  • 1862 - Amos_Alonzo_Stagg, college sports coach (football, basketball and baseball) (d. 1965)
  • 1868 - Bernarr_McFadden, publisher
  • 1884 - Hugo_Gernsback, editor and publisher
  • 1888 - T._E._Lawrence, writer, soldier
  • 1888 - Armand_J._Piron, jazz musician (d. 1943)
  • 1894 - George_Meany, labor_union activist (d. 1980)
  • 1902 - Georgette_Heyer, novelist (d. 1975)
  • 1913 - Menachem_Begin, Israeli soldier and politician (d. 1992)
  • 1920 - Charles_Bukowski, poet (d. 1994)
  • 1925 - Fess_Parker, actor
  • 1928 - Ann_Blyth, actress
  • 1930 - Frank_Gifford, pro football player, sports announcer
  • 1930 - Robert_Culp, actor
  • 1931 - Eydie_Gorme, singer
  • 1940 - Bruce_Beresford, film director
  • 1946 - Lesley_Ann_Warren, actress
  • 1954 - James_Cameron, Academy_Award winning director
  • 1958 - Angela_Bassett, actress
  • 1959 - Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone), singer, actress
  • 1960 - Timothy_Hutton, Academy Award winning actor
  • 1967 - Pamela_Smart, murderess

    Deaths

  • 1864 - Confederate General John_Chambliss
  • 1899 - Robert_Wilhelm_Bunsen, chemist
  • 1907 - James_Hector, geologist
  • 1921 - King Peter_I_of_Serbia
  • 1938 - Robert_Johnson, blues singer and guitarist
  • 1948 - Babe_Ruth, baseball player
  • 1949 - Margaret_Mitchell, novelist
  • 1956 - Bela_Lugosi, actor
  • 1975 - Vladimir_Kuts, Soviet long-distance runner
  • 1977 - Elvis_Presley, singer, actor
  • 1979 - John_Diefenbaker, thirteenth Prime_Minister_of_Canada
  • 1983 - Earl_Averill, Baseball_Hall_of_Famer (b. 1902)
  • 1989 - Amanda_Blake, actress
  • 2002 - Martin_Deutsch, physicist, discoverer of positronium
  • 2003 - Idi_Amin, Ugandan dictator

    Holidays and observances

    ---- August_15 - August_17 - July_16 - September_16 -- listing of all days
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