Historical Events on Friday, 16th May

16/05/2025

A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.

In the late evening hours of May 16, 2025, a large and deadly nocturnal EF4 tornado moved through the western Cumberland Plateau, impacting the Kentucky cities of Somerset and London. The tornado, which was on the ground for almost an hour and a half, killed 18 people and injured 108 others along a 60 mi (97 km) track. It was the second tornado rated EF4 by the National Weather Service, with the first one occurring hours prior in Illinois as part of a major tornado outbreak in mid-May.

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16/05/2014

Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.

On 16 May 2014, two improvised explosive devices were detonated simultaneously in the Gikomba market in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 12 people and injuring 70. The first blast came from a minibus and the second from within the market. Two people were reportedly arrested at the site of the explosions. Shortly after the attacks, hundreds of people swarmed onto the crime scene despite police efforts to stop them.

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16/05/2011

STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander. The European segment of the mission was called "DAMA".

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16/05/2005

Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.

Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia. With a coastline of approximately 500 km (311 mi), it is situated at the head of the Persian Gulf in the northeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Iraq to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. Kuwait is geographically the closest Gulf country to mainland Iran. The country is a small city-state; most of the population reside in the urban agglomeration of Kuwait City, the capital and largest city. As of 2024, Kuwait has a population of 4.82 million, of which 1.53 million are Kuwaiti citizens while the remaining 3.29 million are foreign nationals from over 100 countries. In 2024, Kuwait had the world's seventh largest number of foreign nationals as a percentage of the population, where its citizens make up fewer than 30% of the overall population.

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16/05/2003

In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south, occupied by Morocco since 1975. Morocco also claims the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. Morocco also claims to share a border with Mauritania through the disputed territory of Western Sahara. It has a population of approximately 37 million. Islam is both the official and predominant religion, while Arabic and Berber are the official languages. Additionally, French and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic are widely spoken. The culture of Morocco is a mix of Arab, Amazigh, and European. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca.

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16/05/1997

Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa za Banga, often shortened to Mobutu Sese Seko or Mobutu and also known by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the first and only president of Zaire from 1971 to 1997. Previously, Mobutu served as the second president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 1965 to 1971.

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16/05/1991

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.

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16/05/1988

A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus a leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The surgeon general's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), which is housed within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.

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16/05/1975

Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer, author and teacher. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent.

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16/05/1974

Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.

Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who led Yugoslavia as prime minister from 1943 to 1963 and as president from 1953 until his death in 1980. He was the longtime leader of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, supreme commander of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, and was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The political ideology and policies associated with his rule are known as Titoism.

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16/05/1972

An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.

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.

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16/05/1969

Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.

The Venera program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus. A total of eighteen probes were sent, including two related Vega probes.

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16/05/1966

The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

The Communist Party of China (CPC), commonly known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP won the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang and proclaimed the establishment of the PRC under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong in October 1949. The CCP has since governed China and has had sole control over the country's armed forces and law enforcement. As of 2024, the CCP has more than 100 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world.

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16/05/1961

Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.

Park Chung Hee was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until his assassination in 1979. His regime oversaw a period of intense economic growth and transformation, making Park one of the most consequential leaders in Korean history, although his legacy as a military dictator remains a bitter subject.

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16/05/1960

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

Theodore Harold Maiman was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser. Maiman's laser led to the subsequent development of many other types of lasers. The laser was successfully fired on May 16, 1960. In a July 7, 1960, press conference in Manhattan, Maiman and his employer, Hughes Aircraft Company, announced the laser to the world. Maiman was granted a patent for his invention, and he received many awards and honors for his work. His experiences in developing the first laser and subsequent related events are recounted in his book, The Laser Odyssey, later being republished in 2018 under a new title, The Laser Inventor: Memoirs of Theodore H. Maiman.

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16/05/1959

The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.

The Tritons’ Fountain is a fountain located in Floriana, Malta. It consists of three bronze Tritons holding up a large basin, balanced on a concentric base built out of concrete and clad in 730 tons of travertine slabs. The fountain is one of Malta's most important Modernist landmarks.

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16/05/1954

Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.

The Kengir uprising was a prisoner rebellion that occurred in Kengir (Steplag), a Soviet MVD special camp for political prisoners, during May and June 1954. Its duration and intensity distinguished it from other Gulag rebellions during the same period, such as the Vorkuta uprising and Norilsk uprising.

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16/05/1951

The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

A transatlantic flight (TATL) is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft. The distance of contemporary flights varies between 3,000km to 15,000km.

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16/05/1945

Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.

The Levant Crisis, also known as the Damascus Crisis, the Syrian Crisis, or the Levant Confrontation, was a military confrontation that took place between British and French forces in Syria in May 1945 soon after the end of World War II in Europe. French troops had tried to quell nationalist protests in Syria against the continued occupation of the Levant by France. With hundreds of Syrian nationalists being killed by French troops, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, wanting to maintain friendly relations with the Arabs, opposed French action and sent British forces into Syria from Transjordan with orders to fire on the French if necessary.

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16/05/1943

The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

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.

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Operation Chastise is undertaken by RAF Bomber Command with specially equipped Avro Lancasters to destroy the Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley.

Operation Chastise, commonly known as the Dambusters Raid, was an attack on German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters, using special bouncing bombs developed by Barnes Wallis. The Möhne and Edersee dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley; the Sorpe Dam sustained only minor damage. Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more damaged. Factories and mines were also damaged and destroyed. An estimated 1,600 civilians – about 600 Germans and 1,000 enslaved labourers, mainly Soviet – were killed by the flooding. Despite rapid repairs by the Germans, production did not return to normal until September. The RAF lost 56 aircrew, with 53 dead and three captured, amid losses of eight aircraft.

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16/05/1929

In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a neighborhood and district in Central Los Angeles, California. Its name has become synonymous with the American film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios such as Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures are located in or near Hollywood.

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16/05/1925

The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.

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16/05/1920

In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.

Pope Benedict XV was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I and its political, social, and humanitarian consequences in Europe.

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16/05/1919

A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

The NC-4 is a Curtiss NC flying boat that was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, albeit not non-stop. The NC designation was derived from the collaborative efforts of the Navy (N) and Curtiss (C). The NC series flying boats were designed to meet wartime needs, and after the end of World War I they were sent overseas to validate the design concept.

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16/05/1918

The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.

The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds.

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16/05/1916

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established by the Acts of Union in 1801 that united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state. It continued in this form until 1927, when it evolved into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the Irish Free State gained a degree of independence in 1922.

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16/05/1891

The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

The 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition was held between 16 May and 19 October on the disused site of the three former Westbahnhöfe in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The exhibition featured the first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current, which was generated 175 km away at Lauffen am Neckar. As a result of this successful field trial, three-phase current became established for electrical transmission networks throughout the world.

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16/05/1888

Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

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16/05/1877

The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.

The 16 May 1877 crisis, or more simply the Seize Mai, was a political crisis and institutional crisis that occurred in France during the Third Republic. It pitted the President of the Republic, Marshal Patrice de Mac Mahon, a convinced monarchist, against the republican majority that had emerged from the 1876 legislative elections.

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16/05/1874

A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.

The Mill River is a 13.5-mile-long (21.7 km) tributary of the Connecticut River arising in the western hilltowns of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. It is notable for dropping in elevation, along with its West Branch, more than 700 feet (210 m) over 15 miles (24 km).

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16/05/1868

The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.

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16/05/1866

The United States Congress establishes the nickel.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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16/05/1863

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, the decisive Union victory by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Champion Hill drives the Confederate army under John C. Pemberton back towards Vicksburg, Mississippi.

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 lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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16/05/1842

The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.

A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. Before the extensive use of military vehicles, baggage trains followed an army with supplies and ammunition.

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16/05/1834

The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

The Battle of Asseiceira, fought on 16 May, 1834, was the last and decisive engagement of the Portuguese Civil War, or "War of the Two Brothers", between Dom Pedro, ex-Emperor of Brazil and the usurper Dom Miguel. Dom Miguel's rebel forces were defeated.

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16/05/1832

Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.

Chañarcillo is a town and mine in the Atacama Desert of Copiapó Province, Atacama Region, Chile, located near Vallenar and 60 km from Copiapó. It is noted for its silver mining. The town grew after the Chañarcillo silver mine, discovered on May 16, 1832, by Juan Godoy, sparked the Chilean silver rush. It grew in prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century and became important in the Atacama mining industry and one of the most important mines to the Chilean economy. It was connected by railway before 1862. Today the settlement is largely in ruins.

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16/05/1822

Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March.

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16/05/1812

Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.

The Russian Empire spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about 22,800,000 km2 (8,800,000 sq mi), roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history, behind only the British and Mongol empires. It also colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867. The empire's 1897 census, the only one it conducted, found a population of 125.6 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity.

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16/05/1811

Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom fight an inconclusive battle against the French at the Albuera. It is, in proportion to the numbers involved, the bloodiest battle of the war.

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).

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16/05/1777

Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh fatally wounds Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in a duel in Savannah, Georgia.

The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia after the war's outbreak at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. As a result, the U.S. Army Birthday is celebrated on June 14.

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16/05/1771

The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

The Battle of Alamance, which took place on May 16, 1771, was the final confrontation of the Regulator Movement, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over various issues with the Colonial Government. The Regulators primarily wanted reforms to the currency act and to stop local corruption. They would also request other changes, like secret ballot voting, progressive taxation, land reform, and more transparent government. Named for nearby Great Alamance Creek, the battle took place in what was then Orange County and has since become Alamance County in the central Piedmont area, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of present-day Burlington, North Carolina.

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16/05/1770

The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, Dauphin de France, who later becomes king of France.

Marie Antoinette was Queen of France as the wife of Louis XVI from 10 May 1774 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1792. She was beheaded during the Reign of Terror, a period of political violence in the French Revolution.

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16/05/1739

The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.

The Battle of Vasai or the Battle of Bassein was fought between the Maratha Empire and the Portuguese rulers of Vasai, a town near Mumbai (Bombay) in the Konkan region of the present-day state of Maharashtra, India. The Marathas were led by Chimaji Appa, a brother of Peshwa Baji Rao I.

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16/05/1584

Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.

Santiago de Vera was a native of Alcalá de Henares, Spain and the sixth Spanish governor of the Philippines, from May 16, 1584, until May 1590.

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16/05/1568

Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.

Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication on 24 July 1567.

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16/05/1532

Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as a martyr and saint, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state.

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16/05/1527

The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.

The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually in trade until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe in the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century.

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16/05/1426

Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes King of Ava.

Mohnyin Thado was king of Ava from 1426 to 1439. He is also known in Burmese history as Mohnyin Min Taya after his longtime tenure as the sawbwa of Mohnyin, a Shan-speaking frontier state. He founded the royal house of Mohnyin that would rule the kingdom until 1527.

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16/05/1364

Hundred Years' War: Bertrand du Guesclin and a French army defeat the Anglo-Navarrese army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel.

The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a claim to the French throne made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides. The periodisation of the war typically charts it as taking place over 116 years. However, it was an intermittent conflict which was frequently interrupted by external factors, such as the Black Death, and several years of truces.

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16/05/1204

Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

Baldwin I was the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople; Count of Flanders from 1194 to 1205 and Count of Hainaut from 1195 to 1205. Baldwin was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the sack of Constantinople in 1204, the conquest of the Byzantine Empire, and the foundation of the Latin Empire. The following year he was defeated at the Battle of Adrianople by Kaloyan, the emperor of Bulgaria, and spent his last days as a prisoner.

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16/05/0946

Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.

Emperor Suzaku was the 61st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

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