Friday, 16th January 2026 in Lisbon
Welcome to your daily snapshot of Lissabon! Explore 56 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Lissabon. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Lissabon brings rainy with temperatures between 8°C and 12°C. Tonight's moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Capricorn. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Friday, 16th January in Lissabon, PT.
Lisbon, Portugal's capital city, sits on the northern bank of the Tagus estuary in southwestern Portugal. On this date, the weather is rainy. Astrologically, 16 January falls under the Capricorn zodiac sign, and the moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, approaching full illumination.
On this day
On 16 January 1945, Adolf Hitler and his staff relocated to the Führerbunker in Berlin, the fortified underground complex that would become the site of his final days during the collapse of Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre in New York in 1964, launching a production that would achieve unprecedented theatrical success by winning ten Tony Awards—a record that remained unbroken for 37 years.
The date also marks two significant incidents from the early 20th century. On 16 January 1920, the League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris, establishing itself as the inaugural worldwide intergovernmental organisation dedicated to peace and security, an institution that would later evolve into the United Nations following World War II.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, including weather conditions, significant historical events, and notable births and deaths.
Find out what's happening today in Lissabon.
What the Weather Had in Store for Lissabon on 16th January 2026
Still waters carry the heaviest thoughts.
Fortune of the Day
16th January in the Stars – Star Sign Capricorn
Personality Profile
Personality Those born on January 16th blend classic Capricorn ambition with subtle elegance from Venus influence. They appear reserved and grounded on the surface, yet harbor surprising emotional depth and aesthetic sensibility beneath.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in discipline, practical thinking, and reliable determination. Emotional distance and excessive seriousness can emerge as weaknesses, potentially alienating others.
Love In relationships, these individuals are loyal and responsible but need time to open emotionally. Venus proximity grants them deeper emotional understanding than typical Capricorns possess.
Caree & Finance Professionally, they pursue security and advancement through structured work. Financial intelligence and long-term planning create solid wealth accumulation and career success.
Health Balanced routine is essential—overwork through constant control threatens wellbeing. Creative or sensual activities like yoga or dance help release inner tension and restore equilibrium.
That night, the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase.
Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).
Fun Facts About 16th January
Name Days in Your Language: Aaliyah, Aleah, Aliyah, Paine, Payne, Phillis, Phyllis, Pilar, Priscilla.
Someone born on this day would be just 152 days old today — roughly 3,649 hours, 218,950 minutes, or 13,137,019 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 16. day of the year. In 2026, 16th January falls on a Friday.
There are 349 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 3 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 16th January
On this day, 226 notable people were born on 16th January — spanning from 972 to 2000. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
16/01/2000
Andrew Nembhard, Canadian basketball player
Andrew William Nembhard is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators and Gonzaga Bulldogs. He was selected by the Pacers with the 31st overall pick in the second round of the 2022 NBA draft.
16/01/1998
Boo Seung-kwan, South Korean singer
Boo Seung-kwan, known mononymously as Seungkwan, is a South Korean singer. Managed by Pledis Entertainment, he is a member of the South Korean boy band Seventeen, its vocal team, and the subunit BSS alongside Hoshi and DK.
16/01/1996
Jennie, South Korean singer
Jennie Kim, known mononymously as Jennie, is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. Born in South Korea, she moved to New Zealand in 2004 and returned to South Korea to successfully audition for YG Entertainment in 2010. She rose to prominence as a member of the South Korean girl group Blackpink, which debuted in August 2016 and became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.
Zhou Qi, Chinese basketball player
Zhou Qi is a Chinese professional basketball player for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He has been a regular member of the China men's national basketball team since 2014, winning a gold team medal in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship and the 2018 Asian Games.
16/01/1995
Jonathan Allen, American football player
Jonathan Allen is an American professional football defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, winning a national championship in 2015 and several defensive player of the year awards in 2016. Allen was selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft, where he made two Pro Bowls in his eight seasons with the team.
Mikaela Turik, Australian-Canadian cricketer
Mikaela Jade Turik is a former international cricket player. She played for the Canada women's national cricket team as an all-rounder from 2009 to 2013, including for a period as captain.
Tre'Davious White, American football player
Tre'Davious White Sr. is an American professional football cornerback. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, earning consensus All-American as a senior in 2016. He was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft. Since earning a starting position as a rookie, White became one of the league's top cornerbacks as part of a resurgent Bills defense, having garnered two Pro Bowl selections and All-Pro honors. Following three injury-riddled seasons and his subsequent release, White signed with the Los Angeles Rams and was traded to the Baltimore Ravens at the trade deadline in 2024, before returning to the Bills in 2025.
16/01/1994
Mikko Lehtonen, Finnish ice hockey player
Mikko Kasper Lehtonen is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman for the ZSC Lions of the National League (NL). He has previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL).
16/01/1993
Hannes Anier, Estonian footballer
Hannes Anier is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a forward.
Amandine Hesse, French tennis player
Amandine Hesse is a French professional tennis player.
Sungjin, South Korean musician
Park Sung-jin, known mononymously as Sungjin, is a South Korean musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the leader, guitarist and vocalist of South Korean pop rock band Day6.
16/01/1992
Jason Zucker, American ice hockey player
Jason Alan Zucker is an American professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL).
16/01/1991
Matt Duchene, Canadian ice hockey player
Matthew David Duchene is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played in the NHL for the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators. While with the Predators, he set a new franchise record for most goals scored in a single season.
16/01/1990
Dennis Kelly, American football player
Dennis Andrew Kelly is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers and was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL draft.
16/01/1988
Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
Nicklas Bendtner is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker. A large, tall, and physically strong player, he was known for his ability in the air and possessed a powerful header.
Jorge Torres Nilo, Mexican footballer
Jorge Emmanuel Torres Nilo, also known as Pechu, is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a left-back.
FKA Twigs, English singer-songwriter and actress
Tahliah Debrett Barnett, known professionally as FKA Twigs, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musical debut with EP1 (2012). Barnett's debut studio album, LP1 (2014), reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard 200. It was nominated for that year's Mercury Prize. She then released the EP M3LL155X (2015).
16/01/1987
Jake Epstein, Canadian actor
Jacob Lee Epstein is a Canadian actor and singer. He is known for playing Craig Manning, a musician with bipolar disorder, on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He has also had recurring roles in the television series Designated Survivor and The Hardy Boys.
Charlotte Henshaw, English swimmer
Charlotte Sarah Henshaw is a British Paralympic full-time athlete across multiple disciplines. Originally a swimmer, she changed to canoeing from 2017, becoming the reigning World champion in the KL2 (seven-time) and VL3 (four-time) 200m events. In September 2021, at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, she became a Paralympic champion at her fourth games, winning the Women's KL2 event. In Paris at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, Henshaw was the only Paracanoe athlete to win double gold - winning the inaugural VL3 event and retaining her KL2 title.
Greivis Vásquez, Venezuelan basketball player
Greivis Josué Vásquez Rodríguez is a Venezuelan former professional basketball player, who spent eight seasons in the NBA. He is currently a coach, most recently working as the associate head coach for the Erie BayHawks of the NBA G League. Vásquez also represented the Venezuela national team in international competitions, as he was born in Caracas and moved to the United States to attend high school at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Maryland in 2004.
16/01/1986
Johannes Rahn, German footballer
Johannes Rahn is a German footballer who plays for SV Eintracht Windhagen.
Mark Trumbo, American baseball player
Mark Daniel Trumbo is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, and Baltimore Orioles. Trumbo was an All-Star in 2012 and 2016.
Reto Ziegler, Swiss footballer
Reto Pirmin Ziegler is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He played top-flight football in seven countries. He earned 35 international caps for Switzerland and played at both the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.
16/01/1985
Joe Flacco, American football player
Joseph Vincent Flacco is an American professional football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens before being selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft.
Jayde Herrick, Australian cricketer
Jayde Matthew Herrick is a former Australian cricketer who played for Victoria. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and a right-hand batsman.
Gintaras Januševičius, Russian-Lithuanian pianist
Gintaras Januševičius is a Lithuanian pianist, music educator, event producer and radio presenter. He performs narrative recitals and original interpretations; particularly that of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. His repertoire also includes work by Lithuanian composers.
Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor
Sidharth Malhotra is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, has received nominations for two Filmfare Awards, and appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list from 2016 to 2018.
Jonathan Richter, Danish-Gambian footballer
Jonathan Richter is a Danish disabled professional football midfielder, who played for the Danish Superliga side FC Nordsjælland. He is the son of a Gambian father and a Danish mother and the twin brother of Simon Richter.
Simon Richter, Danish-Gambian footballer
Simon Richter is a Danish-born Gambian former professional football defender. He also represented the Gambia national team.
Renée Felice Smith, American actress
Renée Felice Smith is an American actress, director, and producer best known for her lead role as Nell Jones on the CBS military action drama series NCIS: Los Angeles (2010–19). Smith made her first appearance during its second season and remained a series regular until its twelfth season, but returned for a guest appearance in the series finale. She is also known for her role as Missy in the psychological drama film Detachment (2011).
16/01/1984
Stephan Lichtsteiner, Swiss footballer
Stephan Lichtsteiner is a Swiss football manager and former professional footballer. He is currently the head coach of Swiss Super League club FC Basel. An attacking right-back or wing-back during his playing career, he was known for his energetic runs down the right wing, as well as his stamina and athleticism, which earned him the nicknames "Forrest Gump" and "The Swiss Express".
Miroslav Radović, Serbian footballer
Miroslav Radović is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a winger.
16/01/1983
Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
Emanuel Pogatetz is an Austrian professional football coach and a former player. He is currently first-team coach at Premier League club Crystal Palace.
Andriy Rusol, Ukrainian footballer
Andriy Anatoliyovych Rusol is a Ukrainian retired footballer who formerly played as a defender for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and the Ukraine national team.
16/01/1982
Preston, English singer-songwriter
Samuel Dylan Murray Preston, more commonly known simply as Preston, is an English singer-songwriter and reality TV contestant. He is a member of the band the Ordinary Boys, finding fame appearing in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, in which he finished fourth. After the Ordinary Boys split in 2008, he embarked on a songwriting career. In 2013, he officially reunited the Ordinary Boys and in 2015 they released their self-titled comeback album, which peaked at #27 in the charts, spending 1 week on the chart.
Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Danish actress
Birgitte Hjort Sørensen is a Danish actress. She has been nominated for three Robert Awards and one Bodil Award. Born in Hillerød and raised in Birkerød, Sørensen aspired to an acting career after visiting London while at school and watching the West End production of the musical Chicago. She graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts. Her acting debut was in a minor role in the television series The Eagle in 2005. She followed this by playing Roxie Hart in a Copenhagen production of Chicago, and later on the West End. Sørensen's breakthrough role was as television journalist Katrine Fønsmark in the Danish political drama television series Borgen.
Tuncay, Turkish footballer
Tuncay Şanlı, often known mononymously as Tuncay, is a Turkish former footballer.
16/01/1981
Jamie Lundmark, Canadian ice hockey player
Jamie Lundmark is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward. A first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Lundmark played 295 games in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Paul Rofe, Australian cricketer
Paul Cameron Rofe is a former first-class cricketer who played for South Australia and Northamptonshire. A right-arm fast bowler, Rofe took 181 first-class wickets at an average of 29.66, with a best of 7/52. His limited overs career has been less successful, taking 37 wickets at 35.97. He made his first class debut in 2001 against Western Australia having previously represented Australia under-19s from 1999 until 2000.
Nick Valensi, American musician and songwriter
Nicholas Valensi is an American musician, best known for his role as a guitarist in the American rock band The Strokes. Since 2001, the band has released six studio albums, some of which Valensi has also contributed keyboards and backing vocals.
Bobby Zamora, English footballer
Robert Lester Zamora is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. Zamora began his professional career at Football League club Bristol Rovers, and was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, where he scored 77 goals in three seasons and helped the club achieve two successive promotions.
16/01/1980
Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American songwriter, actor, filmmaker and librettist. He created the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, and the soundtracks for the animated films Moana, Vivo, and Encanto. He has received numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, three Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Emmy Awards, and five Grammy Awards, along with nominations for two Academy Awards. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018.
Albert Pujols, Dominican-American baseball player
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara is a Dominican-American professional baseball manager and former first baseman and designated hitter who is the manager of the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim / Los Angeles Angels, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Nicknamed "the Machine", Pujols is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Seydou Keita, Malian footballer
Seydou Keïta is a Malian former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, he operated as both a central or defensive midfielder. He is both the record appearance holder and scorer of the Mali national football team.
16/01/1979
Aaliyah, American singer and actress (died 2001)
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model. Known as the "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop", she is credited with helping to redefine contemporary R&B, pop, and hip hop. Her accolades include three American Music Awards and two MTV VMAs, along with five Grammy Award nominations.
Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player
Brenden Blair Morrow is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger. Morrow was drafted in the first round, 25th overall, by the Dallas Stars at the 1997 NHL entry draft, the organization he would play with for 13 seasons before brief stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
Jason Robert Ward is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He has played 336 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Tampa Bay Lightning. He was born in Chapleau, Ontario.
16/01/1978
Alfredo Amézaga, Mexican baseball player
Alfredo Amézaga Delgado is a Mexican former professional baseball center fielder and infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2004 to 2011 for the Anaheim Angels, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Florida Marlins. He is currently a coach for the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League, and has previously coached for the Detroit Tigers.
16/01/1977
Jeff Foster, American basketball player
Jeffrey Douglas Foster is an American former professional basketball player who spent the entirety of his 13-year career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
16/01/1976
Viktor Maslov, Russian racing driver
Viktor Vladimirovich Maslov is a Russian race car driver. Maslov spent six years in top-level karting, debuting in 1989, before competing in the premiere ice racing event Trophy Andros in 1996. In 1996, Maslov also competed in Russian Formula Three. In 1997, Maslov again competed in both categories, staying with the Daewoo team in Andros, before landing a 1998 seat with Italian Formula Three team Lukoil.
Martina Moravcová, Slovak swimmer
Martina Moravcová is a Slovak medley, butterfly, and freestyle swimmer. She made her international swimming debut in 1991 for Czechoslovakia, and went on to compete in five consecutive Summer Olympics (1992–2008). She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, both achieved at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In the 100 metre butterfly, she finished second to Inge de Bruijn, and in the 200 metre freestyle, she finished eight one-hundredths of a second to home favourite Susie O'Neill.
16/01/1975
Marc Jackson, American basketball player and sportscaster
Marc Anthony Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 2000 to 2007. He is a current television analyst of the Philadelphia 76ers for NBC Sports Philadelphia.
16/01/1974
Kate Moss, English model and fashion designer
Katherine Ann Moss is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status. She is known for her waifish figure, and role in size zero fashion. Moss has had her own clothing range, has been involved in musical projects, and is also a contributing fashion editor for British Vogue. In 2012, she came second on the Forbes top-earning models list, with estimated earnings of $9.2 million in one year. The accolades she has received for modelling include the 2013 British Fashion Awards acknowledging her contribution to fashion over 25 years, while Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2007.
16/01/1973
Josie Davis, American actress
Josie Davis is an American actress, screenwriter and producer, best known for her role as Sarah Powell in the television sitcom Charles in Charge from 1987 to 1990.
16/01/1972
Ruben Bagger, Danish footballer
Ruben Bagger is a Danish former footballer who spent his entire professional career for Brøndby in the Danish Superliga, and played more than 300 matches for the club. He won five Danish Superliga championships and three Danish Cup trophies with Brøndby. Bagger played in the position of left winger or forward.
Ang Christou, Australian footballer
Ang Christou is a former Australian rules footballer for Carlton in the Australian Football League.
Yuri Alekseevich Drozdov, Russian footballer and manager
Yuri Alekseyevich Drozdov is a Russian association football coach and a former player who spent most of his playing career at FC Lokomotiv Moscow.
Ezra Hendrickson, Vincentian footballer and manager
Ezra Hendrickson is a Vincentian professional football coach and former player. He was the head coach of Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire FC from November 24, 2021, until his dismissal on May 8, 2023 and is now the manager of the Vincentian national team.
Joe Horn, American football player and coach
Joseph Horn is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL draft, and also played for the New Orleans Saints, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Memphis Mad Dogs of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the Itawamba Indians. After his playing career, he became an assistant coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College.
Richard T. Jones, American actor
Richard Timothy Jones is an American actor. He has worked extensively in both film and television productions since the early 1990s. His television roles include Ally McBeal (1997), Judging Amy (1999–2005), CSI: Miami (2006), Girlfriends (2007), Grey's Anatomy (2010), Hawaii Five-0 (2011–2014), Narcos (2015), and Criminal Minds (2017). Since 2018, he has played Police Lieutenant Wade Grey on the ABC police drama The Rookie.
16/01/1971
Sergi Bruguera, Spanish tennis player and coach
Sergi Bruguera i Torner is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. Bruguera won consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994, a silver medal in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in August 1994.
Josh Evans, American film producer, screenwriter and actor
Joshua Evans is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, author, and actor best known for his role in Born on the Fourth of July (1989).
Jonathan Mangum, American actor
Jonathan Joseph Mangum is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of the variety show The Wayne Brady Show and is the announcer for the game show Let's Make a Deal.
16/01/1970
Don MacLean, American basketball player and sportscaster
Donald James MacLean is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, and became the all-time scoring leader of both the school and the Pac-12 Conference. In 1994, MacLean won the NBA Most Improved Player Award as a member of the Washington Bullets. He currently works as a basketball color analyst.
16/01/1969
Marinus Bester, German footballer
Marinus Bester is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker.
Stevie Jackson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
Stephen Thomas Jackson is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He plays lead guitar and sings in the Glasgow-based indie band Belle and Sebastian.
Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
Roy Levesta Jones Jr. is an American former professional boxer that competed from 1989 to 2018, and again in 2023. He held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. As an amateur he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning the light middleweight silver medal.
16/01/1968
David Chokachi, American actor
David Chokachi is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the TV series Witchblade, Baywatch, and Beyond the Break.
Rebecca Stead, American author
Rebecca Stead is an American writer of fiction for children and teens. She won the American Newbery Medal in 2010, the oldest award in children's literature, for her second novel When You Reach Me.
16/01/1966
Jack McDowell, American baseball player
Jack Burns McDowell is an American former baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, McDowell played for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and Anaheim Angels of the Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Black Jack", he was a three-time All-Star and won the American League Cy Young Award in 1993.
16/01/1964
Gail Graham, Canadian golfer
Gail Anderson Graham is a Canadian professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour.
16/01/1963
James May, English journalist and television presenter
James Daniel May is an English television presenter, author and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the television series The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video from 2016 to 2024. He also served as a director of the production company W. Chump & Sons.
16/01/1962
Joel Fitzgibbon, Australian electrician and politician, 51st Australian Minister of Defence
Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and represented the New South Wales seat of Hunter in the Australian House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, a period of 26 years. He served as Minister for Defence (2007–2009) in the First Rudd Government and as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (2013) in the Second Rudd Government. He was also Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives (2010–2013) during the Gillard Government.
Maxine Jones, American R&B singer–songwriter and actress
Maxine Jones is an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman, best known as a founding member of the R&B-pop group En Vogue, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. She sang lead vocals on the group's signature singles "My Lovin' " and "Don't Let Go (Love)", both of which garnered international success and sold over a million copies. Throughout her career, Jones has sold over 20 million records with En Vogue. Her work has earned her several awards and nominations, including two American Music Awards, a Billboard Music Award, four MTV Video Music Awards, and four Soul Train Music Awards.
16/01/1961
Kenneth Sivertsen, Norwegian guitarist and composer (died 2006)
Kenneth Sivertsen was a Norwegian musician, composer, poet, and comedian.
16/01/1959
Lisa Milroy, Canadian painter and educator
Lisa Milroy is an Anglo-Canadian artist known for her still life paintings of everyday objects. In the 1980s, Milroy’s paintings featured ordinary objects depicted against an off-white background. Subsequently her imagery expanded, which led to a number of different series including landscapes, buildings and portraits. As her approaches to still life diversified, so did her manner of painting, giving rise to a range of stylistic innovations. Throughout her practice, Milroy has been fascinated by the relation between stillness and movement, and the nature of making and looking at painting.
Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer
Helen Folasade Adu, known professionally as Sade or Sade Adu, is a Nigerian-British singer-songwriter. She is the principal songwriter and lead vocalist of the band Sade. One of the most successful British female artists in history, she is often recognised as an influence on contemporary music. Her success in the music industry was recognised with the honour Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours, and she was made Commander in the 2017 Birthday Honours.
16/01/1958
Anatoli Boukreev, Russian mountaineer and explorer (died 1997)
Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev was a Russian-born Kazakh mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above 8,000 m (26,247 ft)—without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000 m.
Lena Ek, Swedish lawyer and politician, ninth Swedish Minister for the Environment
Lena Ek is a Swedish politician who served as Minister for the Environment from 2011 to 2014. She is a former Member of the European Parliament and Member of the Riksdag. She is a member of the Centre Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Andris Šķēle, Latvian businessman and politician, fourth Prime Minister of Latvia
Andris Šķēle is a Latvian former politician and business oligarch. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Latvia from 1995 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2000.
16/01/1957
Jurijs Andrejevs, Latvian footballer and manager
Jurijs Andrejevs is a Latvian former football player and manager who is the sporting director of Riga FC academy. Previously he was the manager of the team but was released in 2008 after an unsuccessful season. He was the manager of Latvia national team from 2004 to 2007, having succeeded Aleksandrs Starkovs in December 2004.
Ricardo Darín, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter
Ricardo Alberto Darín is an Argentine actor, film director and film producer, considered one of the best and most prolific actors of Argentine cinema.
16/01/1956
Wayne Daniel, Barbadian cricketer
Wayne Wendell Daniel is a Barbadian former cricketer, who played as a right arm fast bowler. Daniel featured for the West Indies, Middlesex, Barbados and Western Australia in his cricketing career. He was the first person to hit a six and take a wicket on the last ball of his test career. He was a part of the West Indian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
Gerald Henderson, American basketball player
Jerome McKinley "Gerald" Henderson Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. He was a combo guard who had a 13-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1979 until 1992. He played for the Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons, and Houston Rockets. Henderson was born in Richmond, Virginia and attended Virginia Commonwealth University.
Martin Jol, Dutch footballer and manager
Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany and England, as well as earning three caps with the Netherlands national team. He subsequently became a manager and has worked for Roda JC, RKC Waalwijk and Ajax in his homeland, as well as German Bundesliga club Hamburger SV and English Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham and Egypt's Al Ahly.
Greedy Smith, Australian singer-songwriter and keyboardist (died 2019)
Andrew McArthur "Greedy" Smith was an Australian vocalist, keyboardist, harmonicist and songwriter with Australian pop/new wave band Mental As Anything. Smith wrote many of their hit songs including "Live It Up" which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart. Smith had a solo music career, had worked with other bands and was also an artist and television personality.
16/01/1955
Jerry M. Linenger, American captain, physician, and astronaut
Jerry Michael Linenger is a retired Captain in the United States Navy Medical Corps, and a former NASA astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle and Space Station Mir.
16/01/1954
Robin Davies, Welsh actor (died 2010)
Robert Richard "Robin" Davies was a Welsh television and film actor.
Wolfgang Schmidt, German discus thrower
Wolfgang Schmidt is a German former track and field athlete who competed for East Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal in the discus throw. A former world record holder, he also won several medals at the European Athletics Championships. Schmidt made headlines in 1982 due to his failed attempt to escape from East Germany. He later competed for the Federal Republic of Germany and won third place in the 1990 European Athletics Championships. Born in Berlin, he competed for the SC Dynamo Berlin / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo.
Vasili Zhupikov, Russian footballer and coach (died 2015)
Vasili Mikhailovich Zhupikov was a Soviet football player and a Russian coach.
16/01/1953
Robert Jay Mathews, American militant, founded The Order (died 1984)
Robert Jay Mathews was an American neo-Nazi and the leader of The Order, an American white supremacist militant group that committed counterfeiting, several bank robberies, car heists, murders, and assassinations. Mathews is believed to have served as a lookout in the murder of Alan Berg. Before founding The Order, Mathews was a member of the neo-Nazi groups the National Alliance and Aryan Nations.
16/01/1952
Fuad II, King of Egypt
Fuad II, or alternatively Ahmed Fuad II, is a member of the Egyptian Muhammad Ali dynasty. As an infant, he formally reigned as the last King of Egypt and the Sudan from July 1952 to June 1953, when he was deposed.
Piercarlo Ghinzani, Italian racing driver and manager
Piercarlo Ghinzani is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1981 to 1989.
16/01/1950
Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated for 22 Emmy Awards, and two Tony Awards. She has won a Golden Globe Award, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. In 2026, she received an Academy Honorary Award.
Robert Schimmel, American comedian, actor, and producer (died 2010)
Robert George Schimmel was an American stand-up comedian who was known for his blue comedy. While the extremely profane nature of his act limited his commercial appeal, he had a reputation as a "comic's comic" due to his relentless touring, comedy albums and frequent appearances on HBO and The Howard Stern Show. Schimmel is number 76 on the 2004 program Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
16/01/1949
Anne F. Beiler, American businesswoman, founded Auntie Anne's
Anne F. Beiler is an American businesswoman who founded Auntie Anne's pretzels.
R. F. Foster, Irish historian and academic
Robert Fitzroy Foster, publishing as R. F. Foster, is an Irish historian and academic. He was the Carroll Professor of Irish History from 1991 until 2016 at Hertford College, Oxford.
Andrew Refshauge, Australian physician and politician, 13th Deputy Premier of New South Wales
Andrew John Refshauge is a former Australian politician who was Deputy Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1983 and 2005, and a senior minister in the Carr ministry.
16/01/1948
John Carpenter, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
John Howard Carpenter is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions". On April 3, 2025, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ants Laaneots, Estonian general
Ants Laaneots is an Estonian politician and former military officer. He was previously the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces and a veteran officer in the Soviet Army. Laaneots previously served as the Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College from 2001 to 2006. He was appointed the Commander-in-Chief on 5 December 2006 and was promoted to general in 2011. After retiring from the military, he became a politician.
Ruth Reichl, American journalist and critic
Ruth Reichl is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.
Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final. At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths.
16/01/1947
Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy, English academic and politician
Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy is a British psychiatrist, academic, and politician who sits as a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Harvey Proctor, English politician
Keith Harvey Proctor is a British former Conservative Member of Parliament. A member of the Monday Club, he represented Basildon from 1979 to 1983 and Billericay from 1983 to 1987. Proctor became embroiled in a scandal involving sexual relationships with males under 21, which were illegal at the time. This culminated in criminal convictions and ended his parliamentary career.
Laura Schlessinger, American physiologist, talk show host, and author
Laura Catherine Schlessinger, commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. The Dr. Laura Program, heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and often features her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values, and ethics." She is an inductee to the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago.
16/01/1946
Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
Kabir Bedi is an Indian actor. His career has spanned three continents covering India, the United States and especially Italy among other Western countries in three media: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story and the villainous Sanjay Verma in the 1988 film Khoon Bhari Maang. He is best known in Italy and Europe for playing the pirate Sandokan in the Italian TV miniseries and for his role as the villainous Gobinda in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. Bedi is based in India and lives in Mumbai.
Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano and actress
Katiuscia Maria Stella "Katia" Ricciarelli is an Italian soprano and actress.
16/01/1945
Wim Suurbier, Dutch footballer and manager (died 2020)
Wilhelmus Lourens Johannes Suurbier was a Dutch professional footballer. He played as a right back and was part of the Netherlands national team and AFC Ajax teams of the 1970s.
16/01/1944
Dieter Moebius, Swiss-German keyboard player and producer (died 2015)
Dieter Moebius was a Swiss-born German electronic musician and composer, best known as a member of the influential krautrock bands Cluster and Harmonia.
Jim Stafford, American singer-songwriter and actor
James Wayne Stafford is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and comedian. While prominent in the 1970s for his recordings "Spiders & Snakes", "Swamp Witch", "Under the Scotsman's Kilt", "My Girl Bill", and "Wildwood Weed", Stafford headlined at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, from 1990 to 2020. Stafford is self-taught on guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, organ, and harmonica.
Jill Tarter, American astronomer and biologist
Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer who works on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.
Judy Baar Topinka, American journalist and politician (died 2014)
Judy Baar Topinka was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois.
16/01/1943
Michael Attwell, English actor (died 2006)
Michael John Attwell was an English film and television actor. He is possibly best known for his role as Kenny Beale in the television soap opera EastEnders.
Gavin Bryars, English bassist and composer
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music.
Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the University of California, San Diego; he teaches at Stanford University and is a regular lecturer in the summer courses at Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He has resided in California since 1987.
Ronnie Milsap, American singer and pianist
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, he became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", "Is It Over" and "Stranger in My House". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and 35 number-one country hits, fourth to George Strait, Conway Twitty, and Merle Haggard. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
16/01/1942
René Angélil, Canadian singer and manager (died 2016)
René Angélil was a Canadian musical producer, talent manager, and singer. He was the husband and longtime manager of singer Celine Dion.
Barbara Lynn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Barbara Lynn is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You'll Lose a Good Thing" (1962). In 2018, Lynn received a National Heritage Fellowship. In 2026 Lynn was further honored by being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
16/01/1941
Claire Gordon, English actress and comedian (died 2015)
Claire Gordon was an English film actress and comedian known for leading and cameo roles in many British films from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, and for working with most of the television comedy stars of that time. She was best known for her leading roles in the cult films Konga and Beat Girl, Gordon was the subject of singer Scott Walker's song "Archangel".
Christine Truman, English tennis player and sportscaster
Christine Clara Truman Janes is a former tennis player from the United Kingdom who was active from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. She won a singles Grand Slam title at the French Championships in 1959 and was a finalist at Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships. She helped Great Britain win the Wightman Cup in 1958, 1960 and 1968.
16/01/1939
Ralph Gibson, American photographer
Ralph Gibson is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and surreal juxtaposition.
16/01/1938
Marina Vaizey, American journalist and critic
Marina Alandra Vaizey, Baroness Vaizey, is an Anglo-American art critic, broadcaster, exhibition curator, author and journalist based in the UK.
16/01/1937
Luiz Bueno, Brazilian racing driver (died 2011)
Luiz Pereira Bueno also known as Luiz Bueno was a race car driver from Brazil. He participated in one World Championship Formula One Grand Prix, on 11 February 1973. He scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-championship Formula One races.
Francis George, American cardinal (died 2015)
Francis Eugene George was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1997 to 2014. He previously served as Bishop of Yakima and Archbishop of Portland in Oregon. A member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, George was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998. He served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 2007 to 2010.
16/01/1936
Michael White, Scottish actor and producer (died 2016)
Michael Simon White was a British theatrical impresario and film producer. White was responsible for the productions of 101 stage shows and 27 theatrical films over the span of 50 years.
16/01/1935
A. J. Foyt, American race car driver
Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. is a retired American racing driver who competed in numerous disciplines of motorsport, best known for his open wheel racing career, and as the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. He holds the most American National Championship titles in history with seven.
Udo Lattek, German footballer, manager, and sportscaster (died 2015)
Udo Lattek was a German professional football player and coach.
16/01/1934
Bob Bogle, American rock guitarist and bass player (died 2009)
Robert Lenard Bogle was an American musician who was a founding member of the instrumental rock band the Ventures. He and Don Wilson founded the group in 1958. Bogle was the lead guitarist and later bassist of the group. In 2008, Bogle and other members of the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Performer category.
Marilyn Horne, American soprano and actress
Marilyn Berneice Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards.
16/01/1933
Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, and critic (died 2004)
Susan Lee Sontag was an American writer and critic. She primarily wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), the short story "The Way We Live Now" (1986) and the novels The Volcano Lover (1992) and In America (1999).
16/01/1932
Victor Ciocâltea, Romanian chess player (died 1983)
Victor Ciocâltea was a Romanian chess player. He was awarded the International Master title in 1957 and the International Grandmaster title in 1978. Among his notable games is the one at the 15th Chess Olympiad, held in Varna in 1962, where he defeated Bobby Fischer.
Dian Fossey, American zoologist and anthropologist (died 1985)
Dian Fossey was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Gorillas in the Mist, a book published two years before her death, is Fossey's account of her scientific study of the gorillas at the Karisoke Research Center and prior career. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name.
16/01/1931
John Enderby, English physicist and academic (died 2021)
Sir John Edwin Enderby was a British physicist, and was Professor of Physics at University of Bristol from 1976 to 1996. He developed innovative ways of using neutrons to study matter at the microscopic level. His research has particularly advanced our understanding of the structure of multicomponent liquids— those made up of two or more types of atoms – including commonly used liquid alloys and glasses.
Robert L. Park, American physicist and academic (died 2020)
Robert Lee Park was an American professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a former director of public information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society. Park was most noted for his critical commentaries on alternative medicine and pseudoscience, as well as his criticism of how legitimate science is distorted or ignored by the media, some scientists, and public policy advocates as expressed in his book Voodoo Science. He was also noted for his preference for robotic over crewed space exploration.
Johannes Rau, German journalist and politician, eighth Federal President of Germany (died 2006)
Johannes Rau was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 1999 to 2004. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he previously served as the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 1998. In the latter role, he also served as President of the Bundesrat in 1982–1983 and in 1994–1995.
16/01/1930
Mary Ann McMorrow, American lawyer and judge (died 2013)
Mary Ann McMorrow served as the first woman Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice from 2002-2006. McMorrow is notable for additionally serving as the first woman Justice on the Illinois Supreme Court, and for being the first woman to lead any of the three branches of government in the state of Illinois. She served as the twenty-sixth woman State Supreme Court Chief Justice in the nation.
Norman Podhoretz, American journalist and author (died 2025)
Norman Harold Podhoretz was an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator. He described his views as "paleo-neoconservative", but only "because [he'd] been one for so long". He was a writer for Commentary magazine, and served as the publication's editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995.
Paula Tilbrook, English actress (died 2019)
Paula Tilbrook was an English actress who played Betty Eagleton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1994 to 2015.
16/01/1929
Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Sri Lankan anthropologist and academic (died 2014)
Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah was a social anthropologist and Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology at Harvard University. He specialised in studies of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tamils, as well as the anthropology of religion and politics.
16/01/1928
William Kennedy, American novelist and journalist
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.
Pilar Lorengar, Spanish soprano and actress (died 1996)
Lorenza Pilar García Seta, known professionally as Pilar Lorengar, was a Spanish (Aragonese) soprano. She was best known for her interpretations of opera and the Spanish genre Zarzuela, and as a soprano she was known for her full register, a youthful timbre as well as a distinctive vibrato.
16/01/1925
Peter Hirsch, German-English metallurgist and academic (died 2025)
Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch was a British metallurgist who made fundamental contributions to the application of transmission electron microscopy to metals.
James Robinson Risner, American general and pilot (died 2013)
Brigadier General James Robinson "Robbie" Risner was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, and a senior leader among U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.
16/01/1924
Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (died 2002)
María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known professionally as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress. She followed in the footsteps of earlier Mexican actresses in Hollywood, including Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, and María Félix. And her talent for playing a variety of characters helped to promote later Mexican actresses in American cinema. She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance (1954), and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon (1952).
Allen Swift, American actor, writer, playwright, and magician (died 2010)
Ira J. Stadlen, known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American actor, writer and magician, best known as a voiceover artist who voiced cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the Underdog cartoon show. He took his professional name from radio comedian Fred Allen and 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift.
16/01/1923
Gene Feist, American director and playwright, co-founded the Roundabout Theatre Company (died 2014)
Gene Feist was an American playwright, theater director and co-founder of the Roundabout Theater Company. He authored 15 plays or adaptations, of which two were published by Samuel French Inc. – James Joyce's Dublin and The Lady from Maxim's.
Anthony Hecht, American poet (died 2004)
Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th-century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.
16/01/1921
Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (died 2004)
Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer. He was best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan from 1965 to 1995 and his celebrity portraits. Scavullo shot every cover of Cosmopolitan magazine for 33 years in addition to covers of Vogue, Rolling Stone and Town and Country, making him the most celebrated fashion photographer, with over 600 covers during his 50 year span.
16/01/1920
Elliott Reid, American actor and screenwriter (died 2013)
Edgeworth Blair "Elliott" Reid was an American actor.
16/01/1919
Jerome Horwitz, American chemist and academic (died 2012)
Jerome Phillip Horwitz was an American scientist; his affiliations included the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Michigan Cancer Foundation.
16/01/1918
Nel Benschop, Dutch poet and educator (died 2005)
Nelly Anna Benschop was a Dutch poet. She was a best selling poet in the Netherlands.
Allan Ekelund, Swedish director, producer, and production manager (died 2009)
Allan Ekelund was a Swedish film producer. He produced 50 films between 1947 and 1964.
Clem Jones, Australian surveyor and politician, eighth Lord Mayor of Brisbane (died 2007)
Clem Jones AO was an Australian politician and administrator who served as the 8th Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 1961 to 1975. He represented the Queensland Labor Party in council politics, and is the longest-serving lord mayor to date. He was chair of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission from 1975 to 1978. Outside of politics, he was a businessman and philanthropist.
Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (died 1996)
Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating the television series Naked City, Perry Mason, and Route 66. Other features as screenwriter include the Irwin Allen productions The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.
16/01/1917
Carl Karcher, American businessman, founded Carl's Jr. (died 2008)
Carl Nicholas Karcher was an American businessman who founded the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain, now owned by parent company CKE Restaurants. Karcher served in the U.S. military during WWII.
16/01/1916
Philip Lucock, English-Australian minister and politician (died 1996)
Philip Ernest Lucock, CBE was an Australian politician and Presbysterian minister. He served in the House of Representatives from 1952 to 1980, representing the Division of Lyne for the Country Party. He was Deputy Speaker for a record span of over 13 years.
16/01/1915
Leslie H. Martinson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2016)
Leslie Herbert Martinson was an American television and film director.
16/01/1914
Roger Wagner, French-American conductor and educator (died 1992)
Roger Wagner, was an American choral musician, administrator and educator. In 1946 he founded the Roger Wagner Chorale, which became one of America's premier vocal ensembles. He also founded the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the three original resident companies of the Los Angeles Music Center, in 1964.
16/01/1911
Ivan Barrow, Jamaican cricketer (died 1979)
Ivanhoe Mordecai Barrow was a Jamaican cricketer who played 11 Tests for the West Indies in the 1930s.
Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean lawyer and politician, 28th President of Chile (died 1982)
Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and the 28th president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile (1994–2000).
Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (died 1996)
Roger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.
16/01/1910
Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1974)
Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.
16/01/1909
Clement Greenberg, American art critic (died 1994)
Clement Greenberg, occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formalist aesthetician. He is best remembered for his association with the art movement abstract expressionism and the painter Jackson Pollock.
16/01/1908
Sammy Crooks, English footballer (died 1981)
Samuel Dickinson Crooks was an English footballer who played as outside forward or outside right for Derby County in the mid-war era. He was one of the best-known footballers of the 1920s and 1930s and was capped 26 times by England.
Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (died 1984)
Ethel Merman was an American singer and actress. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Variety claimed that she probably starred in more hit musicals than any other performer on Broadway starring in Girl Crazy, Du Barry Was a Lady, Panama Hattie, Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam and Gypsy. They also called her "one of the tiny handful of Broadway stars who had the talent, vitality, personality and drive to carry a show to critical and boxoffice success on her own." Among many accolades, she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Call Me Madam, a Grammy Award for Gypsy, and a Drama Desk Award for Hello, Dolly!
Günther Prien, German captain (died 1941)
Günther Prien was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was the first U-boat commander to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Prien.
16/01/1907
Alexander Knox, Canadian-English actor and screenwriter (died 1995)
Alexander Knox was a Canadian actor and writer. He appeared in over 100 film, television, and theatrical productions over a career spanning from the 1920s until the late 1980s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the biopic Wilson (1944). However, his career in the United States was hampered by McCarthyism, and he spent the rest of his career in the United Kingdom.
Paul Nitze, American banker and politician, tenth United States Secretary of the Navy (died 2004)
Paul Henry Nitze was an American businessman and government official who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department. He is best known for being the principal author of NSC 68 and the co-founder of Team B. He helped shape U.S. Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.
16/01/1906
Johannes Brenner, Estonian footballer and pilot (died 1975)
Johannes Brenner was an Estonia football forward, who played for ESS Kalev Tallinn, Tallinna Jalgpalli Klubi and the Estonia national football team.
Diana Wynyard, English actress (died 1964)
Diana Wynyard was an English stage and film actress.
16/01/1905
Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor (died 1989)
Ernesto Halffter Escriche was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter and part of the Grupo de los Ocho, which formed a sub-set of the Generation of '27.
16/01/1903
William Grover-Williams, English-French racing driver (died 1945)
William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams, also known as "W Williams", was a British Grand Prix motor racing driver. He is best known for winning the first Monaco Grand Prix.
16/01/1902
Eric Liddell, Scottish runner, rugby player, and missionary (died 1945)
Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and a Christian missionary. Born in Tianjin, China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended a boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his family in Edinburgh, and afterwards attended the University of Edinburgh.
16/01/1901
Fulgencio Batista, Cuban colonel and politician, ninth President of Cuba (died 1973)
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer, political leader, and dictator who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power in the 1930s until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.
Frank Zamboni, American businessman and inventor (died 1988)
Frank Joseph Zamboni Jr. was an American businessman and inventor whose most famous invention is the modern ice resurfacer, with his surname being registered as a trademark for these devices.
16/01/1900
Kiku Amino, Japanese author and translator (died 1978)
Kiku Amino was a Japanese writer and translator of English and Russian literature. She was a recipient of the Women's Literature Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and Japan Academy of the Arts prize.
Edith Frank, German-Dutch mother of Anne Frank (died 1945)
Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the German occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she died of weakness and disease.
16/01/1898
Margaret Booth, American producer and editor (died 2002)
Margaret Booth was an American film editor. In a career lasting seven decades, Booth was most associated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Irving Rapper, American film director and producer (died 1999)
Irving Rapper was a British-born American film director.
16/01/1897
Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet and academic (died 1977)
Carlos Pellicer Cámara belonged to the first wave of modernist Mexican poets and was active in the promotion of Mexican art, pictures, and literature. An enthusiastic traveler, his work is filled with depictions of nature and a certain sexual energy that is shared with his contemporary Octavio Paz.
16/01/1895
Evripidis Bakirtzis, Greek soldier and politician (died 1947)
Evripidis Bakirtzis, born in Serres, Ottoman Empire, was a Hellenic Army officer and politician. Dismissed from the army twice due to his participation in pro-republican coup attempts and sentenced to death, later during the Axis Occupation of Greece, in World War II he co-founded the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) resistance group along with Dimitrios Psarros and was the military head of the organization. He later joined and was a prominent member of the National Liberation Front (EAM) and its military wing the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). He served as head of the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA), a government of Greek Resistance-held territories also called the "Mountain Government", from 10 March to 18 April 1944. He was nicknamed "the Red Colonel", from his pen name in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece, the Rizospastis.
T. M. Sabaratnam, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (died 1966)
Thambaiyah Mudaliyar Sabaratnam was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon.
Nat Schachner, American lawyer, chemist, and author (died 1955)
Nathaniel Schachner, who published under the names Nat Schachner and Nathan Schachner, was an American writer, historian, and attorney, as well as an early advocate of the development of rockets for space travel. A prominent author of historical works on figures from America's Revolutionary Era, Schachner also was a regular contributor to the genre leading up to and during the early years of what came to be referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
16/01/1894
Irving Mills, American publisher (died 1985)
Irving Harold Mills was a Ukrainian-American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz promoter. He often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.
16/01/1893
Daisy Kennedy, Australian-English violinist (died 1981)
Daisy Fowler Kennedy was an Australian-born concert violinist.
16/01/1892
Homer Burton Adkins, American chemist (died 1949)
Homer Burton Adkins was an American chemist who studied the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins was regarded as top in his field and a world authority on the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins is known for his wartime work, where he experimented with chemical agents and poisonous gasses. Renowned for his work, Adkins eventually suffered a series of heart attacks and died in 1949.
16/01/1888
Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (died 1945)
Osip Maksimovich Brik was a Russian avant garde writer, literary critic and lawyer, known for being an important member of the Russian formalist school, though he also identified himself as one of the Futurists.
16/01/1885
Zhou Zuoren, Chinese author and translator (died 1967)
Zhou Zuoren was a Chinese writer, primarily known as an essayist and a translator. He was a major figure in the genre of prose essays. Zhou was a younger brother of Lu Xun, the second of three brothers.
16/01/1882
Margaret Wilson, American author (died 1973)
Margaret Wilhelmina Wilson was an American novelist. She was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins.
16/01/1880
Samuel Jones, American high jumper (died 1954)
Samuel Symington Jones was an American athlete who competed mainly in the high jump. He competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St Louis, United States in the high jump where he won the gold medal.
16/01/1878
Harry Carey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1947)
Henry DeWitt Carey II was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars, usually cast as a Western hero. One of his best-known performances is as the president of the United States Senate in the drama film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor.
16/01/1876
Claude Buckenham, English cricketer and footballer (died 1937)
Claude Percival Buckenham was an English first-class cricketer who played for Essex and England. He also won a gold medal playing football at the Olympic Games in 1900.
16/01/1875
Leonor Michaelis, German biochemist and physician (died 1949)
Leonor Michaelis was a German biochemist, physical chemist, and physician. He is known for his work with Maud Menten on enzyme kinetics in 1913, as well as for work on enzyme inhibition, pH and quinones.
16/01/1874
Robert W. Service, English-Canadian poet and author (died 1958)
Robert William Service was an English-born Canadian poet and writer, often called “The Bard of the Yukon" and "The Canadian Kipling". Born in Lancashire of Scottish descent, he was a bank clerk by trade, but spent long periods travelling in the west in the United States and Canada, often in poverty. When his bank sent him to the Yukon, he was inspired by tales of the Klondike Gold Rush, and wrote two poems, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", which showed remarkable authenticity from an author with no experience of the gold rush or mining, and enjoyed immediate popularity. Encouraged by this, he quickly wrote more poems on the same theme, which were published as Songs of a Sourdough, and achieved a massive sale. When his next collection, Ballads of a Cheechako, proved equally successful, Service could afford to travel widely and live a leisurely life, basing himself in Paris and the French Riviera.
16/01/1872
Henri Büsser, French organist, composer, and conductor (died 1973)
Paul Henri Büsser was a French classical composer, organist, conductor and teacher. Among his teachers were César Franck, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. In addition to his own compositions Büsser edited and orchestrated a wide range of music – mostly but not exclusively French – dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. He was at various times in his career the conductor of the Paris Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, and professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris.
16/01/1870
Jüri Jaakson, Estonian businessman and politician, State Elder of Estonia (died 1942)
Jüri Jaakson was an Estonian lawyer and statesman.
16/01/1853
Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor and manager (died 1937)
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of the actress Gertrude Elliott. Considered by some the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, he disliked acting and believed throughout his career that he was temperamentally unsuited to it.
Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, Greek-English general (died 1947)
General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton was a British Army officer who had an extensive military career in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hamilton was twice recommended for the Victoria Cross, but on the first occasion was considered too young, and on the second too senior. He was wounded in action at the Battle of Majuba during the First Boer War, which rendered his left hand permanently injured. Near the end of his career, he commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War.
André Michelin, French businessman, co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company (died 1931)
André Jules Michelin was a French industrialist who, with his brother Édouard (1859–1940), founded the Michelin Tyre Company in 1888 in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand.
16/01/1851
William Hall-Jones, English-New Zealand politician, 16th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1936)
Sir William Hall-Jones was the 16th prime minister of New Zealand from June 1906 until August 1906.
16/01/1844
Ismail Kemal, Albanian politician and statesman, first prime minister of Albania (died 1919)
Ismail Qemali, or Ismail Kemal Bey Vlora, was an Albanian politician and statesman who is regarded as the founder of modern Albania. He served as the first prime minister of Albania from December 1912 until his resignation in January 1914.
16/01/1838
Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (died 1917)
Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintroduced the medieval scholastic concept of intentionality into contemporary philosophy.
16/01/1836
Francis II of the Two Sicilies (died 1894)
Francis II was the last king of the Two Sicilies before the Italian unification, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia. After he was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia were merged into the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.
16/01/1834
Robert R. Hitt, American lawyer and politician, 13th United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1906)
Robert Roberts Hitt was an American diplomat and Republican politician from Illinois. He served briefly as assistant secretary of state in the short-lived administration of James A. Garfield but resigned alongside Secretary of State James G. Blaine after Garfield's assassination in 1881. He returned to Washington to represent Northwestern Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1882 to his death. After 1885, he was the senior Republican on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which he chaired from 1889 to 1891 and 1895 until his death in 1906.
16/01/1821
John C. Breckinridge, American general and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States (died 1875)
John Cabell Breckinridge was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, and as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history. He was also the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 presidential election, losing to antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
16/01/1815
Henry Halleck, American lawyer, general, and scholar (died 1872)
Henry Wager Halleck was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer. Halleck served as the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States from 1862 to 1864, and then became Chief of Staff for the remainder of the war when Ulysses S. Grant was appointed to that position.
16/01/1807
Charles Henry Davis, American admiral (died 1877)
Charles Henry Davis was a self-educated American astronomer and rear admiral of the United States Navy. While working for the United States Coast Survey, he researched tides and currents, and located an uncharted shoal that had caused wrecks off of the coast of New York. During the American Civil War, he commanded the Western Gunboat Flotilla, where he won an important engagement in the First Battle of Memphis before capturing enemy supplies on a successful expedition up the Yazoo River. Davis was also one of the founders of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863 and he wrote several scientific books.
16/01/1757
Richard Goodwin Keats, English admiral and politician, third Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland (died 1834)
Admiral of the White Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, GCB was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland, serving from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 Keats was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, London. He held the post until his death at Greenwich in 1834. Keats is remembered as a capable and well respected officer, in particular due to his actions at the Algeciras campaign.
16/01/1749
Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright (died 1803)
Count Vittorio Amedeo Alfieri was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy." He wrote nineteen tragedies, sonnets, satires, a notable autobiography, and translated Virgil and other works from Latin and Greek. Alfieri's work exerted a profound influence on British Romantic poetry.
16/01/1728
Niccolò Piccinni, Italian composer and educator (died 1800)
Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of the Classical period.
16/01/1691
Peter Scheemakers, Belgian sculptor and educator (died 1781)
Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influence on the development of modern sculpture in England.
16/01/1675
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French soldier and diplomat (died 1755)
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, GE, was a French courtier and memoirist, who also spent time as a soldier and diplomat. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne. The family's ducal peerage (duché-pairie), granted in 1635 to his father Claude de Rouvroy (1608–1693), served as both perspective and theme in Saint-Simon's life and writings. He was the second and last Duke of Saint-Simon.
16/01/1653
Johann Conrad Brunner, Swiss anatomist (died 1727)
Johann Conrad Brunner was a Swiss anatomist, especially cited for his work on the pancreas and duodenum.
16/01/1634
Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (died 1716)
Dorothe Engelbretsdatter was a Norwegian author. She principally wrote hymns and poems which were strongly religious. She has been described as Norway's first recognized female author as well as Norway's first feminist before feminism became a recognized concept.
16/01/1630
Guru Har Rai, Sikh Guru (died 1661)
Guru Har Rai revered as the seventh Nanak, was the seventh of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion. He became the Sikh leader at age 14, on 3 March 1644, after the death of his grandfather and the sixth Sikh leader Guru Hargobind. He guided the Sikhs for about seventeen years, till his death at age 31.
16/01/1626
Lucas Achtschellinck, Belgian painter and educator (died 1699)
Lucas Achtschellinck was a Flemish landscape painter. He is counted among the landscape painters active in Brussels referred to as the School of Painters of the Sonian Forest who all shared an interest in depicting scenes set in the Sonian Forest, which is located near Brussels.
16/01/1616
François de Vendôme, duke of Beaufort (died 1669)
François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort was the son of César, Duke of Vendôme, and Françoise de Lorraine. He was a prominent figure in the Fronde, and later went on to fight in the Mediterranean. He is sometimes called François de Vendôme, though he was born into the House of Bourbon, Vendôme coming from his father's title of Duke of Vendôme.
16/01/1558
Jakobea of Baden, Margravine of Baden by birth, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg by marriage (died 1597)
Princess Jakobea of Baden was daughter of the Margrave Philibert of Baden-Baden and Mechthild of Bavaria.
16/01/1516
Bayinnaung, king of Burma (died 1581)
Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta was King of Burma from 30 April 1550 until his death in 1581, during the Toungoo dynasty. His reign is considered one of the most momentous in Burmese history, famously described as "the greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma". During his rule, he assembled the largest empire in Southeast Asian history, which encompassed much of present-day Myanmar, as well as the Shan States, Lan Na, Lan Xang, Manipur, and the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
16/01/1501
Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (died 1559)
Sir Anthony Denny was Groom of the Stool to King Henry VIII of England, thus his closest courtier and confidant. In 1539 he was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber and was its most prominent member in King Henry's last years, having together with his brother-in-law, John Gates, charge of the "dry stamp" of the King's signature, and attended the King on his deathbed. He was a member of the Reformist circle that offset the conservative religious influence of Bishop Gardiner. He was a wealthy man, having acquired several manors and former religious sites distributed by the Court of Augmentations after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
16/01/1477
Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (died 1547)
Johannes Schöner was a German polymath. It is best to refer to him using the usual 16th-century Latin term "mathematicus", as the areas of study to which he devoted his life were very different from those now considered to be the domain of the mathematician. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe and scientific instrument maker and editor and publisher of scientific texts. In his own time he enjoyed a Europe-wide reputation as an innovative and influential globe maker and cosmographer and as one of the continent's leading and most authoritative astrologers. Today he is remembered as an influential pioneer in the history of globe making, and as a man who played a significant role in the events that led up to the publishing of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1543.
16/01/1409
René of Anjou, king of Naples (died 1480)
René I of Anjou was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples from 1435 to 1442. Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence, he is known in France as the Good King René.
16/01/1362
Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland (died 1392)
Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, KG was a favourite and court companion of King Richard II of England. He was the ninth Earl of Oxford and the first Duke of Ireland and the only Marquess of Dublin. He was also the first person to be created a Marquess.
16/01/1245
Edmund Crouchback, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (died 1296)
Edmund Crouchback was a member of the royal Plantagenet Dynasty and the founder of the House of Lancaster. He was Earl of Leicester (1265–1296), Lancaster (1267–1296) and Derby (1269–1296) in England and Count Palatine of Champagne (1276–1284) in France.
16/01/1093
Isaac Komnenos, son of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (died 1152)
Isaac Komnenos or Comnenus was the third son of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Empress Irene Doukaina. He was raised to the high rank of sebastokrator by his older brother John II Komnenos in reward for his support, but they later fell out, as Isaac began to covet the throne.
16/01/0972
Sheng Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (died 1031)
Emperor Shengzong of Liao, personal name Wenshunu, sinicised name Yelü Longxu, was the sixth emperor of the Khitan-led Chinese Liao dynasty and its longest reigning monarch.
Lives Remembered on 16th January
On 16th January, 119 remarkable people passed away — from 654 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
16/01/2025
David Lynch, American filmmaker and actor (born 1946)
David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, producer, actor, painter, and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian". He is often credited with bringing surrealism and experimentalism to mainstream media in the late 20th century. In a career spanning more than five decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, a Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, two César Awards, and a (posthumous) Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.
Dame Joan Plowright, English actress (born 1929)
Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, commonly known as Dame Joan Plowright, was an English actress whose career spanned over six decades. She received several accolades including two Golden Globe Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
Bob Uecker, American professional baseball catcher and sportscaster (born 1934)
Robert George Uecker was an American professional baseball catcher and sportscaster who served as the play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB) for 54 seasons. He was also an occasional television and film actor.
16/01/2022
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Former Malian President (born 1945)
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, often known by his initials IBK, was a Malian politician who served as the president of Mali from September 2013 to August 2020, when he was forced to resign in the 2020 Malian coup d'état. He served as Mali's prime minister from February 1994 to February 2000 and as president of the National Assembly of Mali from September 2002 to September 2007.
16/01/2021
Pedro Trebbau, German-born Venezuelan zoologist (born 1929)
Pedro Trebbau was a German-born Venezuelan zoologist. His career was characterized by the promotion and preservation of Venezuelan wildlife and nature. His research and collaboration with the herpetologist Peter Pritchard produced the still-extant reference book on The Turtles of Venezuela, the 2018 re-edition of which, alongside the biography done on him entitled Trebbau: Maestro por naturaleza by Albor Rodríguez, sparked the series Colección La Fauna, which aimed to collect Trebbau's work on the fauna of Venezuela.
Chris Cramer, British journalist (born 1948)
Christopher Ranville Cramer was a British news journalist and executive. During his career, he was head of news gathering for the BBC, an executive at CNN International, and a consultant for The Wall Street Journal. Cramer was perhaps best known in his field for raising training standards for journalists who are given dangerous assignments, as well as suggesting safety equipment while away and necessary counselling upon their return. Such methods arose from his being taken hostage in the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980.
Phil Spector, American record producer, songwriter (born 1939)
Harvey Phillip Spector was an American record producer and songwriter primarily known for his Wall of Sound production style in the 1960s, followed by his trials and imprisonment for murder after the 2000s. Considered the first music producer auteur, he is the most successful American producer of the 1960s and widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history.
16/01/2020
Christopher Tolkien, British academic and editor (born 1924)
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien was an English academic editor and writer. The son of the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, he edited 24 volumes based on his father's posthumously published work, including The Silmarillion and the 12-volume series The History of Middle-Earth, a task that took 45 years. He drew the original maps for his father's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He spent the second half of his life in France, becoming a French citizen.
16/01/2019
John C. Bogle, American businessman, investor, and philanthropist (born 1929)
John Clifton "Jack" Bogle was an American investor, business magnate and philanthropist who was the founder of The Vanguard Group and is credited with popularizing the index fund. An avid investor and money manager himself, he preached investment over speculation, long-term patience over short-term action, and reducing broker fees as much as possible.
Lorna Doom, American musician (born 1958)
Lorna Doom was an American musician best known as the bass guitarist for the punk rock band the Germs from 1976 to 1980, and again after they got back together from 2005 to 2009.
Chris Wilson, Australian musician (born 1956)
Christopher John Wilson was an Australian blues musician who sang and played harmonica, saxophone and guitar. He performed as part of the Sole Twisters, Harem Scarem and Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, and fronted his band Crown of Thorns. Wilson's solo albums are Landlocked, The Long Weekend, Spiderman (2000), King for a Day, Flying Fish (2012) and the self titled Chris Wilson (2018).
16/01/2018
Ed Doolan, British radio presenter (born 1941)
Edwin Myer Doolan MBE was an Australian born naturalised British radio presenter who was a veteran of Birmingham's first commercial radio station BRMB, and subsequently the BBC. At the BBC he presented a weekly show trawling through his broadcast archives from noon until 1 pm on BBC Radio WM on Sunday lunchtime. He was honoured by the British Radio Academy, earning a place in the Radio Hall of Fame. He was presented with Honorary Doctorates from Birmingham's three universities and was the first person to have ever achieved that honour.
Oliver Ivanović, Kosovo Serb politician (born 1953)
Oliver Ivanović was a Kosovo Serb politician.
16/01/2017
Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (born 1934)
Eugene Andrew Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot.
16/01/2016
Joannis Avramidis, Greek sculptor (born 1922)
Joannis Avramidis was a contemporary Greek-Austrian painter and sculptor. He was born in Batumi, on the Black Sea, in the Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, an Autonomous Republic of the former Soviet Union, to a family of Pontic Greeks, who had fled the repression of ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire in the turmoil leading up to the Greco-Turkish War.
Ted Marchibroda, American football player and coach (born 1931)
Theodore Joseph Marchibroda was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played four years in the NFL as a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals (1957). Marchibroda was later head coach of the Colts in two different cities and decades, first in Baltimore from 1975 to 1979 and then Indianapolis from 1992 to 1995. Upon joining the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, he became the only individual to serve as head coach with both of Baltimore's NFL teams and gained the unusual distinction of having three stints as an NFL head coach for two franchises in two cities, but with no two of those tenures being for the same franchise in the same city. His career NFL head coaching record was 87–98–1 (.470) and 2–4 in the playoffs.
16/01/2015
Miriam Akavia, Polish-Israeli author and translator (born 1927)
Miriam Akavia also Matylda Weinfeld was a Polish-born Israeli writer and translator, a Holocaust survivor, and the president of the Platform for Jewish-Polish Dialogue.
Yao Beina, Chinese singer (born 1981)
Yao Beina, also known as Bella Yao, was a Chinese singer and songwriter. She debuted as a professional singer with her portrayal of the diva of the musical Jin Sha (金沙) in 2005. After graduating from China Conservatory of Music in the same year, she started her singing career in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Political Department of the People's Liberation Army Navy.
16/01/2014
Gary Arlington, American author and illustrator (born 1938)
Gary Edson Arlington was an American retailer, artist, editor, and publisher, who became a key figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As owner of one of America's first comic book stores, the San Francisco Comic Book Company, located in San Francisco's Mission District, Arlington's establishment became a focal point for the Bay Area's underground artists. He published comics under the name San Francisco Comic Book Company, as well as publishing and distributing comics under the name Eric Fromm. Cartoonist Robert Crumb has noted, "Gary made a cultural contribution in San Francisco in the late 1960s, through the '70s, '80s & '90s that was more significant than he realizes."
Ruth Duccini, American actress (born 1918)
Ruth Leone Duccini was an American actress.
Dave Madden, Canadian-American actor (born 1931)
David Joseph Madden was a Canadian-born American actor. His most famous role came on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family, in which he played the group's manager, Reuben Kincaid, opposite Shirley Jones's character. Madden later had a recurring role as diner customer Earl Hicks on the mid-1970s to mid-1980s sitcom Alice.
Hiroo Onoda, Japanese lieutenant (born 1922)
Hiroo Onoda 19 March 1922 – 16 January 2014) was a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war's end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974.
16/01/2013
Wayne D. Anderson, American baseball player and coach (born 1930)
Wayne Delbert Anderson was an American college basketball coach, the head coach for eight seasons at the University of Idaho, his alma mater. He was also the head baseball coach at Idaho for nine seasons, and the assistant athletic director for fifteen years.
André Cassagnes, French technician and toy maker, created the Etch A Sketch (born 1926)
André Cassagnes was a French inventor, electrical technician, toymaker, and kite designer. Cassagnes is best known as the inventor of the Etch A Sketch, a popular mechanical drawing toy manufactured since 2016 by Spin Master, formerly by the Ohio Art Company.
Gussie Moran, American tennis player and sportscaster (born 1923)
Gertrude Augusta "Gussie" Moran was an American tennis player who was active in the late 1940s and 1950s. Her highest US national tennis ranking was 4th. She was born in Santa Monica, California and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 89.
Pauline Phillips, American journalist and radio host, created Dear Abby (born 1918)
Pauline Esther Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known Dear Abby newspaper column in 1956. It became the most widely syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers with 110 million readers.
Glen P. Robinson, American businessman, founded Scientific Atlanta (born 1923)
Glen Parmelee Robinson, Jr., called the "father of high-tech industry in Georgia", was an American businessman and founder of Scientific Atlanta, formerly a subsidiary of Cisco Systems. Robinson was the first employee of Scientific Atlanta, where he remained CEO then Chairman of the company until he retired.
16/01/2012
Joe Bygraves, Jamaican-English boxer (born 1931)
Joe Bygraves was a British heavyweight boxer. Bygraves turned professional in 1953, and after an impressive early career he successfully challenged Kitione Lave for the vacant Commonwealth Heavyweight belt in 1956. Bygraves defended the title on three occasions, knocking-out Henry Cooper and holding Dick Richardson to a draw before losing the championship to Joe Erskine. Bygraves immigrated to Britain as a youth but did not take British citizenship until the end of his fighting career in 1967.
Jimmy Castor, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (born 1940)
James Walter Castor was an American funk, R&B and soul musician. He is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", "The Bertha Butt Boogie", and his biggest hit single, the million-seller "Troglodyte ." Castor has been described as "one of the most sampled artists in music history" by the BBC.
Sigursteinn Gíslason, Icelandic footballer and manager (born 1968)
Sigursteinn Davíð Gíslason was an Icelandic football player and manager. A left-sided defender who could also play in midfield, he spent the majority of his playing career in his home country; he started his career with KR and later had spells with ÍA and Víkingur Reykjavík. During the 1999–2000 season, Sigursteinn joined English club Stoke City and played eight matches in the Football League. Following his retirement from playing, he became a coach at his former club KR and went on to spend three years as the club's assistant manager. In 2008, Sigursteinn was appointed as manager of Leiknir Reykjavík, a position he held for more than two seasons before being forced to retire through illness.
Lorna Kesterson, American journalist and politician (born 1925)
Lorna J. Kesterson was an American journalist, newspaper editor and politician. She served as the first female mayor of the city of Henderson, Nevada, for two consecutive four-year terms from 1985 to 1993. She was the first and only woman to be Henderson's mayor until Debra March was sworn in to office in 2017. Kesterson was also a longtime reporter and managing editor for the Henderson Home News, a local community newspaper.
Gustav Leonhardt, Dutch pianist, conductor, and musicologist (born 1928)
Gustav Maria Leonhardt was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments.
16/01/2010
Glen Bell, American businessman, founded Taco Bell (born 1923)
Glen William Bell Jr. was an American restaurateur who was the founder and namesake of Taco Bell.
Takumi Shibano, Japanese author and translator (born 1926)
Takumi Shibano was a Japanese science-fiction translator and author. He was a major figure in fandom in Japan and contributed to establishing the Japanese science fiction genre.
16/01/2009
Joe Erskine, American boxer and runner (born 1930)
Joseph Harold "Joey" Erskine was an American athlete who was active as a welterweight boxer in 1953 and 1954, and as a long distance runner from 1975 to 1980.
John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (born 1923)
Sir John Clifford Mortimer was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for short stories about a barrister named Horace Rumpole, adapted from episodes of the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey also written by Mortimer.
Andrew Wyeth, American painter (born 1917)
Andrew Newell Wyeth was an American visual artist and one of the best-known American artists of the middle 20th century. Though he considered himself to be an "abstractionist," Wyeth was primarily a realist painter who worked in a regionalist style, often painting the land and people of his hometown in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his summer home in Cushing, Maine.
16/01/2006
Stanley Biber, American soldier and physician (born 1923)
Stanley H. Biber was an American physician who was a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, performing thousands of procedures during his long career.
16/01/2005
Marjorie Williams, American journalist and author (born 1958)
Marjorie Williams was an American writer, reporter, and columnist for Vanity Fair and The Washington Post, writing about American society and profiling the American "political elite."
16/01/2004
Kalevi Sorsa, Finnish politician 34th Prime Minister of Finland (born 1930)
Taisto Kalevi Sorsa was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland three times: 1972–1975, 1977–1979 and 1982–1987. At the time of his death he still held the record for most days of incumbency as Finnish prime minister. He was also a long-time leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland.
16/01/2003
Richard Wainwright, English politician (born 1918)
Richard Scurrah Wainwright was a British politician of the Liberal Party. He was the MP for Colne Valley from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1987.
16/01/2002
Robert Hanbury Brown, English astronomer and physicist (born 1916)
Robert Hanbury Brown, AC FRS was a British astronomer and physicist born in Aruvankadu, India. He made notable contributions to the development of radar and later conducted pioneering work in the field of radio astronomy.
16/01/2001
Auberon Waugh, English author and journalist (born 1939)
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron".
16/01/2000
Robert R. Wilson, American physicist and academic (born 1914)
Robert Rathbun Wilson was an American physicist known for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, as a sculptor, and as an architect of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), where he was the first director from 1967 to 1978.
16/01/1999
Jim McClelland, Australian lawyer, jurist, and politician, 12th Minister for Industry and Science (born 1915)
James Robert McClelland was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for New South Wales from 1971 to 1978. He briefly held ministerial office in the Whitlam government in 1975 as Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Labor and Immigration. He later served as the inaugural Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales from 1980 to 1985, as well as presiding over the 1984 McClelland Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia.
16/01/1996
Marcia Davenport, American author and critic (born 1903)
Marcia Davenport was an American writer and music critic. She is best known for her 1932 biography of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the first American published biography of Mozart. Davenport also is known for her novels The Valley of Decision and East Side, West Side, both of which were adapted to film in 1945 and 1949, respectively.
Kaye Webb, English journalist and publisher (born 1914)
Kathleen ("Kaye") Webb, was a British editor and publisher. She has been called an "enormously influential children's editor" and "brilliant as an innovator of highly successful marketing strategies". She was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award in 1970.
16/01/1995
Eric Mottram, English poet and critic (born 1924)
Eric Mottram was a British teacher, critic, editor and poet who was one of the central figures in the British Poetry Revival.
16/01/1990
Lady Eve Balfour, British farmer, educator, and founding figure in the organic movement (born 1898)
Lady Evelyn Barbara Balfour, was a British farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university, graduating from the institution now known as the University of Reading.
16/01/1988
Andrija Artuković, Croatian politician, war criminal, and Porajmos perpetrator, first Minister of Interior of the Independent State of Croatia (born 1899)
Andrija Artuković was a Croatian lawyer, politician, and senior member of the fascist Ustaše movement, who served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of Justice in the Government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II in Yugoslavia. He signed into law several racial laws against Serbs, Jews, and Roma, and was responsible for a string of concentration camps where civilians were tortured and murdered. He escaped to the United States after the war, where he lived until he was extradited to Yugoslavia in 1986. He was tried and found guilty of several mass killings in the NDH and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out due to his age and health. He died in custody in 1988.
16/01/1987
Bertram Wainer, Australian physician and activist (born 1928)
Bertram Barney Wainer was an Australian doctor who successfully campaigned for legal access to abortion for women in the state of Victoria. In the process he received multiple death threats from Victoria Police and survived at least three attempts on his life, including shootings and arson. He was also to uncover political and police corruption.
16/01/1986
Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (born 1892)
Herbert W. Armstrong was an American evangelist who founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). An early pioneer of radio and television evangelism, Armstrong preached what he claimed was the comprehensive combination of doctrines in the entire Bible, in the light of the New Covenant scriptures, which he maintained to be the restored true Gospel. These doctrines and teachings have been referred to as Armstrongism by non-adherents.
16/01/1983
Virginia Mauret, American musician and dancer
Virginia Mauret, sometimes seen as Virginie Mauret, was an American musician and dancer. In 1962 she became the founder and director of the Young Artists Opera of New York City.
16/01/1981
Bernard Lee, English actor (born 1908)
John Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first 11 Eon-produced James Bond films. His film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from the age of six.
16/01/1978
A. V. Kulasingham, Sri Lankan journalist, lawyer, and politician (born 1890)
Aiyathurai Varnakulasingham Kulasingham was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician, journalist and editor of the Ceylon Daily News and Hindu Organ.
16/01/1975
Israel Abramofsky, Russian-American painter (born 1888)
Israel Abramofsky, was a Russian-born artist, who trained in Paris and settled in the United States, known for his landscape works, and works depicting Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
16/01/1973
Edgar Sampson, American musician and composer (born 1907)
Edgar Melvin Sampson, nicknamed "The Lamb", was an American jazz composer, arranger, saxophonist, and violinist. Born in New York City, he began playing violin aged six and picked up the saxophone in high school. He worked as an arranger and composer for many jazz bands in the 1930s and 1940s. He composed several well-known jazz standards, including "Stompin' at the Savoy", and "Don't Be That Way".
16/01/1972
Teller Ammons, American soldier and politician, 28th Governor of Colorado (born 1895)
Teller Ammons was an American attorney and politician who served as the 28th Governor of Colorado from 1937 to 1939. He was the first Colorado governor to be born in the state.
Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor, created Alvin and the Chipmunks (born 1919)
Ross S. Bagdasarian, also known by his stage name David Seville, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor best known for creating the cartoon band Alvin and the Chipmunks. Initially a stage and film actor, he rose to prominence in 1958 with the songs "Witch Doctor" and "The Chipmunk Song ", which both became Billboard number-one singles. He produced and directed The Alvin Show, which aired on CBS in 1961–62.
16/01/1971
Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (born 1890)
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.
16/01/1969
Vernon Duke, Russian-American composer and songwriter (born 1903)
Vernon Duke was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940); "I Can't Get Started," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (1936); "April in Paris," with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say," for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg.
16/01/1968
Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, founded Bob Jones University (born 1883)
Robert Reynolds Jones Sr. was an American evangelist, pioneer religious broadcaster, and the founder and first president of Bob Jones University.
Panagiotis Poulitsas, Greek archaeologist and judge (born 1881)
Panagiotis Poulitsas was a Greek judge and archeologist who briefly served as interim Prime Minister of Greece from 4 April 1946 to 18 April 1946. He was born in Geraki, Laconia on 9 September 1881.
16/01/1967
Robert J. Van de Graaff, American physicist and academic (born 1901)
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff was an American applied physicist and inventor. He is best known for developing the Van de Graaff generator, a high-voltage electrostatic machine that became a fundamental tool in nuclear physics research.
16/01/1962
Frank Hurley, Australian photographer, director, producer, and cinematographer (born 1885)
James Francis "Frank" Hurley was an Australian photographer, cinematographer of documentary films, and director of drama feature films. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official war photographer with Australian forces during both world wars. He was the official photographer for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–14) led by Douglas Mawson, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–16 led by Ernest Shackleton, and BANZARE (1929–31), again led by Mawson.
Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor and architect, designed the Monument to the Unknown Hero (born 1883)
Ivan Meštrović was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavao Bilinić's Stone Workshop in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was formed under the influence of the Secession. He traveled throughout Europe and studied the works of ancient and Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo, and French sculptors Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol. He was the initiator of the national-romantic group Medulić. During the First World War, he lived in emigration. After the war, he returned to Croatia and began a long and fruitful period of sculpture and pedagogical work. In 1942 he emigrated to Italy, in 1943 to Switzerland and in 1947 to the United States. He was a professor of sculpture at Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
16/01/1961
Max Schöne, German swimmer (born 1880)
Max Schöne was a German swimmer who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was born in Berlin. As a member of the German swimming team he won the gold medal at the Paris 1900 edition.
16/01/1959
Phan Khôi, Vietnamese journalist and author (born 1887)
Phan Khôi was an intellectual leader who inspired a North Vietnamese variety of the Chinese Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which scholars were permitted to criticize the government, but for which he himself was ultimately persecuted by the Communist Party of Vietnam.
16/01/1957
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, English general and politician, 16th Governor General of Canada (born 1874)
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone was a member of the extended British royal family, as a great-grandson of King George III, the youngest brother of Queen Mary, an uncle of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and the husband of Princess Alice of Albany. He was a British Army officer and served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa and Governor General of Canada.
Arturo Toscanini, Italian cellist and conductor (born 1867)
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, Toscanini was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career, he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954), and this led to his becoming a household name, especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.
16/01/1942
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (born 1850)
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He served as Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so.
Villem Grünthal-Ridala, Estonian poet and linguist (born 1885)
Villem Grünthal-Ridala, born Wilhelm Grünthal was an Estonian poet, translator, linguist and folklorist.
Carole Lombard, American actress and comedian (born 1908)
Carole Lombard was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Ernst Scheller, German lawyer and politician, Mayor of Marburg (born 1899)
Ernst Scheller was a German Nazi Hauptmann and politician.
16/01/1938
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (born 1876)
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages. However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology, an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
16/01/1936
Albert Fish, American serial killer, rapist and cannibal (born 1870)
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal who committed at least three child murders between July 1924 and June 1928. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and the Boogey Man. Fish was a suspect in at least ten murders during his lifetime, although he only confessed to three that police were able to trace to a known homicide. He also confessed to stabbing at least two other people.
16/01/1933
Bekir Sami Kunduh, Turkish politician (born 1867)
Bekir Sami Bey was a Turkish politician of Ossetian origin. He served as the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey during 1920–1921.
16/01/1919
Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian lawyer and politician, fifth President of Brazil (born 1848)
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves was a Brazilian politician and statesman who served as the fifth president of Brazil, from 1902 to 1906. Alves was elected in 1902, becoming the third consecutive São Paulo native to hold the presidency. Before his presidency, he served as president of the province of São Paulo during the Empire of Brazil (1887) and as finance minister under Floriano Peixoto and Prudente de Morais in the 1890s.
16/01/1917
George Dewey, American admiral (born 1837)
George Dewey was Admiral of the Navy, the only person in United States history to have attained that rank. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War, without a single combat death.
16/01/1906
Marshall Field, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Marshall Field's (born 1834)
Marshall Field was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.
16/01/1901
Jules Barbier, French poet and playwright (born 1825)
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré.
Arnold Böcklin, Swiss painter and academic (born 1827)
Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss Symbolist painter. His five versions of the Isle of the Dead inspired works by several late Romantic composers.
Hiram Rhodes Revels, American soldier, minister, and politician (born 1822)
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
Mahadev Govind Ranade, Indian scholar, social reformer, judge and author (born 1842)
Rao Bahadur Mahadev Govind Ranade, popularly referred to as Nyayamurti Ranade, was an Indian scholar, social reformer, judge and author. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress party and held several designations such as Member of the Bombay Legislative Council and Member of the Finance Committee at the Centre. He was also a judge of the Bombay High Court.
16/01/1898
Charles Pelham Villiers, English lawyer and politician (born 1802)
Charles Pelham Villiers was a British lawyer and politician from the aristocratic Villiers family. He sat in the House of Commons for 63 years, from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament (MP). He also holds the distinction of the oldest candidate to win a parliamentary seat, at 93. He was a radical and reformer who often collaborated with John Bright and had a noteworthy effect in the leadership of the Anti-Corn Law League, until the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Lord Palmerston appointed him to the cabinet as president of the Poor-Law Board in 1859. His Public Works Act 1863 opened job-creating schemes in public health projects. He progressed numerous other reforms, most notably the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867. Florence Nightingale helped him formulate the reform, in particular, ensure professionalisation of nursing as part of the poor law regime, the workhouses of which erected public infirmaries under an Act of the same year. His political importance was overshadowed by his brother, the Earl of Clarendon, and undercut by the hostility of Gladstone.
16/01/1891
Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (born 1836)
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876) and the opera Lakmé (1883), which includes the well-known "Flower Duet".
16/01/1886
Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer and academic (born 1834)
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera La Gioconda. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla.
16/01/1879
Octave Crémazie, Canadian-French poet and bookseller (born 1827)
Octave Crémazie was a French Canadian poet and bookseller born in Quebec City. Recognized both during and after his lifetime for his patriotic verse and his significant role in the cultural development of Quebec, Crémazie has been called "the father of French Canadian poetry."
16/01/1865
Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (born 1828)
Edmond François Valentin About was a French novelist, publicist and journalist.
16/01/1864
Anton Schindler, Austrian secretary and author (born 1795)
Anton Felix Schindler was an Austrian law clerk and associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven.
16/01/1856
Thaddeus William Harris, American entomologist and botanist (born 1795)
Thaddeus William Harris was an American entomologist and librarian. His focus on insect life cycles and interactions with plants was influential in broadening American entomological studies beyond a narrow taxonomic approach. He was an early agricultural entomologist and served as a mentor and role model for others in this new field. For 25 years Harris served as the librarian of Harvard University where oversaw the rapid growth of the library and introduced one of the earliest American library card catalogs.
16/01/1834
Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician and academic (born 1769)
Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician, was born at Mézières, where his father was a bookseller.
16/01/1817
Alexander J. Dallas, Jamaican-American lawyer and politician, sixth United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1759)
Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1814 to 1816 under President James Madison. He was also a lawyer who worked as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1801–1814) and the 1st Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (1790–1800).
16/01/1809
John Moore, Scottish general and politician (born 1761)
Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore was a British Army officer and Whig politician who represented Lanark Burghs in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1784 to 1790. He is known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna, in which he fought a French army under Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult during the Peninsular War.
16/01/1794
Edward Gibbon, English historian and politician (born 1737)
Edward Gibbon was a British essayist, historian and minor politician. His most important and influential work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, to critical and commercial success. It is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its polemical criticism of organised religion.
16/01/1752
Francis Blomefield, English historian and author (born 1705)
Rev. Francis Blomefield, FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk. It includes detailed accounts of the City of Norwich, the Borough of Thetford and all parishes in the southernmost Hundreds of Norfolk, but he died before completing it. This was done by a friend, Rev. Charles Parkin. The Norfolk historian Walter Rye related that although no portrait of him was known to exist, Blomefield closely resembled the astronomer John Flamsteed, whose portrait was used to depict Blomefield on the frontispiece of one of his volumes. His history of Norfolk was reissued in London in 11 volumes by William Miller in 1805–1810, the last seven being by Parkin.
16/01/1750
Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal and politician (born 1667)
Prince Ivan Yurievich Trubetskoy was a Russian field marshal, promoted in 1728. The son of Yuriy Trubetskoy, as a member of the House of Trubetskoy, he was a member of the inner circle of Tsar Peter I of Russia of the House of Romanov. Made a boyar in 1692, Trubetskoy commanded part of the Russian fleet during the Azov campaigns in 1696. In 1699, he was named governor of Novgorod. Trubetskoy ordered surrender during the Battle of Narva in 1700. He was captured and held prisoner in Sweden until exchanged in 1718. At the moment of death he was the last living boyar in Russia. Elisabeth made him a member of the renewed Senate.
16/01/1748
Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch lawyer and scholar (born 1684)
Arnold Drakenborch was a Dutch classical scholar.
16/01/1747
Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet and playwright (born 1680)
Barthold Heinrich Brockes was a German poet.
16/01/1711
Joseph Vaz, Indian-Sri Lankan priest and saint (born 1651)
Joseph Vaz CO was a Oratorian priest and missionary in Dutch Ceylon. Originally from Sancoale in Portuguese Goa, Vaz arrived in Ceylon during the Dutch occupation, a time when the Dutch had banned Catholicism in Ceylon and imposed Calvinism as the official religion after taking control from the Portuguese Empire.
16/01/1710
Higashiyama, Japanese emperor (born 1675)
Asahito , posthumously honored as Emperor Higashiyama , was the 113th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Higashiyama's reign spanned the years from 1687 through to his abdication in 1709 corresponding to the Genroku era of the Edo period. The previous hundred years of peace and seclusion in Japan had created relative economic stability. The arts flourished, including theater and architecture.
16/01/1659
Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (born 1580)
Charles Annibal Fabrot was a French jurisconsult.
16/01/1635
Mariana de Jesús Torres, Spanish nun and mystic (born 1563)
Mariana Francisca de Jesús Torres y Berriochoa OIC,, was an abbess of the Conceptionist Monastery of Quito from 1594 to 1635.
16/01/1595
Murad III, Ottoman sultan (born 1546)
Murad III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595.
16/01/1585
Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral and politician (born 1512)
Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, KG was an English landowner, peer, and Lord High Admiral. He rendered valuable service to four of the Tudor monarchs.
16/01/1554
Christiern Pedersen, Danish publisher and scholar (born 1480)
Christiern Pedersen was a Danish canon, humanist scholar, writer, printer and publisher.
16/01/1547
Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (born 1477)
Johannes Schöner was a German polymath. It is best to refer to him using the usual 16th-century Latin term "mathematicus", as the areas of study to which he devoted his life were very different from those now considered to be the domain of the mathematician. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe and scientific instrument maker and editor and publisher of scientific texts. In his own time he enjoyed a Europe-wide reputation as an innovative and influential globe maker and cosmographer and as one of the continent's leading and most authoritative astrologers. Today he is remembered as an influential pioneer in the history of globe making, and as a man who played a significant role in the events that led up to the publishing of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1543.
16/01/1545
George Spalatin, German priest and reformer (born 1484)
Georg(e) Spalatin was the pseudonym taken by Georg Burkhardt, a German humanist, theologian, reformer, secretary of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as an important figure in the history of the Reformation.
16/01/1443
Erasmo of Narni, Italian mercenary (born 1370)
Erasmo Stefano of Narni, better known by his nickname of Gattamelata, was an Italian condottiero of the Renaissance. He was born in Narni, and served a number of Italian city-states: he began with Braccio da Montone, served the Papal States and Florence, as well as the Republic of Venice in 1434 in the battles with the Visconti of Milan.
16/01/1400
John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, English politician, Lord Great Chamberlain (born 1352)
John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, 1st Earl of Huntingdon of Dartington Hall in Devon, was a half-brother of King Richard II (1377–1399), to whom he remained strongly loyal. He is primarily remembered for being suspected of assisting in the downfall of King Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1355–1397) and then for conspiring against King Richard's first cousin and eventual deposer, Henry Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV (1399–1413).
16/01/1391
Muhammed V of Granada, Nasrid emir (born 1338)
Abu Abdallah Muhammad V, known by the regnal name al-Ghani bi'llah, was the eighth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula.
16/01/1373
Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (born 1342)
Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex, 2nd Earl of Northampton was the son of William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, and Elizabeth de Badlesmere, and grandson of Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, by Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward I. He inherited the Earldom of Hereford after the death of his childless uncle Humphrey de Bohun, 6th Earl of Hereford.
16/01/1354
Joanna of Châtillon, duchess of Athens (born c.1285)
Joanna of Châtillon or Joan, French: Jeanne; was the wife of Walter V of Brienne (1305). She was Duchess of Athens by marriage (1308–1311). She was the daughter of Gaucher V de Châtillon, Constable of France and Isabelle de Dreux. Her paternal grandparents were Gaucher IV de Châtillon and Isabelle de Villehardouin. Her maternal grandparents were Robert de Dreux, Viscount of Chateaudun and Isabelle de Villebéon.
16/01/1327
Nikephoros Choumnos, Byzantine monk, scholar, and politician (born 1250)
Nikephoros Choumnos was a Byzantine scholar and official of the early Palaiologan period, one of the most important figures in the flowering of arts and letters of the so-called "Palaiologan Renaissance". He is notable for his eleven-year tenure as chief minister of emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, his intense intellectual rivalry with fellow scholar and official Theodore Metochites, and for building the monastery of the Theotokos Gorgoepēkoos in Constantinople.
16/01/1289
Buqa, Mongol minister
Buqa was a Mongol lord and chancellor who was instrumental in sweeping Arghun to power as the fourth Il-Khan of Iran in 1284 and became his chief minister (vizier) and advisor, succeeding Shams ad-Din Juvayni whom Arghun had executed in October 1284. Buqa too was executed on Arghun's order in January 1289.
16/01/1263
Shinran Shonin, Japanese founder of the Jodo Shinshu branch of Pure Land Buddhism (born 1173)
Shinran was a key Japanese Buddhist figure of the Kamakura Period who is regarded as the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school of Japanese Buddhism. A pupil of Hōnen, the founder of the Japanese Pure Land movement, Shinran articulated a distinctive Pure Land vision that emphasized faith and absolute reliance on Amida Buddha’s other-power.
16/01/0970
Polyeuctus of Constantinople, Byzantine patriarch (born 956)
Polyeuctus of Constantinople was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (956–970). His orthodox feast is on 5 February.
16/01/0957
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i, Tulunid vizier (born 871)
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i (871–957) was the last important representative of the bureaucratic al-Madhara'i dynasty of fiscal officials. He served as director of finances of Egypt and Syria under the Tulunid dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as becoming vizier for the Tulunid ruler Harun ibn Khumarawayh, and later occupying high office under the Ikhshidids.
16/01/0654
Gao Jifu, Chinese politician and chancellor (born 596)
Gao Feng, better known by his courtesy name Gao Jifu and also posthumously known as Duke Xian of Tiao, was a Chinese official who served as a chancellor during the reigns of the emperors Taizong and Gaozong in the Tang dynasty.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 16th January
Christian feast day: Pope Benjamin (Coptic)
Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria, 38th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark was an Egyptian patriarch and the governor of Egypt. A native Egyptian, he is regarded as one of the greatest patriarchs of the Coptic Church. Benjamin guided the Coptic church through a period of turmoil in Egyptian history that included the fall of Egypt to the Sasanian Empire, followed by Egypt's reconquest under the Byzantines, and finally the Arab Islamic Conquest in 642. After the Arab conquest Pope Benjamin, who was in exile, was allowed to return to Alexandria and resume the patriarchate.
Christian feast day: Berard of Carbio
Berard of Carbio was a thirteenth-century Franciscan friar who was executed in Morocco for attempting to promote Christianity. He and his companions, Peter, Otho, Accursius, and Adjutus, are venerated as Catholic saints and considered the Franciscan Protomartyrs. Expelled from the kingdom twice, they returned each time and continued to preach against Islam. In anger and frustration, the king finally beheaded them.
Christian feast day: Blaise (Armenian Apostolic)
Blaise of Sebaste was a physician and bishop of Sebastea in historical Lesser Armenia who is venerated as a Christian saint and martyr. He is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Christian feast day: Fursey
Saint Fursey was an Irish monk who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia. He reportedly experienced angelic visions of the afterlife. Fursey is one of the Four Comely Saints.
Christian feast day: Joseph Vaz
Joseph Vaz CO was a Oratorian priest and missionary in Dutch Ceylon. Originally from Sancoale in Portuguese Goa, Vaz arrived in Ceylon during the Dutch occupation, a time when the Dutch had banned Catholicism in Ceylon and imposed Calvinism as the official religion after taking control from the Portuguese Empire.
Christian feast day: Honoratus of Arles
Honoratus was the founder of Lérins Abbey who later became an early Archbishop of Arles. He is honored as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Christian feast day: Pope Marcellus I
Pope Marcellus I was the bishop of Rome from May or June 308 to his death on 16 January 309. He succeeded Marcellinus after a considerable interval. Under Maxentius, he was banished from Rome in 309, on account of the tumult caused by the severity of the penances he had imposed on Christians who had lapsed under the recent persecution. He died the same year, being succeeded by Eusebius. His relics are under the altar of San Marcello al Corso in Rome. Since 1969 his feast day, traditionally kept on 16 January by the Catholic Church, is left to local calendars and is no longer inscribed in the General Roman Calendar.
Christian feast day: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Coptic Church)
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God is a feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the aspect of her motherhood of Jesus Christ, whom she had circumcised on the eighth day after his birth in accordance with Levitical Law. Christians see him as the Lord and Son of God.
Christian feast day: Titian of Oderzo
Saint Titian of Oderzo was a 7th-century bishop of Opitergium (Oderzo), in the Province of Treviso.
Christian feast day: Eve of Saint Anthony observed with ritual bonfires in San Bartolomé de Pinares
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets: Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
Christian feast day: January 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
January 15 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 17
National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
Religious Freedom Day commemorates the Virginia General Assembly's adoption of Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. The statute, written by Jefferson in 1777 and shepherded through the legislature by James Madison in 1786, became the basis for the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and led to freedom of religion for all Americans.
Teachers' Day in Thailand and Myanmar
Teachers' Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers. It may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community tone in education. This is one of the most celebrated days and the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days. For example, Argentina has commemorated Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on 11 September as Teachers' Day since 1915. In India, the birthday of the second president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 5 September, is celebrated as Teachers' Day since 1962.
What Happened on 16th January?
56 significant events took place on Sunday, 16th January — stretching from -1458 to 2020. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
16/01/2020
The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate.
Donald Trump, serving as the 45th president of the United States, was impeached for the first time on December 18, 2019; however, he was not removed from office. On that date, the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA.
The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) is a free trade agreement among the United States, Mexico, and Canada, in effect from July 1, 2020. It replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) implemented in 1994. Further, it is sometimes characterized as "NAFTA 2.0", or "New NAFTA", since it largely maintains or updates the provisions of its predecessor. The region including the United States, Mexico, and Canada is one of the world's largest free trade zones, with a population of more than 510 million people and an economy of US$30.997 trillion in nominal GDP – nearly 30 percent of the global economy, and the largest of any trade bloc in the world.
16/01/2018
Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve.
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also referred to as Burma, is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to the northwest, China to the northeast, Laos and Thailand to the east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, while its largest city is Yangon.
16/01/2017
Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 crashes into a residential area near Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people.
Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 was a scheduled international cargo flight operated by ACT Airlines on behalf of Turkish Cargo, from Hong Kong to Istanbul via Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. On 16 January 2017, the Boeing 747-400 flying the route crashed in a residential area while attempting to land in thick fog at Manas International Airport, Bishkek. A total of 39 people – all four crew members on board and 35 residents on the ground – were killed. It was Kyrgyzstan's deadliest plane crash since the crash of Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 in 2008.
16/01/2016
Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.
On 15 January 2016, gunmen armed with heavy weapons attacked the Cappuccino restaurant and the Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. At least 30 people were killed, and 56 wounded; a total of 176 hostages were released after a government counter-attack into the next morning as the siege ended. Three perpetrators were also killed. The nearby YIBI hotel was then under siege, where another attacker was killed. Notably, former Swiss MPs Jean-Noël Rey and Georgie Lamon were killed at a restaurant during the attack. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Mourabitoun.
16/01/2012
The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence.
The Mali War is an ongoing conflict that began on 16 January 2012 with a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali. The rebels included the secular-oriented National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a group fighting for independence or greater autonomy of a region they called Azawad. The MNLA was initially allied with the jihadist Ansar Dine, which, in turn, was allied to other Salafi jihadist organizations such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its splinter, Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA).
16/01/2011
Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism.
The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, which led to a series of defections, the emergence of armed opposition groups, and the civilian uprising descending into a civil war. The war lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the civil war even though clashes have continued into 2026.
16/01/2006
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
Ellen Eugenia Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
16/01/2003
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Enterprise, Columbia retained unique external and internal features compared with later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black chines. In addition to a heavier aft fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made Columbia the heaviest of the five spacefaring orbiters: around 1,000 kilograms heavier than Challenger and 3,600 kilograms heavier than Endeavour when originally constructed. Columbia also carried ejection seats based on those from the SR-71 during its first six flights until 1983, and from 1986 onwards carried an imaging pod on its vertical stabilizer.
16/01/2002
War in Afghanistan: The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with an invasion by a United States–led coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11 attacks (9/11) carried out by the Taliban-allied and Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda. The Taliban were expelled from major population centers by American-led forces supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, thus toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate. In 2004, the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic was established, but by then, the Taliban, led by founder Mullah Omar, had reorganized and begun an insurgency against the Afghan government and coalition forces. The conflict ended as the 2021 Taliban offensive reestablished the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in United States military history, surpassing the Vietnam War by six months.
16/01/2001
Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa.
The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted when Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda, who had helped him seize power. The conflict expanded as Kabila rallied a coalition of other countries to his defense. The war drew in nine African nations and approximately 25 armed groups, making it one of the largest wars in African history.
US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.
William Jefferson Clinton is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party history.
16/01/1998
In Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala, thirteen American students on a school trip are attacked and robbed at gunpoint; five were raped.
Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa is a city and a municipality in the Escuintla department of Guatemala. It covers an area of approximately 529.8 km2 (204.6 sq mi). As per 2023 estimates, it has a population of about 129,473 inhabitants.
16/01/1995
An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died.
The 1995 Súðavík avalanche was an avalanche that struck the small fishing village of Súðavík in Iceland’s Westfjords on 16 January 1995, killing 14 people, including eight children, and injuring twelve. The disaster, along with the avalanche that killed 20 in Flateyri later in the year, had a profound effect on the nation and sparked a massive buildup of avalanche dams to protect towns in danger zones.
16/01/1992
El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. El Salvador's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million.
16/01/1991
Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. Located within the Middle East, it is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Jordan to the southwest, and Syria to the west. The country covers an area of 438,317 square kilometres (169,235 sq mi) and has a population of over 46 million, making it the 58th largest country by area and the 31st most populous in the world. Baghdad, home to over 8 million people, is the capital city and the largest in the country.
16/01/1984
A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a particle accelerator. Detectors can measure the particle energy and other attributes such as momentum, spin, charge, particle type, in addition to merely registering the presence of the particle.
16/01/1983
Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20.
Turkish Airlines Flight 158 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport to Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Turkey. On 16 January 1983, the aircraft operating the flight, a Boeing 727-200, landed about 50 metres (160 ft) short of the runway at its destination airport in driving snow, broke up, and caught fire. Of the 67 occupants on board, 47 died.
16/01/1979
Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamist cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.
16/01/1969
Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.
Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard to intercontinental ballistic missile and satellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic landers to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
16/01/1959
Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51.
Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 was a regularly scheduled domestic Austral Líneas Aéreas flight operating a route between Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata in Argentina that crashed after encountering poor weather conditions during landing on 16 January 1959, killing 51 of the 52 passengers and crew on board. At the time, the crash was the second-worst accident in Argentine aviation history and is currently the sixth-worst involving a Curtiss C-46 Commando.
16/01/1945
World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
16/01/1942
The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Chełmno extermination camp.
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were committed primarily through mass shootings across Eastern Europe and poison gas chambers in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno and Majdanek death camps in occupied Poland. Concurrent Nazi persecutions killed millions of other non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to include the murder and persecution of non-Jewish groups, such as the Romani and Soviet POWs.
Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.
TWA Flight 3 was a twin-engine Douglas DC-3-382 propliner, registration NC1946, operated by Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York, New York, to Burbank, California, in the United States, via several stopovers including Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 16, 1942, at 19:20 PST, fifteen minutes after takeoff from Las Vegas Airport bound for Burbank, the aircraft was destroyed when it crashed into a sheer cliff on Potosi Mountain, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of the airport, at an elevation of 7,770 ft (2,370 m) above sea level. All 22 people on board, including movie star Carole Lombard and her mother, Clark Gable's press agent Otto Winkler, three crew members, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers died in the crash. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and determined that the cause was a navigation error by the captain.
16/01/1921
The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.
The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine was a political organisation in eastern parts of the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was one of the forerunners of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
16/01/1920
The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.
The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. The main organisation ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations (UN) which was created in the aftermath of the Second World War. The League of Nations was the precursor organisation to the United Nations.
16/01/1919
Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later.
Nebraska is a triple-landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Wyoming to the west; Colorado to the southwest; Kansas to the south; and Missouri to the southeast and Iowa to the east, both across the Missouri River. Nebraska is the 16th-largest state by land area, with just over 77,347 square miles (200,330 km2). As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,961,504, and was estimated to be 2,018,006 in 2025, it is the 38th-most populous state and the eighth-least densely populated. Nebraska's capital is Lincoln, and its most populous city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River.
16/01/1913
Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results.
Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar was an Indian mathematician who worked during the early 20th century. He made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable.
16/01/1909
Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
16/01/1900
The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.
16/01/1883
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress.
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage.
16/01/1878
Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition led by the Russian Empire which included Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Precipitating factors included the Russian goals of recovering territorial losses endured during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, re-establishing itself in the Black Sea and supporting the political movement attempting to free Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire.
16/01/1862
Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.
The Hartley Colliery disaster was a coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, that occurred on 16 January 1862 and resulted in the deaths of 204 men and children. The beam of the pit's pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below. The disaster prompted a change in British law that required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.
16/01/1847
Westward expansion of the United States: John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
The United States of America was formed after thirteen British colonies in North America declared independence from the British Empire on July 4, 1776. In the Lee Resolution, passed by the Second Continental Congress two days prior, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent states. The union was formalized in the Articles of Confederation, which came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states. Their independence was recognized by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which concluded the American Revolutionary War. This extended the borders of the new nation westward past the Proclamation Line to the Mississippi River. This land was organized into territories and then states, though there remained some conflict with the sea-to-sea grants claimed by some of the original colonies. In time, these grants were ceded to the federal government.
16/01/1809
Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).
16/01/1786
Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. It borders Kentucky to the west, Tennessee to the south-west, North Carolina to the south, West Virginia to the north-west, and Maryland to the north. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. With a population of 8.8 million, it is the 12th-most populous and 15th-most densely populated state. More than one-third of Virginia's population lives in Northern Virginia, which includes the most populous jurisdiction in the state, Fairfax County.
16/01/1780
American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.
16/01/1757
Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. For most of its existence, it comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former and nominal loyalty to the Chhatrapatis who were successors of Shivaji.
16/01/1716
King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain.
Philip V was king of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724 and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign is the longest in the history of the Spanish monarchy, surpassing Philip IV. Although his ascent to the throne precipitated the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V instigated many important reforms in Spain, most especially the centralization of power of the monarchy and the suppression of regional privileges, via the Nueva Planta decrees, and restructuring of the administration of the Spanish Empire on the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas regions.
16/01/1707
The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
The Parliament of Scotland, also known as the Estates of Scotland, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council of bishops and earls, with the first identifiable parliament being held in 1235 during the reign of Alexander II, when it already possessed a political and judicial role.
16/01/1641
Reapers' War: The Junta de Braços (parliamentary assembly) of the Principality of Catalonia accepts the proposal of establishment of the Catalan Republic, under French protection.
The Reapers' War, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–1659. Incited by an unrest among the Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, the war resulted in the establishment of the short-lived Catalan Republic and the subsequent clash of Spanish and French armies on Catalan soil for over a decade.
16/01/1605
The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.
Don Quixote, the full title being The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best novel of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time. The novel is a satire of chivalric romances and literary conventions of the time.
16/01/1572
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried and found guilty of treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk,, was an English Roman Catholic nobleman and politician. He was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I and held many high offices during the earlier part of her reign.
16/01/1556
Philip II becomes King of Spain.
Philip II, sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent, was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. Further, he was Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
16/01/1547
Grand Prince Ivan IV of Russia is crowned as Tsar of all Russia.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy.
16/01/1537
Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection attempting to resist the English Reformation, begins.
Bigod's rebellion of January 1537 was an armed rebellion by English Catholics in Cumberland and Westmorland against King Henry VIII and the English Reformation Parliament. It was led by Sir Francis Bigod, of Settrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
16/01/1362
Saint Marcellus's flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.
Saint Marcellus's flood or Grote Mandrenke was an intense extratropical cyclone, coinciding with a new moon, which swept across the British Isles, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark around 16 January 1362, causing at least 25,000 deaths. The storm tide is also called the "Second St. Marcellus flood" because it peaked on 16 January, the feast day of St. Marcellus. A previous "First St. Marcellus flood" had drowned 36,000 people along the coasts of West Friesland and Groningen on 16 January 1219.
16/01/1349
Basel Massacre: Dozens to hundreds of Jews were burned to death by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death.
The Basel Massacre was an anti-Semitic massacre in Basel, which occurred in 1349 in connection with alleged well poisoning as part of the Black Death persecutions, carried out against the Jews in Europe at the time of the Black Death. A number of Jews, variously given as between 300 and 600 or 50 to 70 were burned alive, after being locked in a wooden structure built on a nearby island in the Rhine. Jewish children were apparently spared, but forcibly baptized and sent to monasteries. The event occurred on January 9.
16/01/1275
Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester.
Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as the Lord Edward.
16/01/1120
Crusades: The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Crusades were a series of military campaigns launched by the papacy between 1095 and 1291 against Muslim rulers for the recovery and defence of the Holy Land, as part of a wider crusading movement. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in November 1095—a call to arms for Christians to reconquer Jerusalem from the Muslims, with promises of spiritual reward. By this time, the papacy's position as head of the Catholic Church had strengthened, and earlier conflicts with secular rulers and wars on the frontiers of Western Christendom had prepared it for the direction of armed force in religious causes. The successes of the First Crusade led to the establishment of four Crusader states in the Levant, where their defence required further expeditions from Catholic Europe. The organisation of such large-scale campaigns demanded complex religious, social, and economic institutions, including crusade indulgences, military orders, and the taxation of clerical income. Over time, the crusading movement expanded to include campaigns against pagans, Christian dissidents, and other enemies of the papacy, promoted with similar spiritual rewards and continuing into the 18th century.
16/01/0929
Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III establishes the Caliphate of Córdoba.
Emir, also transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial authority. The title has a history of use in West Asia, East Africa, North Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. In the modern era, when used as a formal monarchical title, it is roughly synonymous with "prince", applicable both to a son of a hereditary monarch, and to a reigning monarch of a sovereign principality, namely an emirate. The feminine form is emira, with the same meaning as "princess".
16/01/0550
The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people who, in the 5th and 6th centuries, established one of the two major Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire. They drew on large Gothic populations settled in the Balkans since the 4th century and rose to prominence under Theodoric the Great, who in 493 founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy after defeating Odoacer.
16/01/0378
General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.
Siyaj Kʼakʼ, also known as Fire is Born, was a prominent political figure mentioned in the glyphs of Classic Period (250–800 CE) Maya civilization monuments, principally Tikal, as well as Uaxactun and the city of Copan. Epigraphers originally identified him by the nickname "Smoking Frog", a description of his name glyph, but later deciphered it as Siyaj Kʼakʼ, meaning "Fire is born". He is believed by some to have been the general of the Teotihuacano ruler Spearthrower Owl.
01/01/1970
Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.
Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The principate, a style of government where the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate, was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.
16/01/-1458
Hatshepsut dies at the age of 50 and is buried in the Valley of the Kings.
Hatshepsut was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from c. 1479 BC until c. 1458 BC and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second confirmed woman who ruled in her own right, the first being Sobekneferu/Neferusobek in the Twelfth Dynasty.