Wednesday, 16th July 2025 in London

16th July in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer

Today, the zodiac sign Cancer celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on July 16 blend deep emotional intelligence with transformative power. The Moon grants them strong intuition and empathy, while Pluto's influence adds magnetic intensity. These individuals are contemplative, mysterious, and profoundly emotionally aware.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in emotional depth, protectiveness, and psychological insight. They calm others naturally. Weaknesses include emotional oversensitivity and tendency to ruminate on hidden motives and darker possibilities.

Love In relationships, they're passionately loyal and crave deep emotional connection. They need trust and psychological safety. These partners love intensely but can become manipulative when wounded or betrayed.

Caree & Finance They excel in psychology, therapy, or creative fields where intuition matters. They instinctively understand unconscious processes. Financially cautious, they build strategic wealth through emotional discipline and long-term thinking.

Health These individuals should release emotional tension through relaxation or water-based activities. Mental health requires more attention than physical. Stress relief through trusted people and private spaces proves essential.

That night, the moon was in its waxing crescent phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 16th July

Name Days in Your Language: Carmel, Carmela, Carmelo, Carmen, Shelby, Sherman, Sherwood

Someone born on this day would be just 322 days old today — roughly 7,737 hours, 464,262 minutes, or 27,855,723 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 197. day of the year. In 2025, 16th July falls on a Wednesday.

There are 168 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 29 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 16th July

On this day, 216 notable people were born on 16th July — spanning from 1194 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

16/07/2004

Amiah Miller, American actress and model

Amiah Miller is an American actress and model. She starred in the 2017 film War for the Planet of the Apes. She also appears in the TV series Henry Danger, Best Friends Whenever, MacGyver, and The Madison.

16/07/2001

Island Boys, American social media personalities

Alex and Franky Venegas, known as Flyysoulja and Kodiyakredd respectively, and collectively as the Island Boys, are two American twin brothers who became popular on the video sharing platform TikTok in 2021. The brothers are based in Coral Springs, Florida. They went viral with their song "I'm an Island Boy".

16/07/1999

Jarred Kelenic, American baseball player

Jarred Robert Kelenic is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago White Sox. He was drafted in the first round of the 2018 MLB draft by the New York Mets and was traded to the Mariners later that year. He made his MLB debut in 2021 with the Mariners. Seattle traded him to Atlanta after the 2023 season.

16/07/1996

Kevin Abstract, American rapper and singer-songwriter

Clifford Ian Fernando Simpson, known by his stage name Kevin Abstract, is an American rapper, singer, and producer, best known as the founder and de facto leader of hip-hop group Brockhampton. With Brockhampton, Abstract released eight studio albums from 2017 to 2022. He has released solo work since 2009, and self-released his debut albums MTV1987 (2014) and American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story (2016) to significant attention from online blogs and music publications. He made his major label debut with Arizona Baby in 2019. After Brockhampton disbanded in 2022, he released Blanket (2023) and a mixtape, Glue (2024). His fifth studio album, Blush, was released on June 27, 2025.

Luke Hemmings, Australian singer and musician

Luke Robert Hemmings is an Australian singer and musician, best known for being the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and a founding member of the pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer. Since 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer have sold more than 10 million albums, sold over two million concert tickets worldwide, and the band's songs streams surpass 7 billion, making them one of the most successful Australian musical exports in history.

16/07/1994

Shericka Jackson, Jamaican sprinter

Shericka Jackson is a Jamaican sprinter competing in the 60 m, 100 m, 200 m, and 400 metres. In the 100 m, she is the sixth fastest woman of all time, while in the 200 m, she is the second fastest woman in history.

16/07/1992

Safiya Nygaard, American YouTuber

Safiya Jaffer Nygaard is an American YouTuber and social media personality. She first gained prominence through her work with BuzzFeed on the series LadyLike. She later launched her own YouTube channel and is now known for her solo content, such as her “Bad Makeup Science” series.

16/07/1991

Dylan Grimes, Australian Rules footballer

Dylan Grimes is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a three-time premiership player with the club, winning in 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2019 he was selected in the All-Australian team and was the recipient of the AFL Players Association's Robert Rose Most Courageous Player Award. Grimes was announced as co-captain alongside Toby Nankervis ahead of the 2022 season.

Nate Schmidt, American ice hockey player

Nathan Thomas Schmidt is an American professional ice hockey player who is a defenseman for the Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Washington Capitals, Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets and Florida Panthers.

Andros Townsend, English footballer

Andros Darryl Townsend is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Thai League 1 club Kanchanaburi Power.

16/07/1990

James Maslow, American actor, singer and dancer

James David Maslow is an American actor, singer, dancer and model. He played the role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush, had roles in The Frozen Ground and Seeds of Yesterday, and is a member of the boyband Big Time Rush.

Wizkid, Nigerian singer and songwriter

Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Born in the Ojuelegba suburb of Surulere, Lagos Nigeria, Wizkid is a voice in the emerging Afrobeats movement. His music is a blend of Afrobeats, afropop, R&B, afrobeat, reggae, dancehall, and pop. He began recording music at the age of 11 and released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five, a group he and a few of his church friends formed. In 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W's Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E). He gained recognition after releasing a hit called "Holla at Your Boy", the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar (2011), which also spawned the singles "Tease Me/Bad Guys" and "Don't Dull".

Johann Zarco, French motorcycle racer

Johann Sylvain Pierre Zarco is a French Grand Prix motorcycle racer, best known for winning the 2015 and 2016 Moto2 World Championships with his 2015 triumph being a record points total for the intermediate class. He is a MotoGP race winner, and currently rides for Castrol Honda LCR in MotoGP.

16/07/1989

Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer

Gareth Frank Bale is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a right winger, most notably for Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, and the Wales national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players of his generation and the greatest Welsh player of all time. Bale was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for his contributions to association football and various charities.

16/07/1988

Sergio Busquets, Spanish footballer

Sergio Busquets Burgos is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder and spent most of his career at La Liga club Barcelona. A deep-lying playmaker known for his passing and reading of the game, Busquets is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive midfielders of all time.

16/07/1987

Mousa Dembélé, Belgian footballer

Moussa Sidi Yaya Dembélé, known as Mousa Dembélé, is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.

AnnaLynne McCord, American actress and producer

AnnaLynne McCord is an American actress and model. Known for playing vixen-type roles, she first gained prominence in 2007 as the scheming Eden Lord on Nip/Tuck, and as the pampered Loren Wakefield on American Heiress. From 2008 to 2013, she was on 90210 as Naomi Clark. In 2024, she joined the cast of Days of Our Lives, receiving a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series.

Knowshon Moreno, American football player

Knowshon Rockwell Moreno is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, earning first-team All-American honors in 2008. He was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. He also played for the Miami Dolphins.

16/07/1986

Misako Uno, Japanese actress, singer, and fashion designer

Misako Uno is a Japanese Tarento, artist, actress, essayist and talent agent best known as a lead vocalist and dancer of the performing arts group AAA. She is also the Middle manager of Avex Group, advertising manager of SHUFU TO SEIKATSU SHA (主婦と生活社) and public fasting Consultant of Japan Enzyme Hydrogen Medical Beauty Society (日本酵素・水素医療美容学会). Her feature film debut as an actress was in the 2006 Hollywood horror film, The Grudge 2, as Miyuki.

16/07/1985

Mārtiņš Kravčenko, Latvian basketball player

Mārtiņš Kravčenko is a Latvian professional basketball player who plays the guard position and plays for Latvian Basketball League club BK Jēkabpils. Most of his career he spent at BK Barons which in 2008 won the Latvian Basketball League and FIBA EuroCup championships.

16/07/1984

Hayanari Shimoda, Japanese racing driver

Hayanari Shimoda is a Japanese racing driver.

Attila Szabó, Hungarian decathlete

Attila Szabó is a male decathlete from Hungary. He twice won the men's national title in the decathlon: 2007 and 2009.

16/07/1983

Katrina Kaif, British Indian actress and model

Katrina Kaif is a British actress and businesswoman who works in Hindi-language films. One of India's highest-paid actresses, her accolades include four Screen Awards and four Zee Cine Awards, alongside three Filmfare Awards nominations. Although critical reception to her acting has varied, she is noted for her roles in action films and her dancing ability.

Duncan Keith, Canadian ice hockey player

Duncan Keith is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers. He won three Stanley Cup championships with Chicago in 2010, 2013, and 2015. In 2017, Keith was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.

16/07/1982

André Greipel, German cyclist

André Greipel is a German cyclist, who rode professionally in road bicycle racing between 2005 and 2021. Since his retirement from road racing, Greipel has worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental teams Saris Rouvy Sauerland Team and P&S Benotti, and in 2023, he became the national road coach for the German Cycling Federation. He also competes in masters cycling events for RC Schmitter Köln.

Carli Lloyd, American soccer player

Carli Anne Hollins is an American former professional soccer player. She won the 2015 and 2019 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup with the United States, finished second at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, and scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 Olympics and the 2012 Olympics. She also won the bronze medal with the U.S. at the 2020 Olympics. She was named FIFA Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016.

Michael Umaña, Costa Rican footballer

Míchael Umaña Corrales is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a defender. He made over 100 appearances for the Costa Rica national team.

16/07/1981

Giuseppe Di Masi, Italian footballer

Giuseppe Adriano Di Masi is an Italian football coach and a former goalkeeper.

Robert Kranjec, Slovenian ski jumper

Robert Kranjec is a Slovenian former ski jumper.

Zach Randolph, American basketball player

Zachary McKenley Randolph is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Z-Bo", the 2-time NBA All-Star played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans before being drafted in the 2001 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. He played for five teams over the course of his professional career, winning the NBA Most Improved Player award with the Portland Trail Blazers and making the All-NBA Third Team in 2011 with the Memphis Grizzlies. He also played with the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings before retiring in December 2019.

Vicente Rodríguez, Spanish footballer

Vicente Rodríguez Guillén, known simply as Vicente, nicknamed El puñal de Benicalap, is a Spanish former professional footballer.

16/07/1980

Adam Scott, Australian golfer

Adam Derek Scott is an Australian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He has won one major championship, the 2013 Masters Tournament.

16/07/1979

Jayma Mays, American actress

Jamia Suzette "Jayma" Mays is an American actress. She is known for playing Emma Pillsbury in the Fox musical series Glee (2009–2015) and for her starring roles in the films Red Eye (2005), Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) and The Smurfs (2011). She is also known for portraying Debbie in the sitcom The Millers (2013–2014) and her recurring role as Charlie Andrews on the NBC sci-fi series Heroes (2006–2010). Mays starred as prosecutor Carol Anne Keane in the NBC sitcom Trial & Error (2017–2018).

Chris Mihm, American basketball player

Christopher Steven Mihm is an American former professional basketball player who played nine seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for the Texas Longhorns, the center was drafted with the seventh overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.

Kim Rhode, American sport shooter

Kimberly Susan Rhode is an American double trap and skeet shooter. A California native, she is a six-time Olympic medal winner, including three gold medals, and six-time national champion in double trap. She is the most successful female shooter at the Olympics as the only triple Olympic Champion and the only woman to have won two Olympic gold medals for Double Trap. She won a gold medal in skeet shooting at the 2012 Summer Olympics, equaling the world record of 99 out of 100 clays. Most recently, she won the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, making her the first Olympian to win a medal on five continents, the first Summer Olympian to win an individual medal at six consecutive summer games, and the first woman to medal in six consecutive Olympics.

Konstantin Skrylnikov, Russian footballer

Konstantin Yevgenyevich Skrylnikov is a former Russian professional footballer.

16/07/1977

Bryan Budd, Northern Ireland-born English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (died 2006)

Bryan James Budd, was a British Army soldier and a Northern Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

16/07/1976

Tomasz Kuchar, Polish racing driver

Tomasz Józef Kuchar is a Polish rally and rallycross driver - Polish Rallycross Champion 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

Bobby Lashley, American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

Franklin Roberto "Bobby" Lashley is an American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of The Hurt Syndicate and is formerly one-half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions with stablemate Shelton Benjamin. He is best known for his tenures in WWE, while also being known for his tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). As a mixed martial artist, Lashley competed for Bellator MMA and Strikeforce.

Carlos Humberto Paredes, Paraguayan footballer

Carlos Humberto Paredes Monges is a Paraguayan coach and former footballer. He is the current manager of Independiente FBC.

Anna Smashnova, Belarusian-Israeli tennis player

Anna Aleksandrovna Smashnova is a Soviet-born Israeli former tennis player. She retired from professional tour after Wimbledon 2007.

16/07/1974

Maret Maripuu, Estonian politician, Estonian Minister of Social Affairs

Maret Maripuu is an Estonian politician, a member of the Reform Party.

Wendell Sailor, Australian rugby player

Wendell Jermaine Sailor is an Australian former professional rugby footballer who represented his country in both rugby league and rugby union – a dual code international.

16/07/1973

João Dias, Portuguese politician

João Manuel Ildefonso Dias is a Portuguese politician and former member of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. A communist, he represented Beja from March 2018 to March 2024.

Shaun Pollock, South African cricketer

Shaun Maclean Pollock is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who was captain in all formats of the game. A bowling all-rounder, Pollock along with Allan Donald formed a bowling partnership for many years. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2003. Pollock was a member of the South Africa team that won the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the first ICC trophy the country has won.

Tim Ryan, American politician

Timothy John Ryan is an American politician who represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Ohio's 13th congressional district from 2013 to 2023, having previously represented Ohio's 17th congressional district from 2003 to 2013. Ryan's district encompassed a large swath of northeastern Ohio, including Youngstown and parts of Akron. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio.

16/07/1972

François Drolet, Canadian speed skater

François Louis Drolet is a Canadian short track speed skater who competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

16/07/1971

Corey Feldman, American actor

Corey Scott Feldman is an American actor, activist, and musician. As a youth, he became well known for his roles in popular 1980s films such as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985) and Stand by Me (1986). Feldman collaborated with Corey Haim starring in numerous films such as the comedy horror The Lost Boys (1987), the teen comedy License to Drive (1988) and the romantic comedy Dream a Little Dream (1989). They reunited for the A&E reality series The Two Coreys, which ran from 2007 to 2008.

Ed Kowalczyk, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Ed Kowalczyk is an American singer, songwriter, musician who is the lead singer of the rock band Live. He launched a solo career after leaving Live in 2009, releasing his first album, Alive, in 2010. He rejoined Live in December 2016.

16/07/1970

Raimonds Miglinieks, Latvian basketball player and coach

Raimonds Miglinieks is a Latvian former professional basketball player and coach. Standing at a height of 1.90 m tall, he was a point guard with excellent court vision.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thai director, producer, and screenwriter

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong has directed several features and dozens of short films. Friends and fans sometimes refer to him as "Joe".

Serena Chen, American social psychologist

Serena Chen is an American social psychologist known for her work on the self and interpersonal relationships. She is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently serves as Chair of the Psychology Department. Her research utilizes a social-cognition framework, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other news outlets.

16/07/1969

Sahra Wagenknecht, German politician

Sahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2025, where she represented The Left until 2023. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, Wagenknecht left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her own Eurosceptic, populist party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which unsuccessfully contested the 2025 federal election, narrowly failing the 5% threshold. Since 2025, she no longer holds any public office.

Kathryn Harby-Williams, Australian netball player and sportscaster

Kathryn Harby-Williams is an Australian netball player and television presenter, who captained the Australian netball team. She is the Chief Executive Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of the Australian Netball Players’ Association.

16/07/1968

Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player and manager

Dhanraj Pillay is a retired Indian field hockey player and former captain of the India national team. He also looks after the Air India Sports Promotion Board as a Joint Secretary based in Mumbai. For the last 5 years, Dhanraj is overseeing the SAG Hockey Academy in Gujarat funded by the Gujarat Government. He is widely regarded as one of the best Indian players of hockey.

Barry Sanders, American football player

Barry David Sanders is an American former professional football running back who played for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and in rushing touchdowns once. Standing at 5 ft. 8 in. tall and weighing 200 lbs., he established himself as one of the most elusive runners in the history of the NFL with his quickness and agility. Sanders played college football for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Larry Sanger, American philosopher and businessman, co-founded Wikipedia and Citizendium

Lawrence Mark Sanger is an American Internet project developer and philosopher who co-founded Wikipedia, along with Jimmy Wales. Sanger coined the name Wikipedia and provided initial drafts for many of its early guidelines, including the "Neutral point of view" and "Ignore all rules" policies. Prior to Wikipedia, he was the editor-in-chief of Nupedia, another online encyclopedia and the predecessor of Wikipedia. He later worked on other encyclopedic projects, including Encyclopedia of Earth, Citizendium, and Everipedia, and advised the nonprofit American political encyclopedia Ballotpedia. Sanger's other interests include theology and philosophy such as epistemology, early modern philosophy, and ethics. He taught philosophy at Ohio State University.

Robert Sherman, American songwriter and businessman

Robert Jason Sherman, known as Robbie Sherman, is an American songwriter based in London. He was born in Los Angeles to Joyce and Robert B. Sherman, the youngest of four siblings. Stemming from a long line of songwriters and composers, spanning more than four generations, at 16 Sherman became one of the youngest songwriters ever invited to join BMI and is an alum of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He is perhaps best known for his work on Love Birds: The Musical, which premiered at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Olga Souza, Brazilian singer and dancer

Olga Maria de Souza is a Brazilian and naturalized-Italian singer, model and dancer. She is best known as the frontwoman of the Italian group Corona, produced by Francesco "Checco" Bontempi, a.k.a. "Lee Marrow".

16/07/1967

Will Ferrell, American actor, comedian, and producer

John William Ferrell is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for his leading man roles in comedy films and for his work as a television producer. Ferrell has received various accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards and a British Academy Television Award, in addition to nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and for a Tony Award. In 2011, Ferrell was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2015, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named the year's best comedian in British GQ.

16/07/1966

Jyrki Lumme, Finnish ice hockey player

Jyrki Olavi Lumme is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and SM-liiga. After beginning his career in Finland, playing with Ilves Tampere for three seasons, he moved to North America to join the Montreal Canadiens in 1988. The Canadiens had selected Lumme two years prior in the 1986 NHL entry draft 57th overall. In his second NHL season, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks, with whom he spent the majority of his career and enjoyed the most success. Over nine seasons with the Canucks, Lumme was named the club's annual top defenceman on four occasions, became the team's all-time top goal- and point-scoring defenceman, and was a part of the squad's run to the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. Towards the end of his NHL career, he additionally played for the Phoenix Coyotes, Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs over the span of five seasons. In 2005, Lumme returned to Ilves Tampere of the SM-liiga after a two-year playing hiatus. He played two final campaigns in Finland before retiring, at which point he became a part-owner of Ilves Tampere.

16/07/1965

Michel Desjoyeaux, French sailor

Michel Desjoyeaux is a French sailor, known for competing successfully in several long-distance single-handed races. He won the Vendée Globe race in 2000-01 and 2008–09, making him the only person to win that race more than once. In 2014–15, he was watch captain, on leg 1 on Mapfre in the Volvo Ocean Race. He was born in Concarneau.

Claude Lemieux, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2026)

Claude Percy Lemieux was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played as a right winger for 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with six teams between 1983 and 2009. Lemieux won four Stanley Cup championships during his career, including two with the New Jersey Devils, with whom he won the Conn Smythe Trophy during the team's victory in the 1995 Stanley Cup Final. He was one of 11 players to win a Stanley Cup championship with at least three different teams. He was also known as one of the greatest playoff performers, with his 80 career playoff goals ranking as the ninth most in NHL history. He was also known throughout his career as an aggressor, agitator, and enforcer.

Billy Mitchell, American video game player

William James Mitchell Jr. is an American video game player. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he was recognized for numerous records on classic video games before disputes arose over their legitimacy beginning in 2018. Mitchell has also appeared in several documentaries on competitive gaming and retrogaming.

16/07/1964

Phil Hellmuth, American poker player

Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won a record seventeen World Series of Poker bracelets, the majority in no-limit hold'em. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and he is a 2007 inductee of the WSOP's Poker Hall of Fame. He is the only player in poker history to have won a WSOP bracelet in 5 different decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tournament players in history.

Miguel Induráin, Spanish cyclist

Miguel Induráin Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. Induráin won five Tours de France from 1991 to 1995, the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five-time winner to achieve those victories consecutively.

16/07/1963

Phoebe Cates, American actress

Phoebe Belle Cates Kline is an American businesswoman and retired actress and model. She appeared in the films Paradise (1982), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Gremlins (1984), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Princess Caraboo (1994). In 2005, she founded the Blue Tree boutique.

Srečko Katanec, Slovenian footballer and coach

Srečko Katanec is a Slovenian retired football manager and player. At international level, he was capped for both the Yugoslavia and Slovenia national teams.

Mikael Pernfors, Swedish tennis player

Mikael Pernfors is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1986, and won the 1993 Canadian Open in Montreal.

16/07/1962

Grigory Leps, Russian singer-songwriter

Grigory Viktorovich Lepsveridze, known as Grigory Leps, is a Russian singer-songwriter of Georgian origin. His musical style gradually changed from Russian chanson in his early years to soft rock recently. He is known for his low, strong baritone voice. People's Artist of Russia (2022). Grigory Leps reported the highest income of all singers in Russia in 2013 with $15 million, 2014 with $12 million and 2015 with $12.2 million.

16/07/1959

James MacMillan, Scottish composer and conductor

Sir James Loy MacMillan, is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.

Jürgen Ligi, Estonian economist and politician, 25th Estonian Minister of Defence

Jürgen Ligi is an Estonian politician, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a member and the vice-chairman of the liberal Reform Party. He was Minister of Education and Research in Taavi Rõivas' cabinet from 9 April 2015 to 12 September 2016. Previously, Ligi has served as the Minister of Defence from 2005 to 2007 and as the Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2014.

16/07/1958

Mick Cornett, American politician

Michael Earl Cornett Sr. is an American politician and former television personality who served as the 35th mayor of Oklahoma City, from 2005 until 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he was only the fourth mayor in Oklahoma City history to be elected to three terms and the first to be elected to four terms.

Michael Flatley, American-Irish dancer and choreographer

Michael Ryan Flatley is an American and Irish former professional performer and choreographer of Irish dance. Flatley is credited with reinventing traditional Irish dance by incorporating new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movements, which were previously absent from the dance. He created and performed in Irish dance shows Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, Celtic Tiger Live and Michael Flatley's Christmas Dance Spectacular. Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries and have grossed more than $1 billion. He has also been an actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and philanthropist.

16/07/1957

Faye Grant, American actress

Faye Grant is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Julie Parrish in NBC's science fiction series V between 1983 and 1985.

Maurice Kottelat, Swiss ichthyologist specializing in Eurasian freshwater fishes

Maurice Kottelat is a Swiss ichthyologist specializing in Eurasian freshwater fishes.

16/07/1956

Tony Kushner, American playwright and screenwriter

Anthony Robert Kushner is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Among his stage work, he is most known for Angels in America, which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, as well as its subsequent acclaimed HBO miniseries of the same name. At the turn of the 21st century, he became known for his numerous film collaborations with Steven Spielberg. He received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013. Kushner is among the few writers in history nominated for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

16/07/1955

Susan Wheeler, American poet and academic

Susan Wheeler is an educator and award-winning poet whose poems have frequently appeared in anthologies. She is currently Professor Emerita at Princeton University. She has also taught at University of Iowa, NYU, Rutgers, Columbia University and The New School.

Saw Swee Leong, Malaysian badminton player

Saw Swee Leong is a former Malaysian professional badminton player.

16/07/1953

Douglas J. Feith, American lawyer and politician, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Douglas Jay Feith is an American lawyer who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from July 2001 until August 2005. He is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

16/07/1952

Stewart Copeland, American drummer and songwriter

Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician and composer who was the drummer of the English rock band the Police. Before the Police, he played drums with the progressive rock band Curved Air (1975–76).

Marc Esposito, French director and screenwriter

Marc Esposito is a French film director and screenwriter. Esposito was first a journalist, critic and press manager. He created two movie magazines: Premiere with Jean-Pierre Frimbois in 1976, and Studio Magazine in 1987. His film Patrick Dewaere was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. He directed the film Le Coeur des Hommes in 2003 and its two sequels. Since Mon Pote in 2010, Esposito is also a producer, with its company: Wayan Productions.

Ken McEwan, South African cricketer

Kenneth Scott McEwan, is a South African-Scottish retired cricketer and businessman who played principally for Eastern Province and Essex.

16/07/1951

Jean-Luc Mongrain, Canadian journalist

Jean-Luc Mongrain is a Canadian journalist, television host and news anchor. He was the news anchor of his own show called Mongrain on LCN until 2012.

Che Rosli, Malaysian politician

Che Rosli bin Che Mat is a Malaysian politician. He was the Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Hulu Langat constituency in Selangor for two terms (2008-2018). He is a member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

16/07/1950

Gary Indiana, American writer, playwright and poet (died 2024)

Gary Hoisington, known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the Village Voice weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best known for his classic American true-crime trilogy, Resentment, Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story, and Depraved Indifference, chronicling the less permanent state of "depraved indifference" that characterized American life at the millennium's end. Former Artforum editor David Velasco called him "the greatest living writer."

Pierre Paradis, Canadian lawyer and politician

Pierre Paradis is a politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He represented Brome-Missisquoi in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1980 to 2018. A member of the Liberal Party, he served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Robert Bourassa, Daniel Johnson Jr. and Philippe Couillard.

Dennis Priestley, English darts player

Dennis Priestley is an English former professional darts player who competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is a two-time world champion, and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC world championships, in 1991 and 1994 respectively. He was nicknamed "the Menace", after the Beano character Dennis the Menace, and reflected this by wearing red and black and using red and black flights.

Frances Spalding, English historian and academic

Frances Spalding is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.

Tom Terrell, American journalist and photographer (died 2007)

Thomas Gerald Terrell was an American music journalist, photographer, deejay, promoter, and NPR music reviewer. Born Thomas Gerald Terrell, and later known as Scooter, King Pleasure, and Tom T., he was a lifelong musicologist who recognized talent and trends long before they became popular, and, until his death from prostate cancer, worked to promote new acts in jazz, funk, rock, hip-hop, and world music.

16/07/1948

Rubén Blades, Panamanian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor

Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, known professionally as Rubén Blades, is a Panamanian musician, singer, composer, actor, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in the salsa, and Latin jazz genres. As a songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and politically inspired Son Cubano salsa to his music, creating "thinking persons' (salsa) dance music". Blades has written dozens of hit songs, including "Pedro Navaja" and "El Cantante". He has received 21 Grammy Award nominations, winning twelve of them, along with twelve Latin Grammy Awards.

Lars Lagerbäck, Swedish footballer and manager

Lars Edvin "Lasse" Lagerbäck is a Swedish football manager and former player.

Kevin McKenzie, South African cricketer

Kevin Alexander McKenzie was a South African first-class cricketer whose career with Transvaal lasted from his first season in 1966/67 to the final one in 1986/87.

Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist and conductor

Pinchas Zukerman is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.

16/07/1947

Don Burke, Australian television host and producer

Donald William Burke is an Australian former television presenter, television producer, author and horticulturist. He is best known as the longtime host of Burke's Backyard, a lifestyle program produced by his wife's company CTC Productions, which ran for 17 years from 1987 to late 2004 on the Nine Network. He was also responsible for the creation of garden makeover program Backyard Blitz, starring former colleague Jamie Durie.

Alexis Herman, American businesswoman and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of Labor (died 2025)

Alexis Margaret Herman was an American political figure who served as the 23rd United States Secretary of Labor from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. She was the first Black American to hold the position. She was previously Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Assata Shakur, American-Cuban criminal and activist (died 2025)

Assata Olugbala Shakur was an American political activist, revolutionary, and fugitive who was a member of the Black Panther Party, and later the Black Liberation Army. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and was wanted by the FBI, with a $1 million reward for information leading to her capture, and an additional $1 million reward offered by the New Jersey attorney general. She was never caught and remained a fugitive for 45 years.

16/07/1946

Louise Fréchette, Canadian civil servant and diplomat, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

Louise Fréchette is a Canadian diplomat and public servant who served for eight years as United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. She also served a three-year term at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, an international relations and policy think-tank in Waterloo, Ontario, working on a major research project on nuclear energy and the world's security.

16/07/1944

Angharad Rees, English-Welsh actress and jewellery designer (died 2012)

Angharad Rees was a Welsh actress, best known for her British television roles during the 1970s and in particular her leading role as Demelza in the 1970s BBC TV costume drama Poldark.

16/07/1943

Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban-American author, poet, and playwright (died 1990)

Reinaldo Arenas was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who is known as a vocal critic of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban government. His memoir of the Cuban dissident movement and of being a political prisoner, Before Night Falls, was dictated after his escape to the United States during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and published posthumously. Arenas, who was dying of AIDS, killed himself in 1990.

Vernon Bogdanor, English political scientist and academic

Sir Vernon Bernard Bogdanor is a British political scientist, historian and research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London. He is also emeritus professor of politics and government at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. He is one of Britain's foremost constitutional experts and has written extensively on political and constitutional issues.

Jimmy Johnson, American football player and coach

James William Johnson is an American former football coach and sports analyst. Johnson served as a head football coach at the college level for 10 seasons and in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He is the first head football coach to win both a college football national championship and a Super Bowl, achieving the former with the Miami Hurricanes and the latter with the Dallas Cowboys.

16/07/1942

Margaret Court, Australian tennis player and minister

Margaret Court, also known as Margaret Smith Court, is an Australian former world number 1 tennis player. Her 24 women's singles major titles and total of 64 major titles are the most in women's tennis history.

16/07/1941

Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer-songwriter (died 2006)

Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group the Aces, he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 " (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).

Dag Solstad, Norwegian author and playwright (died 2025)

Dag Solstad was a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer and dramatist whose work has been translated into 20 languages.

Hans Wiegel, Dutch journalist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 2025)

Hans Wiegel was a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessman.

Sir George Young, 6th Baronet, English banker and politician, Secretary of State for Transport

George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham,, known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, having represented Ealing Acton from 1974 to 1997 and North West Hampshire from 1997. He has served in Cabinet on three occasions: as Secretary of State for Transport from 1995 to 1997; as the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal from 2010 to 2012; and as Conservative Chief Whip from 2012 to 2014.

16/07/1939

William Bell, American singer-songwriter

William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter. As a performer, he is best known for his debut single, 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water"; 1968's top 10 hit in the UK "Private Number", a duet with Judy Clay; and his only US top 40 hit, 1976's "Tryin' to Love Two", which also hit No. 1 on the R&B chart. Upon the death of Otis Redding, Bell released the well-received memorial song "A Tribute to a King".

Lido Vieri, Italian football manager and football player

Lido Vieri is an Italian former football player and manager who played as a goalkeeper. He won the 1968 European Championship and was a runner-up at the 1970 FIFA World Cup with the Italy national team.

Ruth Perry, Liberian politician (died 2017)

Ruth Sando Fahnbulleh Perry was a Liberian politician. She served as the interim Chairman of the Council of State of Liberia from 3 September 1996 until 2 August 1997, following the First Liberian Civil War. After 11 international peace attempts between 1990 and 1995 to end the civil war in Liberia, the attempts appeared to succeed. The interim Council of State consisted of a civilian chairman, as well as members of warring factions: Charles Taylor, United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-K leader Alhaji Kromah, Liberia Peace Council leader George Boley, and two other civilians.

Shringar Nagaraj, Indian actor and producer (died 2013)

Gangolli Ramashet Nagaraj, popularly known as Shringar Nagaraj, was an Indian actor, cameraman, and producer in Kannada cinema. He is best known for the 1987 silent film Pushpaka Vimana, which won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

Corin Redgrave, English actor and activist (died 2010)

Corin William Redgrave was an English actor. He was also a left-wing activist, co-founding the Marxist Party with his sister Vanessa Redgrave.

Mariele Ventre, Italian singer and conductor (died 1995)

Maria Rachele "Mariele" Ventre was an Italian musician and singer born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, the founder and director of the Italian children's choir Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano.

16/07/1938

Cynthia Enloe, American author and academic

Cynthia Holden Enloe is an American political theorist, feminist writer, and professor. She is best known for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. She has also influenced the field of feminist political geography, with feminist geopolitics in particular.

Tony Jackson, English singer and bass player (died 2003)

Anthony Paul Jackson was a British musician. He was known for being a member of the Merseybeat band The Searchers.

16/07/1937

Richard Bryan, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Nevada

Richard Hudson Bryan is an American retired politician and attorney who served as the 25th governor of Nevada from 1983 to 1989 and as a United States senator representing Nevada from 1989 until 2001. A Democrat, Bryan previously served as the state's attorney general and a member of the State Senate.

John Daly, English director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008)

John Daly was a British film producer.

16/07/1936

Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese politician, 91st Prime Minister of Japan

Yasuo Fukuda is a Japanese former politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō Mori and Junichiro Koizumi. His record was surpassed by Yoshihide Suga, who served almost twice as long.

Buddy Merrill, American guitarist (died 2021)

Leslie Merrill Behunin, Jr., known professionally as Buddy Merrill, was an American guitar player and steel guitar player, best known as a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show.

Jerry Norman, American sinologist and linguist (died 2012)

Jerry Lee Norman was an American sinologist and linguist known for his studies of varieties of Chinese, particularly Min varieties, and also of the Manchu language. Norman had a large impact on Chinese linguistics, and was largely responsible for establishing the importance of Min varieties in the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

Venkataraman Subramanya, Indian-Australian cricketer

Venkataraman Subramanya is an Indian former cricketer who played in nine Test matches from 1965 to 1968. He was an aggressive middle order batsman, who captained Mysore for some years, and a useful leg-spin bowler. He later emigrated to Australia.

16/07/1935

Carl Epting Mundy Jr., American general (died 2014)

Carl Epting Mundy Jr. was a United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 30th Commandant of the Marine Corps and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from July 1, 1991, until his retirement on June 30, 1995, after 42 years of service. He was notable for his opposition to military service by gay people and for helping to shape the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy of 1993.

Lynn Wyatt, American socialite and philanthropist

Lynn Wyatt is a Houston socialite, philanthropist, and third-generation Texan. Her grandfather and great-uncle started the Sakowitz Department Store chain. Her husband, Oscar Wyatt, was an energy executive, the founder of Houston's Coastal Corporation—now owned by El Paso Corporation —and CEO of NuCoastal LLC. Lynn and Oscar Wyatt have four sons.

16/07/1934

Denise LaSalle, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2018)

Ora D. Allen, known by the stage name Denise LaSalle, was an American blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who, after the death of Koko Taylor, was acknowledged as the "Queen of the Blues". Her husband was rapper Super Wolf.

Tomás Eloy Martínez, Argentine journalist (died 2010)

Tomás Eloy Martínez was an Argentine journalist and writer.

Katherine D. Ortega, 38th Treasurer of the United States

Katherine Dávalos Ortega is a former politician who was the 38th Treasurer of the United States. She served from September 26, 1983 to July 1, 1989 under Presidents Ronald Reagan and then George H. W. Bush. Ortega also has the distinction of being the first female bank president in the state of California.

Donald M. Payne, American educator and politician (died 2012)

Donald Milford Payne Sr. was an American politician who was the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 10th congressional district from 1989 until his death in 2012. He was a member of the Democratic Party. The district encompassed most of the city of Newark, parts of Jersey City and Elizabeth, and some suburban communities in Essex and Union counties. He was the first African American to represent New Jersey in Congress.

16/07/1933

Julian A. Brodsky, American businessman

Julian A. Brodsky is an American businessman, the co-founder of Comcast Corporation and served as its chief financial officer and vice chairman. He also served as co-founder and chair of Comcast Interactive Capital, Comcast's venture capital unit now called Comcast Ventures.

16/07/1932

John Chilton, English trumpet player and composer (died 2016)

John James Chilton was a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s, he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts. He won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1983.

Max McGee, American football player and sportscaster (died 2007)

William Max McGee was an American professional football player who was an end and punter for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1954 to 1967. He is best known for his seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns, scoring the now historic initial touchdown, in the first Super Bowl.

Dick Thornburgh, American lawyer and politician, 76th United States Attorney General (died 2020)

Richard Lewis Thornburgh was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 76th United States attorney general from 1988 to 1991 under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 41st governor of Pennsylvania and as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

16/07/1931

Fergus Gordon Kerr, Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican Province

Fergus Gordon Thomson Kerr was a Scottish Catholic priest of the English Dominican province. He published significantly on a wide range of subjects, but was famous particularly for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Aquinas.

Norm Sherry, American baseball player, manager, and coach (died 2021)

Norman Burt Sherry was an American baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played five seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets from 1959 to 1963. Sherry went on to coach and manage the California Angels, and also served as coach of the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.

16/07/1930

Guy Béart, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter (died 2015)

Guy Béhart-Hasson, known as Guy Béart, was a French singer and songwriter.

Michael Bilirakis, American lawyer and politician

Michael Bilirakis is an American politician and lawyer from Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2007, representing Florida's 9th congressional district.

Bert Rechichar, American football defensive back and kicker (died 2019)

Albert Daniel Rechichar (Pronounced: "Rech-i-SHAR") was an American professional football player who was a defensive back, halfback, and kicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers, whom he captained during their 1951 national championship season. His performance over his last two seasons led Volunteers head coach Bob Neyland to proclaim Rechichar "probably the best all-around player in Tennessee football history."

16/07/1929

Charles Ray Hatcher, American serial killer (died 1984)

Charles Ray Hatcher was an American serial killer. He was convicted in Missouri of one murder, has been linked to four others in Illinois and California, and confessed to having murdered a total of 16 people between 1969 and 1982.

Sheri S. Tepper, American author and poet (died 2016)

Sheri Stewart Tepper was an American writer of science fiction, horror and mystery novels. She is primarily known for her feminist science fiction, which explored themes of sociology, gender and equality, as well as theology and ecology. Often referred to as an eco-feminist of science fiction literature, Tepper personally preferred the label eco-humanist. Some of her novels fall into the category of climate fiction, in which the changing environment of a planet affects the life of its colonists in the form of a mystery to be solved; examples include Grass (1989), Beauty (1991), A Plague of Angels (1993), The Family Tree (1997), Six Moon Dance (1998), and Singer from the Sea (1999). Though the majority of her works operate in a world of fantastical imagery and metaphor, at the heart of her writing is real-world injustice and pain. She employed several pen names during her lifetime, including A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant.

Gaby Tanguy, French swimmer (died 1981)

Gaby Tanguy was a French freestyle swimmer. She competed in three events at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

16/07/1928

Anita Brookner, English novelist and art historian (died 2016)

Anita Brookner was an English novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She was awarded the 1984 Booker–McConnell Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac.

Bella Davidovich, Soviet-American pianist

Bella Mikhaylovna Davidovich is a Soviet-American pianist.

Robert Sheckley, American author and screenwriter (died 2005)

Robert Sheckley was an American writer. First published in the science-fiction magazines of the 1950s, his many quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist, and broadly comical.

Jim Rathmann, American race car driver (died 2011)

Royal Richard "Jim" Rathmann, was an American racing driver who competed primarily in Championship Cars. Rathmann is best known for winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1960, emerging victorious after a race-long duel with Rodger Ward – as recently as 2023, a panel of fans and historians voted Rathmann's victory as the greatest '500' of all time. In Europe he is well-known for winning the 1958 Race of Two Worlds.

Dave Treen, American lawyer and politician, 51st Governor of Louisiana (died 2009)

David Conner Treen Sr. was an American politician and attorney from Louisiana. A member of the Republican Party, Treen served as U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1973 to 1980 and the 51st governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984. Treen was the first Republican elected to either office since Reconstruction.

Andrzej Zawada, Polish mountaineer and author (died 2000)

Andrzej Zawada was a Polish mountaineer, expedition leader and pioneer of winter Himalayism. Zawada was an organiser and leader of numerous high-mountains expeditions, author of movies and photographs from expeditions, and co-author of Alpinist books. He was an honorary member of the British Alpine Club, French Groupe de Haute Montagne and The Explorers Club in the United States.

16/07/1927

Pierre F. Côté, Canadian lawyer and civil servant (died 2013)

Pierre-Ferdinand Côté, was a Canadian civil servant and lawyer. Côté served as the first Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec from 1978 until 1997. The Chief Electoral Officer is the official responsible for the administration of the electoral and referendum system in the province of Quebec.

Shirley Hughes, English author and illustrator (died 2022)

Winifred Shirley Hughes was an English author and illustrator. She wrote more than fifty books, which have sold more than 11.5 million copies, and illustrated more than two hundred.

Derek Hawksworth, English footballer (died 2021)

Derek Marshall Hawksworth was a footballer who played in the position of winger for Sheffield United.

16/07/1926

Ivica Horvat, Croatian footballer and manager (died 2012)

Ivan "Ivica" Horvat was a Croatian and Yugoslav professional football player and manager.

Irwin Rose, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2015)

Irwin Allan Rose was an American biologist. Along with Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.

16/07/1925

Frank Jobe, American sergeant and surgeon (died 2014)

Frank Wilson Jobe was an American orthopedic surgeon and co-founder of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic. Jobe pioneered both elbow ligament replacement and major reconstructive shoulder surgery for baseball players.

Rosita Quintana, Argentine actress (died 2021)

Trinida RoSA Quintana Muñoz, known as Rosita Quintana, was an Argentine-Mexican actress, singer and songwriter. She was one of the top leading ladies of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She starred in Luis Buñuel's Susana (1951) and musical films such as Serenata en México (1956) and Cuando México canta (1958). Her performances earned her acting awards from Mexico, Argentina, Russia, and Spain. In 2016, she received the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences' Golden Ariel Award for career achievement.

Cal Tjader, American jazz musician (died 1982)

Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform the music of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

16/07/1924

James L. Greenfield, American journalist and politician (died 2024)

James Lloyd Greenfield was an American journalist and government official. He served as the United States deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 1962 to 1964, and then United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 1964 to 1966. Latterly Greenfield worked in media, and was one of the editors of the New York Times who decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

Bess Myerson, American model, actress, game show panelist, and politician, Miss America 1945 (died 2014)

Bess Myerson was an American politician, model, and television actress who in 1945 became the first Miss America who was Jewish. Her achievement, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was seen as an affirmation of the Jewish place in American life. She was a heroine to parts of the Jewish community, where "she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther".

Rupert Deese, Northern Mariana Islander ceramic artist (died 2010)

Rupert Deese was an American ceramic artist. He is known for innovative design and decoration of high fired ceramics. Deese wrote "It is my hope in making these vessels that as the perception of their beauty diminishes over time, they will sustain themselves by pleasant usefulness."

16/07/1923

Chris Argyris, American psychologist, theorist, and academic (died 2013)

Chris Argyris was an American business theorist and professor at Yale School of Management and Harvard Business School. Argyris, like Richard Beckhard, Edgar Schein and Warren Bennis, is known as a pioneer of organization development, and known for seminal work on learning organizations.

Bola Sete, Brazilian guitarist (died 1987)

Bola Sete was a Brazilian guitarist known for playing jazz with Vince Guaraldi and Dizzy Gillespie.

16/07/1920

Anatole Broyard, American critic and editor (died 1990)

Anatole Broyard (1920-1990) was an American writer, literary critic, and editor whose literary output spanned several decades. His oeuvre encompassed short stories, essays, and reviews. He was a prolific contributor to several literary magazines and publications, most notably The New York Times, where he served as a regular book reviewer for nearly fifteen years and later as an editor.

16/07/1919

Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian SS officer and Majdanek concentration camp guard (died 1999)

Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan was an Austrian SS Helferin and female camp guard at Ravensbrück and Majdanek concentration camps. She was the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial in West Germany. Braunsteiner was known to prisoners of Majdanek concentration camp as "the Mare" because she was said to have kicked and stomped on prisoners, thrown children by their hair onto trucks that took them to be murdered in gas chambers, hanged young prisoners, and beaten prisoners to death.

Choi Kyu-hah, South Korean politician, 4th President of South Korea (died 2006)

Choi Kyu-hah was a South Korean politician who served as the fourth President of South Korea from 1979 to 1980. An independent politician, he served as the Prime Minister under the administration of President Park Chung Hee from 1975 to 1979.

16/07/1918

Denis Edward Arnold, English soldier (died 2015)

Denis Edward Arnold MC was a British Army officer of the Second World War who won the Military Cross in 1944 for an opportunistic attack on a Japanese force while serving with the Chindits in Burma. Arnold served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and the 7th Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force. While in Burma, Arnold received a letter from his mother containing a pledge card that he would abstain from alcohol. He and his comrades found this very amusing since there was none to be found in the jungle. On returning to England with a bottle of whisky that he was saving for a celebration, Arnold was told by a customs officer that he must pay duty on the spirit. He smashed the bottle in disgust. After leaving the army, Arnold rejoined his former employers the Blue Circle Group, eventually becoming overseas operations director.

Paul Farnes, British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot (died 2020)

Paul Caswell Powe Farnes, was a British Royal Air Force fighter pilot, and Second World War flying ace. He flew during the Battle of Britain as one of "The Few", piloting Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire aircraft. He scored 8 kills.

Samuel Victor Perry, English biochemist and rugby player (died 2009)

Samuel Victor Perry FRS was an English biochemist who was a pioneer in the field of muscle biochemistry. In his earlier years he was a rugby union lock who played club rugby for Southport R.F.C., Cambridge University R.U.F.C. and international rugby for England.

16/07/1915

Barnard Hughes, American actor (died 2006)

Bernard Aloysius Kiernan "Barnard" Hughes was an American actor. His most successful roles came after middle age, and he was often cast as a dithering authority figure or grandfatherly elder. He won the 1978 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Elaine Barrie, American actress (died 2003)

Elaine Barrie was an American actress who appeared in several films and one Broadway play. She was the fourth, and last, wife of actor John Barrymore.

16/07/1912

Milt Bocek, American baseball player (died 2007)

Milton Francis Bocek was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played parts of two seasons for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). During his playing career, he was listed at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) and 185 pounds (84 kg).

Amy Patterson, Argentine composer, singer, poet, and teacher (died 2019)

Amelia Cabeza de Pelayo Patterson was an Argentine composer, singer, poet, and teacher responsible for writing the anthem of the Province of Salta. She was very popular in Argentina, and much of her music received state approval from the Ministry of Education of Argentina.

16/07/1911

Ginger Rogers, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 1995)

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.

Sonny Tufts, American actor (died 1970)

Bowen Charlton "Sonny" Tufts III was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for the films he made as a contract star at Paramount in the 1940s, including So Proudly We Hail!. He also starred in the cult classic Cat-Women of the Moon.

16/07/1910

Stan McCabe, Australian cricketer (died 1968)

Stanley Joseph McCabe was an Australian cricketer who played 39 Test matches for Australia from 1930 to 1938. A short, stocky right-hander, McCabe was described by Wisden as "one of Australia's greatest and most enterprising batsmen" and by his captain Don Bradman as one of the great batsmen of the game. He was never dropped from the Australian Test team and was known for his footwork, mastery of fast bowling and the hook shot against the Bodyline strategy. He also regularly bowled medium-pace and often opened the bowling at a time when Australia lacked fast bowlers, using an off cutter. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1935.

Gordon Prange, American historian, author, and academic (died 1980)

Gordon William Prange was the author of several World War II historical manuscripts which were published by his co-workers after his death in 1980. Prange was a professor of history at the University of Maryland from 1937 to 1980 with a break of nine years (1942–1951) of military service in the United States Navy during World War II, and in the postwar military occupation of Japan, when he was the Chief Historian on General Douglas MacArthur's staff. It was during this time that Prange collected material from and interviewed many Japanese military officers, enlisted men, and civilians, with the information later being used in the writing of his books. Several became New York Times bestsellers, including At Dawn We Slept, The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor and Miracle at Midway.

16/07/1907

Frances Horwich, American educator and television host (died 2001)

Frances Rappaport Horwich was an American educator, television personality and television executive. As Miss Frances, she was the host of the children's television program Ding Dong School, seen weekday mornings on the NBC network in the 1950s and nationally syndicated between 1959 and 1965.

Orville Redenbacher, American farmer and businessman, founded Orville Redenbacher's (died 1995)

Orville Clarence Redenbacher was an American food scientist and businessman most often associated with the brand of popcorn that bears his name which is now owned by Conagra Brands. The New York Times described him as "the agricultural visionary who all but single-handedly revolutionized the American popcorn industry".

Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (died 1990)

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career, she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 86 films in 38 years before turning to television. She received numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and was nominated for four Academy Awards.

16/07/1906

Vincent Sherman, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2006)

Vincent Sherman was an American director and actor who worked in Hollywood. His movies include Mr. Skeffington (1944), Nora Prentiss (1947), and The Young Philadelphians (1959).

16/07/1904

Goffredo Petrassi, Italian composer and conductor (died 2003)

Goffredo Petrassi was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.

16/07/1903

Fritz Bauer, German lawyer and judge (died 1968)

Fritz Bauer was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He played an instrumental role in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann, and in bringing about the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.

Carmen Lombardo, Canadian singer-songwriter (died 1971)

Carmen Lombardo was lead saxophonist and featured vocalist for his brother Guy Lombardo's orchestra. He was also a successful composer. In 1927, Carmen Lombardo was the vocalist of the hit record Charmaine, performed by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.

Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, German mathematician and engineer (died 1974)

Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, née Lotz was a German-American mathematician and aerospace engineer. She was a pioneer in the development of the theory of discontinuous automatic control, which has found wide application in hysteresis control systems; such applications include guidance systems, electronics, fire-control systems, and temperature regulation.

16/07/1902

Alexander Luria, Russian psychologist and physician (died 1977)

Alexander Romanovich Luria was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological tests during his clinical work with brain-injured victims of World War II, which are still used in various forms. He made an in-depth analysis of the functioning of various brain regions and integrative processes of the brain in general. Luria's magnum opus, Higher Cortical Functions in Man (1962), is a much-used psychological textbook which has been translated into many languages and which he supplemented with The Working Brain in 1973.

Mary Philbin, American actress (died 1993)

Mary Loretta Philbin was an American film actress of the silent film era, who played Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera opposite Lon Chaney, and Dea in The Man Who Laughs alongside Conrad Veidt.

16/07/1898

Lady Eve Balfour, British farmer, educator, and founding figure in the organic movement (died 1990)

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.

16/07/1896

Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German biologist and eugenicist (died 1969)

Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer was a German human biologist and geneticist, who was the Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Münster until he retired in 1965. A member of the Verschuer family, his title Freiherr is often translated as baron.

Trygve Lie, Norwegian trade union leader and politician, 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations (died 1968)

Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. He was the first secretary-general of the United Nations.

16/07/1895

Wilfrid Hamel, Canadian businessman and politician, 35th Mayor of Quebec City (died 1968)

Wilfrid Hamel was a Canadian politician, serving as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec and as Mayor of Quebec City.

16/07/1889

Arthur Bowie Chrisman, American author (died 1953)

Arthur Bowie Chrisman was an American author. He was born in Clarke County, Virginia. Chrisman was educated in a one-room school and attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1906 to 1908 but left at the end of his sophomore year. His collection of sixteen short stories, Shen of the Sea: A Book for Children (1925), received the Newbery Medal in 1926. Chrisman's other works included The Wind That Wouldn't Blow: Stories of the Merry Middle Kingdom for Children, and Myself (1927), Clarke County, 1836–1936 (1936), and Treasures Long Hidden: Old Tales and New Tales of the East (1941).

16/07/1888

Percy Kilbride, American actor (died 1964)

Percy William Kilbride was an American character actor. He made a career of playing country "hicks," most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.

Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1966)

Frederik "Frits" Zernike was a Dutch physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953 for his invention of the phase-contrast microscope.

16/07/1887

Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player and manager (died 1951)

Joseph Jefferson Jackson, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 20th century. His .356 career batting average is one of the highest in major-league history. Jackson is often remembered for his association with the Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis permanently banned Jackson and the other seven players from professional baseball after the 1920 season. During the World Series in question, Jackson had led both teams in several statistical categories and set a World Series record with 12 base hits, including, during the last game, the only home run in that World Series. Jackson's role in the scandal, banishment from the game, and exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame have been fiercely debated. In 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Jackson and other deceased players from the MLB's permanently ineligible list, thus lifting the ban and making him once again eligible for the hall of fame.

16/07/1884

Anna Vyrubova, Russian author (died 1964)

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova was a lady-in-waiting in the late Russian Empire, the best friend and confidante of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna.

16/07/1883

Charles Sheeler, American photographer and painter (died 1965)

Charles Sheeler was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the 1921 avant-garde film, Manhatta, which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized as one of the early adopters of modernism in American art.

16/07/1882

Violette Neatley Anderson, American judge (died 1937)

Violette Neatley Anderson became the first African-American woman to practice law before the United States Supreme Court on January 29, 1926. She was one of the most prominent advocates of a landmark piece of legislation that helped secure rights and economic mobility for sharecroppers in the South, the Bankhead-Jones Act.

16/07/1880

Kathleen Norris, American journalist and author (died 1966)

Kathleen Thompson Norris was an American novelist and newspaper columnist. She was one of the most widely read and highest paid female writers in the United States for nearly fifty years, from 1911 to 1959. Norris was a prolific writer who wrote 93 novels, many of which became best sellers. Her stories appeared frequently in the popular press of the day, including The Atlantic, The American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Home Companion. Norris used her fiction to promote family and moralistic values, such as the sanctity of marriage, the nobility of motherhood, and the importance of service to others.

16/07/1872

Roald Amundsen, Norwegian pilot and explorer (died 1928)

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Frank Cooper, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Queensland (died 1949)

Frank Arthur Cooper was Premier of Queensland from 1942 to 1946 for the Labor Party.

16/07/1871

John Maxwell, American golfer (died 1906)

John Riley Maxwell was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

16/07/1870

Lambert McKenna, Irish priest, lexicographer, and scholar (died 1956)

Lambert McKenna S.J. was a Jesuit priest and writer.

Ellen Oliver (suffragette), British suffragette (died 1921)

Ellen Frederica Oliver was a British suffragette, purity activist and a follower of the Panacea Society, who was the first person to recognise Mabel Barltrop as a prophet in the movement.

16/07/1863

Anderson Dawson, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Queensland (died 1910)

Andrew Dawson, usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician and unionist who served as the 14th premier of Queensland for one week from 1 to 7 December 1899. This short-lived premiership was the first Australian Labor Party (ALP) government in Australia and the first parliamentary labour party government anywhere in the world.

16/07/1862

Ida B. Wells, American journalist and activist (died 1931)

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially for women.

16/07/1858

Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (died 1931)

Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as his former student Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar".

16/07/1841

Nikolai von Glehn, Estonian-German architect and activist (died 1923)

Alexander Nikolai von Glehn, was a Baltic German landowner and public figure, most notable for being the founder of the town of Nõmme.

16/07/1821

Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader and author, founded Christian Science (died 1910)

Mary Baker Eddy was an American religious leader and author, who in 1879 founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, the Mother Church of the Christian Science movement. She also founded The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, and three religious magazines: the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, and The Herald of Christian Science.

16/07/1796

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter and etcher (died 1875)

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, or simply Camille Corot, was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in landscape painting, his vast output simultaneously referenced the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipated the plein-air innovations of Impressionism.

16/07/1748

Cyrus Griffin, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 16th President of the Continental Congress (died 1810)

Cyrus Griffin was an American lawyer and politician, who served as the final President of the Congress of the Confederation and first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia.

16/07/1731

Samuel Huntington, American jurist and politician, 18th Governor of Connecticut (died 1796)

Samuel Huntington was a Founding Father of the United States and a lawyer, jurist, statesman, and Patriot in the American Revolution from Connecticut. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He also served as President of the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1781, President of the United States in Congress Assembled in 1781, chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1784 to 1785, and the 18th Governor of Connecticut from 1786 until his death. He was the first United States governor to have died while in office.

16/07/1723

Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (died 1792)

Sir Joshua Reynolds was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy Peltz says he was "the leading portrait artist of the 18th-century and arguably one of the greatest artists in the history of art." He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting, which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts and was knighted by George III in 1769. He has been referred to as the 'master who revolutionised British Art.'

16/07/1722

Joseph Wilton, English sculptor and academic (died 1803)

Joseph Wilton was an English sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and the academy's third keeper. His works are particularly numerous memorialising the famous Britons in Westminster Abbey.

16/07/1714

Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French engineer and author (died 1800)

Maréchal de camp Marc René, marquis de Montalembert was a French Royal Army officer and writer best known for his work on fortifications and writings on military engineering.

16/07/1661

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Canadian captain, explorer, and politician (died 1706)

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville or Sieur d'Iberville was a French military officer, explorer, colonial administrator and merchant. He is noted for founding the colony of Louisiana in New France. He was born in Montreal to French colonists.

16/07/1611

Cecilia Renata of Austria (died 1644)

Cecilia Renata of Austria was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the wife of King-Grand Duke Władysław IV Vasa.

16/07/1529

Petrus Peckius the Elder, Dutch jurist, writer on international maritime law (died 1589)

Petrus Peckius the Elder, was a Netherlandish jurist, one of the first to write about international maritime law, and the father of Petrus Peckius the Younger.

16/07/1517

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, English duchess (died 1559)

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England and Ireland for nine days, as well as Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey.

16/07/1486

Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (died 1530)

Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altarpieces, portraitist, draughtsman, and colorist. Although highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori, his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

16/07/1194

Clare of Assisi, Italian nun and saint (died 1253)

Chiara Offreduccio, known as Clare of Assisi, is an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.

Lives Remembered on 16th July

On 16th July, 100 remarkable people passed away — from 784 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

16/07/2025

Connie Francis, American singer and actress (born 1937)

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, known professionally as Connie Francis, was an American singer and actress. One of the top-charting female vocalists of the late 1950s and early 1960s, she amassed over 200 million records sold, placing her among the best-selling music artists in history.

16/07/2024

Joe Bryant, American basketball player (born 1954)

Joseph Washington "Jellybean" Bryant was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers, and Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also played for several teams in Italy and one in France. Bryant was the head coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks from 2005 to 2007 and returned to that position for the remainder of the 2011 WNBA season. Bryant also coached in Japan and Thailand. He was the father of the late basketball player Kobe Bryant.

Norm Hewitt, New Zealand rugby union player (born 1968)

Norman Jason Hewitt was a New Zealand rugby union player who played as a hooker. He won nine caps for the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. Hewitt participated in, and won, season one of Dancing with the Stars in 2005.

David Morrow, Australian radio host and sportscaster (born 1953)

David William Morrow was an Australian sports radio and television broadcaster/commentator, best known for his association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and 2GB, and his calling of horse racing and the NRL, but also other sport and his coverage of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

16/07/2023

Kevin Mitnick, American hacker (born 1963)

Kevin David Mitnick was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. In 1995, he was arrested for various computer and communications-related crimes, and spent five years in prison after being convicted of fraud and illegally intercepting communications. Mitnick's pursuit, arrest, trial and sentence were all controversial, as were the associated media coverage, books, and films, with his supporters arguing that his punishment was excessive and that many of the charges against him were fraudulent, and not based on actual losses. After his release from prison, he ran his own security firm, Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC, and was also involved with other computer security businesses.

16/07/2021

Biz Markie, American rapper (born 1964)

Marcel Theo Hall, known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer who gained prominence during hip-hop's golden age. He was known for his comedic style and often called the "Clown Prince of Hip-Hop".

16/07/2020

Tony Taylor, Cuban baseball player (born 1935)

Antonio Nemesio Taylor Sánchez was a Cuban professional baseball second baseman who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and Detroit Tigers from 1958 until 1976. He batted and threw right-handed and also played third base and first base.

16/07/2019

John Paul Stevens, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1920)

John Paul Stevens was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. He was the second-oldest and fourth-longest-serving justice in U.S. Supreme Court history. At the time of his death in 2019 at age 99, he was the longest-lived Supreme Court justice ever. His long tenure saw him write for the Court on most issues of American law, including civil liberties, the death penalty, government action, and intellectual property. Despite being a registered Republican who throughout his life identified as a conservative, Stevens was considered to have been on the liberal side of the Court at the time of his retirement.

16/07/2017

George A. Romero, American filmmaker (born 1940)

George Andrew Romero was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor, and actor. Regarded as an influential pioneer of the horror film genre, particularly zombie films, he has been described as an "icon" and the "father of the zombie film".

16/07/2015

Denis Avey, English soldier, engineer, and author (born 1919)

Denis Avey was a British veteran of the Second World War who was held as a prisoner of war at E715, a subcamp of Auschwitz concentration camp. While there he saved the life of a Jewish prisoner, Ernst Lobethal, by smuggling cigarettes to him. For that he was made a British Hero of the Holocaust in 2010.

Evelyn Ebsworth, English chemist and academic (born 1933)

Evelyn Algernon Valentine Ebsworth, was a British chemist and academic. He was the Crum Brown Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1967 to 1990, and Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University from 1990 to 1998.

Alcides Ghiggia, Uruguayan footballer and manager (born 1926)

Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia Pereyra was a Uruguayan and Italian footballer who played as a right winger. He achieved lasting fame for his decisive role in the final match of the 1950 World Cup, and at the time of his death exactly 65 years later, he was also the last surviving player of Uruguay's 1950 World Cup squad.

Jack Goody, English anthropologist, author, and academic (born 1919)

Sir John Rankine Goody was an English social anthropologist. He was a prominent lecturer at Cambridge University, and was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology from 1973 to 1984.

16/07/2014

Karl Albrecht, German businessman, co-founded Aldi (born 1920)

Karl Hans Albrecht was a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He was the richest person in Germany for many years. In February 2014, he was ranked the 21st-richest person in the world by Hurun Report.

Mary Ellen Otremba, American educator and politician (born 1950)

Mary Ellen Dinkel Otremba was an American politician and a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who represented District 11B, which includes portions of Douglas and Todd counties in the west central part of the state. A Democrat, she was also a substitute teacher and farmer. On May 19, 2010, she announced that she would not seek an eighth term.

Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1944)

John Dawson Winter III was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1960s into the early 2000s. He also produced three Grammy Award–winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Heinz Zemanek, Austrian computer scientist and academic (born 1920)

Heinz Zemanek was an Austrian computer pioneer who led the development, from 1954 to 1958, of one of the first complete transistorised computers on the European continent. The computer was nicknamed Mailüfterl — Viennese for "May breeze" — in reference to Whirlwind, a computer developed at MIT between 1945 and 1951.

16/07/2013

Talia Castellano, American internet celebrity (born 1999)

Talia Joy Castellano was an American internet personality and model who was best known for her work on YouTube, notably her makeup and fashion content, and for becoming the first honorary CoverGirl in 2012. She battled the diseases neuroblastoma and leukemia for six years, and died on July 16, 2013. As of May 2021, her YouTube channel has received over a million subscribers.

Alex Colville, Canadian painter and academic (born 1920)

David Alexander Colville was a Canadian painter and printmaker.

Marv Rotblatt, American baseball player (born 1927)

Marvin Rotblatt, nicknamed "Rotty", was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox in the 1948, 1950 and 1951 seasons. His ERAs in 1948 (7.85) and 1950 (6.23) were the highest in the majors. He failed to get a base hit in fifteen career at-bats.

16/07/2012

William Asher, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

William Milton Asher was an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early television directors, producing or directing over two dozen series.

Stephen Covey, American businessman and author (born 1932)

Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His other books include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 8th Habit, and The Leader In Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. In 1996, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people. He was a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University (USU) at the time of his death.

Gilbert Esau, American businessman and politician (born 1919)

Gilbert Donald Esau was a Minnesota politician and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from southwestern Minnesota. First elected in 1962, Esau was re-elected in 1964, 1966 and 1968. After sitting out for four years, he opted to run again in 1972, was elected and was re-elected in 1974, 1976, 1978 and 1980.

Ed Lincoln, Brazilian bassist, pianist, and composer (born 1932)

Ed Lincoln was a Brazilian musician, composer and arranger known for a wide variety of styles. As a bassist, he was present at the earliest moments of bossa nova and as a Hammond organ player, he was foundational in establishing the sound of Brazilian jazz and space age pop.

Masaharu Matsushita, Japanese businessman (born 1913)

Sir Masaharu Matsushita , was a Japanese businessman who served as the second President of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961. He was the son-in-law of Panasonic's founder, Konosuke Matsushita. Masaharu Matsushita has been credited with expanding Panasonic into a global brand during a time of high economic expansion in Japan.

Kitty Wells, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1919)

Ellen Muriel Deason, known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” also was her first of several pop crossover hits. Wells is the only artist to be awarded top female vocalist awards for 14 consecutive years. Her chart-topping hits continued until the mid-1960s, paving the way for and inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.

16/07/2011

Forrest Blue, American football player (born 1944)

Forrest Murrell Blue Jr. was an American professional football center who spent eleven seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the San Francisco 49ers from 1968 to 1974 and the Baltimore Colts from 1975 to 1978.

16/07/2008

Jo Stafford, American singer (born 1917)

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, becoming the second single to top the UK Singles Chart and the first by a female artist to do so.

Lindsay Thompson, Australian politician, 40th Premier of Victoria (born 1923)

Lindsay Hamilton Simpson Thompson AO, CMG was an Australian politician and army officer who served as the 40th premier of Victoria from 1981 to 1982. He previously served as the 19th deputy premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981.

16/07/2007

Caterina Bueno, Italian singer and historian (born 1943)

Caterina Bueno was an Italian singer and folk music historian.

16/07/2006

Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, American businessman and politician, 13th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (born 1948)

Winthrop Paul "Win" Rockefeller was an American Republican politician and businessman who served as the 17th lieutenant governor of Arkansas from 1996 until his death in 2006. He was a member of the Rockefeller family.

16/07/2005

Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (born 1920)

Pietro Consagra was an Italian sculptor. In 1947 he was among the founding members of the Forma 1 group of artists, who advocated both Marxism and structured abstraction.

Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgian singer-songwriter and radio host (born 1920)

Camillo Jean Nicolas Felgen was a Luxembourgish singer, lyricist, disc jockey, and television presenter, who represented Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 and in 1962.

16/07/2004

George Busbee, American lawyer and politician, 77th Governor of Georgia (born 1927)

George Dekle Busbee Sr. was an American politician who served as the 77th governor of Georgia from 1975 to 1983.

Charles Sweeney, American general and pilot (born 1919)

Charles William Sweeney was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and the pilot who flew Bockscar carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb to the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. Separating from active duty at the end of World War II, he later became an officer in the Massachusetts Air National Guard as the Army Air Forces transitioned to an independent United States Air Force, eventually rising to the rank of major general.

16/07/2003

Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer and actress (born 1925)

Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname La Guarachera de Cuba. In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 30 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists.

Carol Shields, American-Canadian novelist and short story writer (born 1935)

Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.

16/07/2002

John Cocke, American computer scientist and engineer (born 1925)

John Cocke was an American computer scientist at IBM and recognized for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture." He won the 1987 ACM Turing Award.

16/07/2001

Terry Gordy, American professional wrestler (born 1961)

Terry Ray Gordy Sr. was an American professional wrestler. Gordy appeared in the United States with professional wrestling promotions such as Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation as a member of the Fabulous Freebirds. He also appeared in Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling as one-half of the Miracle Violence Connection.

Morris, Belgian cartoonist (born 1923)

Maurice De Bevere, better known as Morris, was a Belgian comics artist, illustrator, and the creator of Lucky Luke, a best-selling comic series about a gunslinger in the American Wild West. He was inspired by the adventures of the historic Dalton Gang and other outlaws. It was a best-selling series for more than 50 years, published internationally and translated into 23 languages. He collaborated for two decades with French writer René Goscinny on the series. Morris's pen name is an Anglicized version of Maurice.

16/07/1999

John F. Kennedy Jr., American lawyer and publisher (born 1960)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., also referred to as JFK Jr., was an American businessman, attorney, magazine publisher, and journalist. He was the son of the 35th U.S. president John F. Kennedy, and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, American publicist and wife of John F. Kennedy Jr. (born 1966)

Carolyn Jeanne Bessette-Kennedy was an American fashion publicist. She worked for Calvin Klein until her 1996 marriage to attorney and publisher John F. Kennedy Jr. Her life and fashion sense became the subjects of intense media scrutiny afterwards. The couple, along with her older sister Lauren, died in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in 1999.

Alan Macnaughton, Canadian lawyer and politician, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (born 1903)

Alan Aylesworth Macnaughton was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from 1963 to 1966.

16/07/1998

John Henrik Clarke, American historian and scholar (born 1915)

John Henrik Clarke was an African-American historian, professor, prominent Afrocentrist, and pioneer of Pan-African and Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 1960s.

16/07/1996

Adolf von Thadden, German lieutenant and politician (born 1921)

Adolf von Thadden was a German far-right politician who led the National Democratic Party.

16/07/1995

May Sarton, American playwright and novelist (born 1912)

May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, a Belgian and American novelist, poet, and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalized with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of "lesbian writer", preferring to convey the universality of human love.

Stephen Spender, English author and poet (born 1909)

Sir Stephen Harold Spender was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1965.

16/07/1994

Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)

Julian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Richard Feynman and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". He developed a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and renormalized QED to one loop order. Schwinger was a physics professor at several universities.

16/07/1992

Buck Buchanan, American football player and coach (born 1940)

Junious "Buck" Buchanan was an American professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Buchanan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990. He was selected to the NFL 100th Anniversary Team. His was the first African American taken as the first selection in an AFL or NFL draft. Buchanan was massive for his era, standing at 6 ft 7 in, and weighing 270 lbs.. His height gave him an advantage against linemen in the trenches.

16/07/1991

Meindert DeJong, Dutch-American soldier and author (born 1906)

Meindert De Jong, also spelled de Jong, DeJong, or Dejong, was a Dutch-born American Newbery Medal–winning writer of children's books. During the height of his popularity, he frequently collaborated with Maurice Sendak, who illustrated seven of De Jong's books.

Robert Motherwell, American painter and academic (born 1915)

Robert Motherwell was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

Frank Rizzo, American police officer and politician, 93rd Mayor of Philadelphia (born 1920)

Francis Lazarro Rizzo was an American police officer and politician. He served as commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) from 1967 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He was a member of the Democratic Party throughout the entirety of his career in public office. He switched to the Republican Party in 1986 and campaigned as a Republican for the final five years of his life.

16/07/1990

Robert Blackburn, Irish educator (born 1927)

Robert Blackburn was an Irish educationalist. He was an early pioneer of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) and was instrumental in establishing the first United World College (UWC) in the early 1960s. In 1968, Blackburn was appointed United World College International Secretary.

Miguel Muñoz, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1922)

Miguel Muñoz Mozún was a Spanish football player and manager. A midfielder, he spent the majority of his career at Real Madrid before going on to coach the club, where he is widely considered one of the most successful and greatest managers in football history, leading the team to two European Cup victories and nine La Liga titles. Muñoz later had a six-year coaching spell with the Spain national team, and led them to the final of Euro 1984.

16/07/1989

Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor and manager (born 1908)

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he sold 200 million records.

16/07/1985

Heinrich Böll, German novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)

Heinrich Theodor Böll was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post–World War II writers, Böll received the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972).

Wayne King, American saxophonist, songwriter, and bandleader (born 1901)

Harold Wayne King was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader with a long association with both NBC and CBS. He was referred to as "the Waltz King" because much of his most popular music involved waltzes; "The Waltz You Saved for Me" was his standard set-closing song in live performance and on numerous radio broadcasts at the height of his career. King's innovations included converting Carrie Jacobs-Bond's "I Love You Truly" from its original 24 time over to 34.

16/07/1982

Charles Robberts Swart, South African lawyer and politician, 1st State President of South Africa (born 1894)

Charles Robberts Swart, nicknamed "Blackie", was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.

16/07/1981

Harry Chapin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1942)

Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide.

16/07/1969

James Scott Douglas, English-born Scottish race car driver and 6th Baronet Douglas (born 1930)

Sir James Louis Fitzroy Scott Douglas, 6th Baronet was a British racing driver and a baronet.

16/07/1965

Boris Artzybasheff, Ukrainian-American illustrator (born 1899)

Boris Mikhailovich Artzybasheff was a Russian and American illustrator notable for his strongly worked and often surreal designs.

16/07/1964

Rauf Orbay, Turkish colonel and politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1881)

Hüseyin Rauf Orbay was a Turkish naval officer, statesman and diplomat of Abkhaz origin. During the Italo–Turkish and Balkan Wars he was known as the Hero of Hamidiye for his exploits as captain of the eponymous cruiser. Orbay briefly served as Minister of Navy in October 1918, and signed the Armistice of Mudros on behalf of the Ottoman Empire.

16/07/1960

Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (born 1881)

Albert Kesselring was a German military officer who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II. In a career which spanned both world wars, Kesselring eventually reached the rank of the Generalfeldmarschall and became one of Nazi Germany's most highly decorated commanders.

John P. Marquand, American author (born 1893)

John Phillips Marquand was an American writer. Originally best known for his Mr. Moto spy stories, he achieved popular success and critical respect for his satirical novels, winning a Pulitzer Prize for The Late George Apley in 1938. One of his abiding themes was the confining nature of life in America's upper class and among those who aspired to join it. Marquand treated those whose lives were bound by these unwritten codes with a characteristic mix of respect and satire.

16/07/1954

Herms Niel, German soldier, trombonist, and composer (born 1888)

Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock, known as Herms Niel, was a German composer of military songs and marches.

16/07/1953

Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian (born 1870)

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was a French-English writer and political activist. Belloc was considered one of the most versatile authors of the 20th century, producing essays on history, politics and economics as well as poetry, travelogues and satire. His Catholicism had a strong effect on his works.

16/07/1949

Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet and playwright (born 1866)

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian poet, playwright, Classicist, and senior literary and dramatic theorist of the Russian Symbolist movement. He was also a philosopher, translator, and literary critic.

16/07/1943

Saul Raphael Landau, Polish Jewish lawyer, journalist, publicist and Zionist activist (born 1870)

Saul Raphael Landau was a Polish Jewish lawyer, journalist, publicist and Zionist activist.

16/07/1939

Bartholomeus Roodenburch, Dutch swimmer (born 1866)

Bartholomeus Roodenburch was a Dutch backstroke swimmer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

16/07/1935

Zheng Zhengqiu, Chinese filmmaker (born 1889)

Zheng Zhengqiu was a Chinese filmmaker often considered a "founding father" of Chinese cinema.

16/07/1917

Philipp Scharwenka, German composer and educator (born 1847)

Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka was a Polish-German composer and teacher of music. He was the older brother of Xaver Scharwenka.

16/07/1915

Ellen G. White, American author and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church(born 1827)

Ellen Gould White was an American author, and was both the prophet and a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, she was influential within a small group of early Adventists who formed what became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. White is considered a leading figure in American vegetarian history. Smithsonian named her among the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time".

16/07/1896

Edmond de Goncourt, French critic and publisher, founded Académie Goncourt (born 1822)

Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt.

16/07/1886

Ned Buntline, American journalist and author (born 1823)

Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr., known by his pen name Ned Buntline, was an American publisher, journalist, and writer.

16/07/1885

Rosalía de Castro, Spanish poet (born 1837)

María Rosalía Rita de Castro, was a Galician poet and novelist, considered one of the most important figures of the 19th-century Spanish literature and modern lyricism. Widely regarded as the greatest Galician cultural icon, she was a leading figure in the emergence of the literary Galician language. Through her work, she projected multiple emotions, including the yearning for the celebration of Galician identity and culture, and female empowerment. She is credited with challenging the traditional female writer archetype.

16/07/1882

Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States 1861–1865 (born 1818)

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln was First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865.

16/07/1879

Edward Deas Thomson, Scottish-Australian politician, 3rd Chief Secretary of New South Wales (born 1800)

Sir Edward Deas Thomson was a Scotsman who became an administrator and politician in Australia, and was chancellor of the University of Sydney.

16/07/1868

Dmitry Pisarev, Russian author and critic (born 1840)

Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev was a Russian literary critic and philosopher who was a central figure of Russian nihilism. He is noted as a forerunner of Nietzschean philosophy, and for the impact his advocacy of liberation movements and natural science had on Russian history.

16/07/1849

Sarah Allen, African-American missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (born 1764)

Sarah Allen was an American abolitionist and missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is known within the AME Church as The Founding Mother.

16/07/1831

Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, French-Russian general (born 1763)

Count Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron was a French military figure in the service of, first, the Kingdom of France, and later the Russian Empire.

16/07/1796

George Howard, English field marshal and politician (born 1718)

Field Marshal Sir George Howard KB PC was a British Army officer and politician. After commanding the 3rd Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession and after commanding that regiment again at the Battle of Falkirk Muir and the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite Rebellion, he returned to the continent and fought at the Battle of Lauffeld. He went on to command a brigade at the Battle of Warburg during the Seven Years' War. He subsequently became the Governor of Minorca.

16/07/1770

Francis Cotes, English painter and academic (born 1726)

Francis Cotes was an English painter who was one of the pioneers of English pastel painting and co-founded the Royal Academy in 1768.

16/07/1747

Giuseppe Crespi, Italian painter (born 1665)

Giuseppe Maria Crespi, nicknamed Lo Spagnuolo, was an Italian late Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. His eclectic output includes religious paintings and portraits, but he is now most famous for his genre paintings.

16/07/1729

Johann David Heinichen, German composer and theorist (born 1683)

Johann David Heinichen was a German Baroque composer and music theorist who brought the musical genius of Venice to the court of Augustus II the Strong in Dresden. After he died, Heinichen's music attracted little attention for many years. As a music theorist, he is credited as one of the inventors of the circle of fifths.

16/07/1691

François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French politician, French Secretary of State for War (born 1641)

François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois was the French Secretary of State for War during a significant part of the reign of Louis XIV. He is commonly referred to as "Louvois". Together with his father, Michel le Tellier, he oversaw an increase in the numbers of the French Army, eventually reaching 340,000 soldiers – an army that would fight four wars between 1667 and 1713. Louvois was a key military and strategic advisor to Louis XIV, who transformed the French Army into an instrument of royal authority and foreign policy.

16/07/1686

John Pearson, English bishop and scholar (born 1612)

John Pearson was an English theologian and scholar. He served with the Cavaliers in the English Civil War, acting as a chaplain to George Goring's forces.

16/07/1664

Andreas Gryphius, German poet and playwright (born 1616)

Andreas Gryphius was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque poets of the Germanosphere. He was one of the first improvers of the German language and German poetry.

16/07/1647

Masaniello, Italian rebel (born 1622)

Tommaso Aniello, popularly known by the contracted name of Masaniello, was an Italian fisherman, who led the Neapolitan Revolt of 1647 against the rule of Habsburg Spain in the Kingdom of Naples.

16/07/1576

Isabella de' Medici, Italian noble (born 1542)

Princess Isabella Romola de' Medici, Duchess of Bracciano was a Tuscan noblewoman and the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor of Toledo. Beautiful, intelligent, witty and refined, she was referred to as the Star of the House of Medici, in recognition of "her playfulness, vibrancy, often sarcastic sense of humour, sharpness and interest in a huge variety of topics - not to mention the great parties she held". Isabella de' Medici's influence on Renaissance Florence, through her patronage of the arts, political activities, and notable personal qualities, marks her as a significant figure within the Medici court of Grand Duke Cosimo I.

16/07/1557

Anne of Cleves, Queen consort of England (born 1515)

Anne of Cleves was Queen of England as the fourth wife of Henry VIII from 6 January to 12 July 1540.

16/07/1546

Anne Askew, English author and poet (born 1520)

Anne Askew, married name Anne Kyme, was an English writer, poet, and Protestant preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She and Margaret Cheyne are the only women on record known to have been both tortured in the Tower of London and burnt at the stake.

16/07/1509

João da Nova, Portuguese explorer (born 1460)

João da Nova was a Galician-born explorer in the service of Portugal. He is credited as the discoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena islands.

16/07/1344

An-Nasir Ahmad, Sultan of Egypt (born 1316)

Al-Nasir Shihab ad-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun, better known as al-Nasir Ahmad, was the Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan of Egypt, ruling from January to June 1342. A son of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, he became embroiled in the volatile succession process following his father's death in 1341. Al-Nasir Ahmad lived much of his life in the desert fortress of al-Karak in Transjordan and was reluctant to assume the sultanate in Cairo, preferring al-Karak, where he was closely allied with the inhabitants of the city and the Bedouin tribes in its vicinity. His Syrian partisans, emirs Tashtamur and Qutlubugha al-Fakhri, successfully maneuvered to bring Syria under al-Nasir Ahmad's official control, while sympathetic emirs in Egypt were able to oust the Mamluk strongman Emir Qawsun and his puppet sultan, the five-year-old half-brother of al-Nasir Ahmad, al-Ashraf Kujuk. Al-Nasir Ahmad eventually assumed the sultanate after frequently delaying his departure to Egypt.

16/07/1342

Charles I of Hungary (born 1288)

Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (Hungarian: Károly Róbert; Croatian: Karlo Robert; Slovak: Karol Róbert; Italian: Caroberto;, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel, Prince of Salerno. His father was the eldest son of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary. Mary laid claim to Hungary after her brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, died in 1290, but the Hungarian prelates and lords elected her cousin, Andrew III, king. Instead of abandoning her claim to Hungary, she transferred it to her son, Charles Martel, and after his death in 1295, to her grandson, Charles. On the other hand, her husband, Charles II of Naples, made their third son, Robert, heir to the Kingdom of Naples, thus disinheriting Charles.

16/07/1324

Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (born 1267)

Emperor Go-Uda was the 91st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1274 through 1287.

16/07/1216

Pope Innocent III (born 1160)

Pope Innocent III was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death in 1216.

16/07/1212

William de Brus, 3rd Lord of Annandale

William de Brus, 3rd Lord of Annandale, was the second but eldest surviving son of Robert de Brus, 2nd Lord of Annandale, and Euphemia.

16/07/0866

Irmgard, Frankish abbess

Irmgard of Chiemsee, a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was the second daughter of King Louis the German and his wife Hemma. She was the first abbess of Frauenwörth abbey from 857 until her death.

16/07/0851

Sisenandus, Cordoban deacon and martyr (born c. 825)

Sisenandus of Beja was a Christian deacon and martyr who was put to death during the reign of Abd al-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba, and is counted among the Martyrs of Córdoba.

16/07/0784

Fulrad, Frankish diplomat and saint (born 710)

Saint Fulrad was a Frankish religious leader who was the Abbot of Saint-Denis. He was the counselor of both Pepin the Short and Charlemagne. Historians see Fulrad as important due to his significance in the rise of the Frankish Kingdom, and the insight he gives into early Carolingian society. He was noted to have been always on the side of Charlemagne, especially during the attack from the Saxons on Regnum Francorum, and the Royal Mandatum. Other historians have taken a closer look at Fulrad's interactions with the papacy. When Fulrad was the counselor of Pepin he was closely in contact with the papacy to gain approval for Pepin's appointment as King of the Franks. During his time under Charlemagne, he had dealings with the papacy again for different reasons. When he became Abbot of Saint-Denis in the mid-eighth century, Fulrad became important in the lives of distinct historical figures in various ways. Saint Fulrad's Feast Day is on 16 July.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 16th July

Christian feast day: Gondulphus of Tongeren

Gondulph of Maastricht, sometimes of Tongeren was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht venerated as a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint. Together with Saint Servatius and Saint Monulph, he is one of the patron saints of the city of Maastricht.

Christian feast day: Helier

Helier was a 6th-century ascetic hermit. He is the patron saint of Jersey in the Channel Islands, and in particular of the town and parish of Saint Helier, the island's capital. He is also invoked as a healing saint for diseases of the skin and eyes.

Christian feast day: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Fiesta de La Tirana (Tarapacá Region, Chile)

Fiesta de la Tirana is an annual festival held in the locality of La Tirana in the Tarapacá Region of northern Chile. The celebration takes place on July 16 in honor of the Virgen del Carmen. La Tirana is the biggest geographically localized religious festivity in Chile and attracts between 200,000 and 250,000 visitors during the week of celebrations, while the village's permanent population normally numbers 5,000 inhabitants.

Christian feast day: Reineldis

Reineldis was a saint of the 7th century, martyred by raiding barbarians.

Christian feast day: July 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

July 15 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - July 17

Engineer's Day (Honduras)

Engineer's Day is observed in several countries on various dates of the year.

Holocaust Memorial Day (France)

A Holocaust memorial day or Holocaust remembrance day is an annual observance to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews and of millions of other Holocaust victims by Nazi Germany and its allies. Many countries, primarily in Europe, have designated national dates of commemoration.

What Happened on 16th July?

56 significant events took place on Sunday, 16th July — stretching from 622 to 2019. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

16/07/2019

A 100-year-old building in Mumbai, India, collapses, killing at least 10 people and leaving many others trapped.

Mumbai, also known as Bombay, is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India, with an estimated population of 12.5 million (1.25 crore). Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which is among the most populous metropolitan areas in the world with a population of over 23 million. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires of any city in Asia.

16/07/2015

Four U.S. Marines and a United States Navy Sailor are killed in the a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the naval infantry service branch of the United States Armed Forces. The service is responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious warfare through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is a part of the United States Department of Defense and is one of the six armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.

16/07/2013

As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.

On 16 July 2013, 23–27 students died, and dozens more fell ill at a primary school in the village of Gandaman in the Saran district of the Indian state of Bihar after eating a Midday Meal contaminated with pesticide. Angered by the deaths and illnesses, villagers took to the streets in many parts of the district in violent protest. Subsequently, the Bihar government took a series of steps to prevent any recurrence of such incidents.

Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn resumes between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist forces, beginning the Rojava–Islamist conflict.

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.

16/07/2009

Teoh Beng Hock, an aide to a politician in Malaysia is found dead on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the offices of the Anti-Corruption Commission, sparking an inquest that gains nationwide attention.

Teoh Beng Hock was a Chinese Malaysian journalist and political aide to Ean Yong Hian Wah, a member of the Selangor state legislative assembly and state executive council. On 15 July 2009, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) took Teoh was initially scheduled to meet investigators regarding allegations of corruption, but before the session could take place, he was reported missing. The next morning, he was found dead on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the MACC offices, sparking confusion and speculation. The unusual circumstances prompted both Pakatan Rakyat leaders and several federal government officials to urge the establishment of a Royal Commission of inquiry to uncover the truth behind the incident.

16/07/2007

An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

The Chūetsu offshore earthquake was a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake that occurred 10:13 local time on July 16, 2007, in the northwest Niigata Prefecture of Japan. The earthquake, which occurred at a previously unknown offshore fault shook Niigata and neighbouring prefectures. The city of Kashiwazaki and the villages of Iizuna and Kariwa registered the highest seismic intensity of a strong 6 on Japan's shindo scale, and the quake was felt as far away as Tokyo. Eleven deaths and at least 1,000 injuries were reported, and 342 buildings were completely destroyed, mostly older wooden structures. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe broke off from his election campaign to visit Kashiwazaki and promised to "make every effort towards rescue and also to restore services such as gas and electricity".

16/07/2005

An Antonov An-24 crashes near Baney in Bioko Norte, Equatorial Guinea, killing 60 people.

The Antonov An-24 is a 44-seat twin turboprop regional airliner designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau. Later variants saw other uses, such as military transport and aerial cartography. The aircraft was manufactured by the Kyiv, Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude Aviation Factories. It is still license-produced in China as the Xi'an Y-7.

16/07/2004

Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Millennium Park is a public park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). The park, opened in July 2004, is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) section of northwestern Grant Park. Featuring a variety of public art, outdoor spaces and venues, the park is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive. In 2017, Millennium Park was the top tourist destination in Chicago and in the Midwest, and placed among the top ten in the United States with 25 million annual visitors.

16/07/1999

John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, die when the aircraft he is piloting crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., also referred to as JFK Jr., was an American businessman, attorney, magazine publisher, and journalist. He was the son of the 35th U.S. president John F. Kennedy, and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

16/07/1994

The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was a comet that broke apart in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. This generated a large amount of coverage in the popular media, and the comet was closely observed by astronomers worldwide. The collision provided new information about Jupiter and highlighted its possible role in reducing space debris in the inner Solar System.

16/07/1990

The Luzon earthquake strikes the Philippines with an intensity of 7.7, affecting Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac.

The 1990 Luzon earthquake occurred on July 16 at 3:26 p.m. (PST) on the densely populated island of Luzon in the Philippines. The shock had a surface-wave magnitude of 7.8 and produced a 125 km-long ground rupture that stretched from Dingalan to Kayapa. The event was a result of strike-slip movements along the Philippine Fault and the Digdig Fault within the Philippine fault system. The earthquake's epicenter was near the town of Rizal, Nueva Ecija, northeast of Cabanatuan. An estimated 1,621 people were killed, most of the fatalities located in Central Luzon and the Cordillera region.

The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

16/07/1983

Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.

On 16 July 1983, British Airways Helicopters Flight 5918, a British Airways Helicopters commercial Sikorsky S-61 helicopter, Oscar November (G-BEON), crashed in the southern Celtic Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, while en route from Penzance to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly in poor visibility. Only six of the twenty-six people on board survived. It was Britain's worst civil aviation helicopter accident at the time.

16/07/1979

Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

The president of the Republic of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq. Since the mid-2000s, the presidency is primarily a symbolic office, as the position does not possess significant power within the country according to the constitution adopted in October 2005.

16/07/1969

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission is launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida, USA.

Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon, and the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. The mission was crewed by Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, all of whom were on their second and final spaceflight.

16/07/1965

The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under Mont Blanc in the Alps. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian Traforo T1, in particular the motorways serving Geneva and Turin. The passageway is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres and to Milan by 100 km (60 mi). Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15 km (10 mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent.

South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, is hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forces of the Vietnamese National Army, established on 8 December 1950, representing Vietnam to fight in the First Indochina War against the communist Viet Minh rebels. At the ARVN's peak, an estimated 1 in 9 citizens of South Vietnam were enlisted, composed of Regular Forces and the more voluntary Regional Forces and the Popular Force militias. It is estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties during the Vietnam War.

16/07/1957

KLM Flight 844 crashes off the Schouten Islands in present day Indonesia (then Netherlands New Guinea), killing 58 people.

KLM Flight 844 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Biak-Mokmer Airport, Dutch New Guinea to Manila International Airport, Manila, Philippines on 16 July 1957, which crashed into Cenderawasih Bay 1.2 kilometres from its departure airport. As a result, 58 out of 68 onboard perished. The flight was the first leg of a service with the ultimate destination of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

16/07/1956

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; due to changing economics, all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling, is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor have run shows from 1871, with a hiatus from 2017 to 2023. They operate as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. in 1907 following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.

16/07/1951

King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin of Belgium.

Leopold III was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasion in May 1940, he surrendered his country, earning him much hostility, both at home and abroad.

J. D. Salinger publishes his popular yet controversial novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

Jerome David Salinger was an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger published several short stories in Story magazine in 1940, before serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker, which published much of his later work.

16/07/1950

Chaplain–Medic massacre: American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

The Chaplain–Medic massacre took place in the Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tuman. South Korean local natives claim that it took place on a mountain above the village of Yongdam-ri, which is next to Duman-ri. Thirty unarmed, critically wounded United States Army (US) soldiers and an unarmed chaplain were murdered by members of the Korean People's Army (KPA) during the Battle of the Kum River.

Uruguay beats hosts Brazil 2–1 to win the World Cup in a match dubbed as the Maracanazo.

The Uruguay national football team, nicknamed La Celeste and Los Charrúas, have represented Uruguay in international men's football since their first international match in 1902 and is administered by the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol, the governing body of football in Uruguay, which is a founding member of CONMEBOL since 1916 and a member of FIFA since 1923. It was also a member of PFC, which was the attempt at a unified confederation of the Americas from 1946 to 1961. Uruguay's home stadium is the Estadio Centenario, and they have been coached by Marcelo Bielsa since 2023.

16/07/1948

Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Nazareth is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2024 its population was 75,704. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and commercial center for the Arab citizens of Israel. The inhabitants are predominantly Arabs, of whom 69% are Muslim and 31% Christian. The city also commands immense religious significance, deriving from its status as the hometown of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity and a prophet in Islam and the Baháʼí Faith.

The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

Miss Macao (Chinese: 澳門小姐; Sidney Lau: O3 Moon4 Siu2 Je2) was a Catalina seaplane owned by Cathay Pacific and operated by subsidiary Macau Air Transport Company. On 16 July 1948 it was involved in the first hijacking of a commercial aircraft. Piracy for robbery and ransom was the motive. The aircraft crashed after the pilot was shot while resisting the attackers; 25 people died, including three hijackers, but one hijacker survived by jumping out of the airplane before impact.

16/07/1945

Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$2 billion.

World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.

A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Heavy cruisers were generally larger, more heavily armed and more heavily armoured than light cruisers while being smaller, faster, and more lightly armed and armoured than battlecruisers and battleships. Heavy cruisers were not considered capital ships, unlike battlecruisers, battleships, and fleet carriers. Heavy cruisers were assigned a variety of roles ranging from commerce raiding to serving as 'cruiser-killers,' i.e. hunting and destroying similarly sized ships.

16/07/1942

Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv): The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

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.

16/07/1941

Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as an MLB record.

Joseph Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Born to Italian immigrants in California, he is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time and set the record for the longest hitting streak.

16/07/1935

The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street parking policy, usually related to their traffic and mobility management policies, but are also used for revenue.

16/07/1931

Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

The emperor of Ethiopia, also known as the Atse, was the hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country. A National Geographic article from 1965 called Imperial Ethiopia "nominally a constitutional monarchy; in fact it was a benevolent autocracy".

16/07/1927

Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.

Augusto César Sandino was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United States occupation of Nicaragua. Despite being referred to as a "bandit" by the United States government, his exploits made him a hero throughout much of Latin America, where he became a symbol of resistance to American imperialism. Sandino drew units of the United States Marine Corps into an undeclared guerrilla war. The United States troops withdrew from the country in 1933 after overseeing the election and inauguration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa, who had returned from exile.

16/07/1916

Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and a music director at the court of George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

16/07/1915

Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of theologian Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

At Treasure Island on the Delaware River in the United States, the First Order of the Arrow ceremony takes place and the Order of the Arrow is founded to honor American Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.

The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for 282 miles (454 km) along the borders of : New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before emptying into Delaware Bay.

16/07/1910

John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.

John Robertson Duigan MC was an Australian pioneer aviator who built and flew the first Australian-made aircraft.

16/07/1909

Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.

The Persian Constitutional Revolution, also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar era. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in Iran (Persia), and has been called an "epoch-making episode in the modern history of Persia".

16/07/1862

American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.

David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in U.S. Navy tradition for his bold order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually abbreviated to "Damn the torpedoes ... full speed ahead."

16/07/1861

American Civil War: At the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

16/07/1858

The last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.

The Lourdes apparitions are several Marian apparitions reported in 1858 by Bernadette Soubirous, the 14-year-old daughter of a miller, in the town of Lourdes in Southern France.

16/07/1849

Antonio María Claret y Clará founds the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, popularly known as the Claretians in Vic, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Anthony Mary Claret, was a Spanish Catholic prelate and missionary who served as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was the confessor of Queen Isabella II. He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians.

16/07/1809

The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the seat of government of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, it is the third-most populous city in Bolivia. Its metropolitan area, which includes the neighboring city of El Alto, and other smaller towns, is the second most populous urban area in Bolivia, with a population of 2.2 million, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra with a population of 2.3 million. The city is also the capital of the department of the same name.

16/07/1790

The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia and commonly known as simply Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River across from Virginia and shares land borders with Maryland to its north and east. It was named after George Washington, a Founding Father and the first president of the United States. The district is named for Columbia, the female personification of the nation, through which human form and attributes are applied to the United States.

16/07/1779

American Revolutionary War: Light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.

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.

16/07/1769

Father Junípero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, California.

Junípero Serra Ferrer, popularly known simply as Junipero Serra, was a Spanish Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He founded a mission in Baja California and established eight of the 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, in what was then Spanish-occupied Alta California in the Province of Las Californias of New Spain.

16/07/1683

Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.

The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing, also known as the Qing Empire or Qing China, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia which existed from 1636/1644 to 1912. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. At the height of its power, the empire stretched from the Sea of Japan in the east to the Pamir Mountains in the west, and from the Mongolian Plateau in the north to the South China Sea in the south. Originally emerging from the Later Jin dynasty founded in 1616 and proclaimed in Shenyang in 1636, the dynasty seized control of the Ming capital Beijing and North China in 1644, traditionally considered the start of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty lasted until the Xinhai Revolution of October 1911 led to the abdication of the last emperor in February 1912. The multi-ethnic Qing dynasty assembled the territorial base for modern China. The Qing controlled the most territory of any dynasty in Chinese history, and in 1790 was the fourth-largest empire in world history to that point. It was also the most populous state at the time, with over 426 million citizens in 1907.

16/07/1661

The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

A banknote or bank note – also called a bill or simply a note – is a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commercial banks, which were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes were only traded at face value in the market served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks or monetary authorities.

16/07/1536

Jacques Cartier, navigator and explorer, returns home to St. Malo after claiming Stadacona (Quebec), Hochelaga (Montreal) and the River of Canada (St. Lawrence River) region for France.

Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga.

16/07/1377

King Richard II of England is crowned.

Richard II, also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince and Joan of Kent. The Black Prince died in 1376, leaving Richard as heir apparent to his grandfather, King Edward III. Upon the King's death, the 10-year-old Richard succeeded to the throne.

16/07/1251

Celebrated by the Carmelite Order–but doubted by modern historians–as the day when Saint Simon Stock had a vision of the Virgin Mary.

The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Historical records about its origin remain uncertain; it was probably founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.

16/07/1232

The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence and names its native Muhammad ibn Yusuf as ruler. This marks the Muhammad's first rise to prominence; he later established the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in Spain.

Arjona is a municipality in the province of Jaén, Andalusia, Spain. It is located 44 kilometres (27 mi) from the provincial capital, Jaén, and 77 kilometres (48 mi) from the city of Córdoba. It has an area of 158.45 square kilometres (61.18 sq mi), and as of 2017 it had a population of 5,662. It belongs to the comarca of Campiña. Its land area is primarily agricultural, with an emphasis on olive trees. Its economy relies primarily on agriculture and olive oil production, but it is also known for its furniture and baking industries. Arjona is known as the birthplace in 1194 of Muhammad I, founder of the Emirate of Granada.

16/07/1228

Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized.

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he became a beggar and an itinerant preacher.

16/07/1212

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: After Pope Innocent III calls European knights to a crusade, the forces of kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Peter II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeat those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain.

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, known in Islamic history as the Battle of Al-Uqab, took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the Reconquista and the history of medieval Spain. The Christian forces were led by King Alfonso VIII of Castile, joined by his rivals, Kings Sancho VII of Navarre and Peter II of Aragon. The Muslim army was led by caliph al-Nasir, ruler of the Almohad Caliphate, which included the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

16/07/1054

Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian churches through the act of placing a papal bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the formal start of the East–West Schism.

A papal legate or apostolic legate is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catholic Church, or to representatives of a state or monarchy. A legate is empowered in matters of Catholic faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters.

16/07/0997

Battle of Spercheios: Bulgarian forces of Tsar Samuel are defeated by a Byzantine army under general Nikephoros Ouranos at the Spercheios River in Greece.

The Battle of Spercheios took place in 997 AD, on the shores of the Spercheios river near the city of Lamia in central Greece. It was fought between a Bulgarian army led by Tsar Samuil, which in the previous year had penetrated south into Greece, and a Byzantine army under the command of General Nikephoros Ouranos. The Byzantine victory virtually destroyed the Bulgarian army, and ended its raids in the southern Balkans and Greece. The major historical source on the battle comes from Greek historian John Skylitzes whose Synopsis of Histories contains a biography of the then-reigning Byzantine emperor, Basil II.

16/07/0622

The Hijrah of Muhammad begins, marking the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

The Hijrah, also Hegira, was the journey the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers took from Mecca to Medina. The year in which the Hijrah took place is also identified as the epoch of the Lunar Hijri and Solar Hijri calendars; its date equates to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar.

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Amiah Miller, American actress and model

Island Boys, American social media personalities

Jarred Kelenic, American baseball player

Kevin Abstract, American rapper and singer-songwriter

Luke Hemmings, Australian singer and musician

Shericka Jackson, Jamaican sprinter

Safiya Nygaard, American YouTuber

Dylan Grimes, Australian Rules footballer

Nate Schmidt, American ice hockey player

Andros Townsend, English footballer

James Maslow, American actor, singer and dancer

Wizkid, Nigerian singer and songwriter

Johann Zarco, French motorcycle racer

Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer

Sergio Busquets, Spanish footballer

Mousa Dembélé, Belgian footballer

AnnaLynne McCord, American actress and producer

Knowshon Moreno, American football player

Misako Uno, Japanese actress, singer, and fashion designer

Mārtiņš Kravčenko, Latvian basketball player

Hayanari Shimoda, Japanese racing driver

Attila Szabó, Hungarian decathlete

Katrina Kaif, British Indian actress and model

Duncan Keith, Canadian ice hockey player

André Greipel, German cyclist

Carli Lloyd, American soccer player

Michael Umaña, Costa Rican footballer

Giuseppe Di Masi, Italian footballer

Robert Kranjec, Slovenian ski jumper

Zach Randolph, American basketball player

Vicente Rodríguez, Spanish footballer

Adam Scott, Australian golfer

Jayma Mays, American actress

Chris Mihm, American basketball player

Kim Rhode, American sport shooter

Konstantin Skrylnikov, Russian footballer

Bryan Budd, Northern Ireland-born English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (died 2006)

Tomasz Kuchar, Polish racing driver

Bobby Lashley, American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

Carlos Humberto Paredes, Paraguayan footballer

Anna Smashnova, Belarusian-Israeli tennis player

Maret Maripuu, Estonian politician, Estonian Minister of Social Affairs

Wendell Sailor, Australian rugby player

João Dias, Portuguese politician

Shaun Pollock, South African cricketer

Tim Ryan, American politician

François Drolet, Canadian speed skater

Corey Feldman, American actor

Ed Kowalczyk, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Raimonds Miglinieks, Latvian basketball player and coach

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thai director, producer, and screenwriter

Serena Chen, American social psychologist

Sahra Wagenknecht, German politician

Kathryn Harby-Williams, Australian netball player and sportscaster

Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player and manager

Barry Sanders, American football player

Larry Sanger, American philosopher and businessman, co-founded Wikipedia and Citizendium

Robert Sherman, American songwriter and businessman

Olga Souza, Brazilian singer and dancer

Will Ferrell, American actor, comedian, and producer

Jyrki Lumme, Finnish ice hockey player

Michel Desjoyeaux, French sailor

Claude Lemieux, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2026)

Billy Mitchell, American video game player

Phil Hellmuth, American poker player

Miguel Induráin, Spanish cyclist

Phoebe Cates, American actress

Srečko Katanec, Slovenian footballer and coach

Mikael Pernfors, Swedish tennis player

Grigory Leps, Russian singer-songwriter

James MacMillan, Scottish composer and conductor

Jürgen Ligi, Estonian economist and politician, 25th Estonian Minister of Defence

Mick Cornett, American politician

Michael Flatley, American-Irish dancer and choreographer