Saturday, 16th May 2026 in Prag

16th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Today, the zodiac sign Taurus celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on May 16th blend Taurus stability with Mercurial curiosity. These thoughtful pleasure-seekers approach life methodically, preferring practical solutions over quick decisions. Calm exteriors mask active minds and nuanced communication skills.

Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths: reliability, sensory refinement, clear thinking, and persistence. Weaknesses: occasional stubbornness, tendency toward inertia, and sometimes excessive caution in decision-making.

Love These natives seek partners who combine sensuality with intellectual depth. Loyal and attentive, they value stable relationships enriched by verbal intimacy. Their balance between emotion and reason creates harmonious, resilient bonds.

Caree & Finance Professionally, they thrive in roles blending creativity with structure—design, education, craftsmanship. Financial prudence and patience build solid wealth. Their practical intelligence opens doors across industries.

Health Regular physical activity and sufficient rest are essential. These natives benefit from relaxation techniques like massage or yoga. Monitoring neck and throat tension supports long-term wellbeing.

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

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 16th May

Name Days in Your Language: Brand, Branden, Brandi, Brandon, Brandy, Brannon, Brant, Brenda, Brendan, Brenden, Brendon, Brenna, Brennan, Brent, Brenton

Someone born on this day would be just 16 days old today — roughly 385 hours, 23,103 minutes, or 1,386,218 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 136. day of the year. In 2026, 16th May falls on a Saturday.

There are 229 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 20 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 16th May

On this day, 212 notable people were born on 16th May — spanning from 1418 to 2002. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

16/05/2002

Ryan Gravenberch, Dutch footballer

Ryan Jiro Gravenberch is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team.

16/05/2000

Luis Garcia, Dominican-American baseball player

Luis Victoriano García, known professionally as Luis García Jr., is a Dominican-American professional baseball second baseman for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB).

16/05/1996

Louisa Chirico, American tennis player

Louisa Chirico is an American tennis player. On 24 October 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 58. On 6 March 2017, she peaked at No. 184 in the WTA doubles rankings. Chirico has won seven singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her best performance in singles at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the second round at the 2016 French Open.

16/05/1995

Elizabeth Ralston, Australian footballer

Elizabeth Rose "Liz" Ralston is an Australian football (soccer) player, who plays for Western Sydney Wanderers in the Australian W-League. She has previously played for Sydney FC. She also works as a physiotherapist.

16/05/1994

Kathinka von Deichmann, Liechtenstein tennis player

Kathinka von Deichmann is a professional tennis player from Liechtenstein. On 8 October 2018, she reached her best WTA ranking of world No. 153 in singles, and on 17 July 2017, she peaked at No. 343 in doubles. Von Deichmann has won 15 singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

16/05/1993

Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norwegian biathlete

Johannes Thingnes Bø is a Norwegian former biathlete who has achieved significant success in the sport. Thingnes Bø has won the Biathlon World Cup five times, in the 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2022/23, and 2023/24 seasons. He is the male biathlete with the second most individual World Cup victories in history, totaling 91, including victories at the Winter Olympic Games.

Karol Mets, Estonian footballer

Karol Mets is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a centre back or defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club FC St. Pauli and the Estonia national team.

IU, Korean singer-songwriter and actress

Lee Ji-eun, also known by her stage name IU (아이유), is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress. She signed with LOEN Entertainment in 2007 as a trainee and debuted as a singer at the age of fifteen with the EP Lost and Found (2008). Although her follow-up albums brought mainstream success, it was only after the release of "Good Day", the lead single from her 2010 EP Real, that she achieved national stardom. "Good Day" went on to spend five consecutive weeks at the top of South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, and in 2019, it was ranked number one on Billboard's "100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s" list.

16/05/1992

Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player

Jeffrey Scott Skinner is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward. He most recently played for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected seventh overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2010 NHL entry draft, and has also played for the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers.

Kirstin Maldonado, American singer and songwriter

Kirstin Taylor Maldonado is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for being a vocalist in the a cappella group Pentatonix. With the group, she has released seven studio albums, won three Grammy Awards, and sold over six million albums.

16/05/1991

Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player

Grigor Dimitrov Dimitrov is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the ATP, making him the highest-ranked Bulgarian in history. Dimitrov reached the ranking after winning the biggest title of his career at the season-ending ATP Finals in November 2017. He has won nine ATP Tour singles titles.

Joey Graceffa, American internet celebrity

Joseph Michael Graceffa Jr. is an American YouTuber, vlogger, actor, author, and producer. He runs four active YouTube channels, all named after him. His main channel is dedicated to vlogging, while the second features video gaming content. The third is for daily vlogs, and the fourth is a react channel. His channels have a combined total of more than 2.9 billion views. He was a contestant on the 22nd and 24th seasons of The Amazing Race, and has appeared in a handful of short films as well as creating and hosting Escape the Night, an immersive reality web series, distributed by YouTube via its paid-subscription service YouTube Premium. He appears in all four of the seasons with several other YouTubers, including Liza Koshy, Tyler Oakley, Justine Ezarik, Matthew Patrick, and Rosanna Pansino.

Ashley Wagner, American figure skater

Ashley Elisabeth Wagner is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2016 World silver medalist, a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, the 2012 Four Continents champion, a three-time Grand Prix Final medalist, a thirteen-time Grand Prix medalist, and a three-time U.S. national champion. Wagner competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and placed 7th. At the junior level, Wagner is a two-time World Junior bronze medalist, the 2006-07 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, a two-time Junior Grand Prix medalist, and the 2007 U.S. junior bronze medalist.

16/05/1990

Amanda Carreras, Gibraltarian tennis player

Amanda Carreras is an inactive British tennis player from Gibraltar.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is a British actor. As a child actor, he gained recognition for his roles in the commercially successful films Love Actually (2003) and Nanny McPhee (2005). He voiced Ferb in the first four seasons of Phineas and Ferb (2007–2015), and subsequently gained wider attention with his roles as Jake Murray in Accused (2010–2012), Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones (2013–2014) and as Newt in the Maze Runner film series (2014–2018). Continued acclaim ensued with the independent films Nowhere Boy (2009), in which he portrayed Paul McCartney, Bright Star (2009), and Death of a Superhero (2011).

Darko Šarović, Serbian sprinter

Darko Šarović is a Serbian medical doctor, PhD in child psychiatry, Master of Science in psychology, and former professional athlete who specialised in the short sprint events, holding a national 100m record in the under 23 category. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He holds both Serbian and Swedish citizenships.

Omar Strong, American basketball player

Omar Strong Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Windsor Express of the NBL Canada. In 2012–13, he was a senior at Texas Southern University and was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

16/05/1989

Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model

Behati Prinsloo is a Namibian model. In 2008, she became a Pink contract model, and moved on to become a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2009. She walked in twelve Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows, and opened consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion shows in 2014 and 2015.

16/05/1988

Jesús Castillo, Mexican footballer

Jesús Castillo Ugarte is a former defender who last played for the Celaya on loan from Monarcas Morelia, in the Ascenso MX.

Martynas Gecevičius, Lithuanian basketball player

Martynas Gecevičius is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for BC Telšiai of the National Basketball League (NKL). Standing at 1.93 m, he primarily plays at the shooting guard position.

Jaak Põldma, Estonian tennis player

Jaak Põldma is a retired Estonian tennis player.

16/05/1987

Tom Onslow-Cole, English race car driver

Thomas Michael Onslow-Cole is a British former racing driver. He won the International GT Open in Pro-Am category in 2018 and in 2019 and the 24H Series in 2015.

16/05/1986

Megan Fox, American actress

Megan Denise Fox is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film Holiday in the Sun (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), as well as a starring role in the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2004–2006). Her breakout role was as Mikaela Banes in the blockbuster action film Transformers (2007), which she reprised in its sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).

Andy Keogh, Irish footballer

Andrew Declan Keogh is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for semi-professional side East Perth FC. Born in Dublin, Keogh played the first several years of his professional career playing for a number of clubs in England, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, for whom he made over 100 appearances. In 2014, Keogh moved to Australia to play for Perth Glory. He left the Glory for one year to play in the Thai Premier League for Ratchaburi before returning in early 2016, and again in 2020, after leaving in 2019, for Al-Qadsiah.

Shamcey Supsup, Filipino model and architect

Shamcey Gurrea Supsup-Lee is a Filipino architect and a beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned as Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2011. She represented the Philippines at the Miss Universe 2011 pageant in São Paulo, Brazil where she finished as 3rd Runner-Up. From 2020 to 2023, Supsup was the national director for the Miss Universe Philippines Organization.

16/05/1985

Anja Mittag, German footballer

Anja Mittag is a German football coach and a former player who played as a striker. She is currently an Individual Development Coach for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

Rodrigo Peters Marques, Brazilian footballer

Rodrigo Peters Marques, known as Café, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper.

Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player

Corey Perry is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played the first 14 years of his career with the Anaheim Ducks where he won the Stanley Cup in 2007. He has also played for the Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.

16/05/1984

Darío Cvitanich, Argentinian footballer

Darío Cvitanich is an Argentine retired professional footballer who played as a striker.

Tomáš Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player

Tomáš Fleischmann is a Czech former professional ice hockey winger. He most notably played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with several teams, including stints with the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers.

Jensen Lewis, American baseball player

Jensen Daniel Lewis is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Cleveland Indians from 2007 to 2010 and is currently a baseball analyst with Bally Sports.

Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2011)

Richard Joseph Rypien was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who was a forward for parts of six seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Vancouver Canucks from 2005 to 2011. After a major junior career of four years with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League (WHL), he was signed to a professional contract by the minor league Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2005. The following season, he signed with the Canucks. He spent six years with the organization, splitting time between the Canucks and Moose, their AHL affiliate. A fourth-line player in the NHL, he was known for his hitting and fighting abilities, though his size was not typical of an enforcer.

16/05/1983

Daniel Kerr, Australian footballer

Daniel Alan Kerr is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played 220 games for the club between 2001 and 2013, as a hard-running inside midfielder.

Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player

Kyle Wellwood is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was originally selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs 134th overall in the 2001 NHL entry draft, playing his first three seasons in the NHL with Toronto before joining the Vancouver Canucks in 2008.

16/05/1982

Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player

Łukasz Kubot is a former Polish professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles.

16/05/1981

Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer

Ricardo Miguel Moreira da Costa is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender but occasionally as a full-back. He is the current manager of Liga Portugal 2 club Feirense.

16/05/1980

Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spanish tennis player

Nuria Llagostera Vives is a Spanish former tennis player. In June 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 35. In November 2009, she peaked at No. 5 in the WTA doubles rankings.

16/05/1979

Michael Oberlechner, Austrian politician

Michael Oberlechner is an Austrian politician of the Freedom Party serving as a member of the National Council since 2024. He has been a district councillor of Ottakring since 2010.

16/05/1978

Scott Nicholls, English motorcycle racer

Scott Karl Nicholls is an English motorcycle speedway rider, who has won the British Championship seven times, and was a full participant in the Speedway Grand Prix series between 2002 and 2008. He earned 8 international caps for the England national speedway team and 27 caps for the Great Britain team. He is also a speedway commentator.

Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer and manager

Lionel Sebastián Scaloni is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of the Argentina national team. Under his leadership, Argentina won the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Scaloni is regarded as one of the best men’s national coaches in the world. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder.

16/05/1977

Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress

Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women and her command of American accents, she works predominantly in independent films and television. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.

Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter

Emilíana Torrini is an Icelandic singer and songwriter. Her works include the 2009 single "Jungle Drum" and the 1999 album Love in the Time of Science. She performed "Gollum's Song" for the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

16/05/1976

Dirk Nannes, Australian-Dutch cricketer

Dirk Peter Nannes is an Australian-Dutch cricket commentator and former cricketer who has played internationally for both Australia and the Netherlands, one of the few players to represent multiple international teams.

16/05/1975

Tony Kakko, Finnish musician, composer, and vocalist

Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.

Simon Whitfield, Canadian triathlete

Simon St. Quentin Whitfield is a Canadian retired Olympic triathlon champion. Whitfield won ten consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championships titles and carried the Canadian national flag during the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney, where he had won his gold medal, and the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, making him one of few Canadian athletes to be honoured twice as Olympic flag bearer.

16/05/1974

Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Laura Pausini is an Italian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide.

Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and rapper

Paul Joshua "Sonny" Sandoval is an American rapper and singer who is the lead vocalist and a founding member of nu metal band P.O.D.

16/05/1973

Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author

Victoria Davey Spelling is an American actress. Her first major role was Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, from 1990 to 2000. She has appeared in made-for-television films, including A Friend to Die For (1994), A Carol Christmas (2003), The Mistle-Tones (2012), both versions of Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? and The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018). She has also starred in several independent films including The House of Yes (1997), Trick (1999), Scary Movie 2 (2001), Cthulhu (2007), Kiss the Bride (2007) and Izzie's Way Home (2016). She reprised her role of Donna Martin in Beverly Hills, 90210's spin-off, BH90210, in 2019.

16/05/1972

Christian Califano, French rugby player

Christian Califano is a former French rugby union player who finished his career at Gloucester Rugby.

Matthew Hart, New Zealand cricketer

Matthew Norman Hart is a former New Zealand cricketer. Hart, a left-arm orthodox spinner, played in 14 Tests between 1994 and 1996, claiming 29 wickets including one five-wicket haul against South Africa.

16/05/1971

Phil Clarke, English rugby league player and sportscaster

Philip Clarke is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Great Britain and England international representative back-rower or stand-off, he played his club rugby league in England for Wigan, and in Australia for the Sydney City Roosters.

Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Rachel Ann Goswell is an English musician who rose to prominence as vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band Slowdive, which formed in 1989. When Slowdive disbanded in 1995, Goswell, along with Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and former Chapterhouse member Simon Rowe became Mojave 3, performing in a more country/folk rock style. She released a solo album in 2004, titled Waves Are Universal on 4AD Records.

16/05/1970

Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player

Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is an Argentine former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles across both disciplines.

Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress

Danielle Spencer is an Australian actress, singer, and songwriter. In 2026 her new album Regenerate debuted at #8 on the ARIA Australian Albums Chart.

16/05/1969

David Boreanaz, American actor

David Paul Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/UPN supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and its spin-off Angel (1999–2004); FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, a homicide investigator, on the Fox television crime procedural comedy-drama series Bones (2005–2017); and United States Navy SEAL Master Chief Petty Officer Jason Hayes in CBS/Paramount+ military drama series SEAL Team (2017–2024). He is set to star in a reboot of The Rockford Files in 2027, which he will also serve as a producer.

Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American conservative political commentator who hosts Tucker on X and The Tucker Carlson Show since 2023. He previously hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023, when his contract with Fox News was terminated. A longtime advocate of U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson has been described as a high-profile proponent of Trumpism, and an influential voice in right-wing media. In 2026, Carlson publicly withdrew his support for Trump and apologized for "misleading" people into supporting him.

Steve Lewis, American sprinter

Steven Earl Lewis is a former American track and field athlete, winner of three gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics and 1992 Summer Olympics.

16/05/1968

Ralph Tresvant, American singer and producer

Ralph Edward Tresvant is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the lead singer of R&B group New Edition. As a solo artist, Tresvant released his double platinum-selling debut album Ralph Tresvant (1990). In 2008, he began touring with Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill in a new group named Heads of State. On February 3, 2023, Tresvant became host of the syndicated radio show Love and R&B, heard on WOSF.

16/05/1967

Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach

Douglas Keith Brocail is an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He has coached in MLB for the Astros, Rangers, and the Orioles.

Susan Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford, British politician

Susan Frances Maria Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford is a Conservative life peer who served as the Chief Whip of the House of Lords and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms between 2022 and 2024. In March 2022 she was made a member of the Privy Council. She has been Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords since July 2024.

16/05/1966

Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. An influential figure in popular culture, she is known for her innovative works that incorporate socially conscious and sexually provocative themes, as well as her elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, breaking American gender and racial barriers and enabling her rise to prominence. Lyrical content that concerned social issues and deeply felt experiences contributed to the appeal of Jackson's work to the youth audience.

Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor

Gregory Scott Reeves is an American actor, musician, and songwriter. He is known for playing the roles of Ryan McNeil on the CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, Steven Webber on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital, and Noel Laughlin on the ABC series Nashville. For his work on The Young and the Restless, Reeves was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He has received two Soap Opera Digest Award nominations and won the award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actor in 1994.

Thurman Thomas, American football player

Thurman Lee Thomas is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, earning All-American honors twice. Thomas was selected by the Bills in the second round of the 1988 NFL draft, where he spent all but one season of his professional career. In his final season, he was a member of the Miami Dolphins.

16/05/1965

Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist

Krist Anthony Novoselic is an American musician, politician, and activist. Novoselic co-founded and played bass on every album for the rock band Nirvana.

Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist, engineer, and academic

Tanel Tammet is an Estonian computer scientist, professor, software engineer, and computer programmer. He was also one of the founding members of the Estonian Greens party, and helped found the IT College in Tallinn.

16/05/1964

John Salley, American basketball player and actor

John Thomas Salley is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises, as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades.

Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist

Boyd Calvin Tinsley is an American violinist and mandolinist who is best known for having been a member of the Dave Matthews Band.

Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Milton Hywel Jones is an English comedian. His style of humour is based on one-liners involving puns delivered in a deadpan and slightly neurotic style.

16/05/1963

Rachel Griffith, Anglo-American economist

Dame Rachel Susan Griffith is a British and American academic and educator. She is professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a research director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic

David Adam Wilkinson, FRAS is a British Methodist minister, theologian, astrophysicist and academic. He was the Principal of St John's College, Durham (2006-2023), and is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He remains at St John's College, having been appointed, in September 2023, Director of Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS), an international project based at St John’s College. He is the author of several books on the relationship between science and religion, and a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4. He has a PhD in astrophysics and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

16/05/1962

Helga Radtke, German long jumper

Helga Radtke is a retired German track and field athlete, former World Indoor Long Jump Champion.

16/05/1961

Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter

Kevin Hamilton McDonald is a Canadian actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall. He played Pastor Dave in That '70s Show, and starred as a co-pilot in the 2011 web comedy series Papillon. He also does voice work in animation, most notably as Agent Wendy Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Waffle in Catscratch, and the Almighty Tallest Purple in Invader Zim.

Charles Wright, American wrestler

Charles Wright, better known under his ring name The Godfather, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and underwent several gimmick changes; the most notable were Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, The Godfather and The Goodfather.

16/05/1960

Landon Deireragea, Nauruan politician, Nauruan Speaker of Parliament

Landon Deireragea is a Nauruan politician.

Bruce Norris, American actor and playwright

Bruce Norris is an American character actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

S. Shanmuganathan, Sri Lankan commander and politician (died 1998)

Sarawanabavanandan Shanmuganathan was a Sri Lankan Tamil militant, politician and Member of Parliament.

16/05/1959

Mitch Webster, American baseball player

Mitchell Dean Webster is an American former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1983 through 1995 for the Toronto Blue Jays, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. Listed at 6' 0", 185 lb., he was a switch hitter and threw left handed.

Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter

Mary Megan "Mare" Winningham is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards.

16/05/1957

Joan Benoit, American runner

Joan Benoit Samuelson, née Joan Benoit, is an American marathon runner who was the first women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She held the fastest time for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after winning the race in 1985. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman in that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.

Benjamin Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, English politician

Benjamin Lloyd Stormont Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, is a British peer, businessman and Conservative Party politician.

Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Yuri Yulianovich Shevchuk is a Soviet and Russian rock musician and singer/songwriter who leads the rock band DDT, which he founded with Vladimir Sigachyov in 1980.

Anthony St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso, English lawyer and businessman

Anthony Tudor St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso is a British peer, politician, businessman and solicitor. He was one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999 until the House of Lords Act 2026. He spoke on African affairs, deregulation, financial services and information technology. Rather than aligning with a particular political party, he remained a crossbencher.

Bob Suter, American ice hockey player and coach (died 2014)

Robert Allen Suter was an American ice hockey defenseman and member of the U.S. national team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

16/05/1956

Loretta Schrijver, Dutch television host, news anchor (died 2025)

Loretta Maxine Schrijver was a Dutch television presenter.

16/05/1955

Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast

Olga Valentinovna Korbut is a Belarusian retired gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the "Sparrow from Minsk," she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet team, and was the inaugural inductee to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1988.

Jack Morris, American baseball player and sportscaster

John Scott Morris is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1977 and 1994, mainly for the Detroit Tigers. Morris won 254 games throughout his career.

Hazel O'Connor, English-born Irish singer-songwriter and actress

Hazel Thereasa O'Connor is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles "Eighth Day", "D-Days" and "Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film Breaking Glass.

Páidí Ó Sé, Irish footballer and manager (died 2012)

Páidí Ó Sé was an Irish Gaelic football manager and player, whose league and championship career at senior level with the Kerry county team spanned fifteen seasons from 1974 to 1988. Ó Sé is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of his generation.

Debra Winger, American actress

Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).

16/05/1954

Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut

Dafydd "David" Rhys Williams is a Canadian physician, public speaker, CEO, author and retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks. These spacewalks combined for a total duration of 17 hours and 47 minutes.

16/05/1953

Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer

Pierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor. He achieved worldwide fame playing the lead role in four James Bond films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Brosnan has also received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Nancy Astor (1982) and The Matador (2005).

Peter Onorati, American actor

Peter Onorati is an American actor. He is known for his TV roles as Charlie Howell on Civil Wars (1991–1993), Mr. Scotto on Murder One (1995–1997), Stanley Pearson on This Is Us (2017–2022), and Jeffrey Mumford on S.W.A.T. (2017–2019), and his film roles in Goodfellas (1990), and Fallen Arches (1998).

Richard Page, American singer-songwriter and bass player

Richard James Page is an American musician who is best known as the lead singer and bassist of 1980s band Mr. Mister. The band's hits include "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie". Page has also sung in other bands, been a solo artist, written songs for other artists, and worked as a background singer for other artists.

Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (died 2015)

Kitanoumi Toshimitsu , born Toshimitsu Obata , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sōbetsu, Hokkaido. He entered professional sumo at the age of 13 and set several youth-related records, including promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna at the age of 21. Despite being the most dominant wrestler in the sport during the 1970s with 24 tournament championships in his career, he was not popular with fans and was viewed as a villain, earning him the nickname the "Hatefully Strong Yokozuna". At the time of his death he still held the records for most tournaments as yokozuna (63) and most bouts won as a yokozuna (670), but these records have now been surpassed. Following his retirement in 1985 he established the Kitanoumi stable. He was chairman of the Japan Sumo Association from 2002 until 2008, and again from 2012 until his death.

David Maclean, Scottish politician

David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra, is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.

Stephen Woolman, Lord Woolman, Scottish judge and academic

Stephen Errol Woolman, Lord Woolman, is a Scottish legal academic and a retired Senator of the College of Justice.

16/05/1951

Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer

Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is a French fashion designer. The name also refers to the company he founded.

Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic and electric backing. He is known for his wide-eyed, unaffected, and childlike outlook, and music that, while rooted in rock and roll, is influenced by music from around the world.

Janet Soskice, Canadian philosopher and theologian

Janet Martin Soskice is a Canadian-born English Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher. Soskice completed her Bachelor of Arts at Cornell University and her Master of Arts at Sheffield University. She then obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Somerville College, Oxford.

16/05/1950

Georg Bednorz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Johannes Georg Bednorz is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Ray Condo, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2004)

Ray Condo, born Ray Tremblay, was a Canadian rockabilly singer, saxophonist, and guitarist.

Bruce Coville, American author

Bruce Farrington Coville is an author of young adult fiction. Coville was first published in 1977 and has written over 100 books.

16/05/1949

Rick Reuschel, American baseball player

Rickey Eugene Reuschel is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1972 to 1991, winning 214 games with a career 3.37 ERA. His nickname was "Big Daddy" because his speed belied his portly physique. He was known for his deceptive style of pitching, which kept hitters off balance by constantly varying the speeds of his pitches.

16/05/1948

Jesper Christensen, Danish actor, director, and producer

Jesper Christensen is a Danish actor. A veteran of European cinema, he has made the transition to English language projects, including The Interpreter and Revelations. He has also appeared as the mysterious villain Mr. White in the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Spectre.

Judy Finnigan, English talk show host and author

Judith Adele Finnigan is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.

Enrico Fumia, Italian automobile and product designer

Enrico Fumia is an Italian automobile and product designer. He is widely known for his work with the car design firm Pininfarina, helping to design and package a new sports car version of the Alfa Romeo, which included front-wheel drive and traversely-mounted engines. Today he runs Fumia Design Studio.

Jimmy Hood, Scottish engineer and politician (died 2017)

James Hood was a Scottish Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 until being defeated in 2015. He represented the Clydesdale constituency until 2005, and the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency thereafter. Hood, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) trade union official during the miners' strike of 1984–85, remained a backbencher throughout his parliamentary career.

Emma Georgina Rothschild, English historian and academic

Emma Georgina Rothschild is an English economic historian, a professor of history at Harvard University. She is director of the Joint Centre for History and Economics at Harvard, and an honorary Professor of History and Economics at the University of Cambridge. She formerly served as board member of United Nations Foundation and as a professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris.

Staf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian cyclist

Gustaf Van Roosbroeck is a retired Belgian professional road bicycle racer who competed in the 1970s.

16/05/1947

Cheryl Clarke, American writer

Cheryl Lynn Clarke is an American lesbian poet, essayist, educator, and Black feminist community activist. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women's literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States.

Darrell Sweet, Scottish drummer (died 1999)

Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band formed in Dunfermline in 1968 that had many hit singles and albums in Canada, the United Kingdom, and a number of other European countries beginning in the early 1970s. The breadth of their popularity expanded internationally, including in the United States, with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog, which featured their hits "Hair of the Dog" and a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts". They have continued to record and tour internationally for more than 50 years.

Roch Thériault, Canadian religious leader (died 2011)

Roch Thériault was a Canadian cult leader and convicted murderer. Thériault, a self-proclaimed prophet under the name Moïse, founded the Ant Hill Kids in 1977. They were a doomsday cult whose beliefs were based on those of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In April 1978, Thériault was removed from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He maintained multiple wives and concubines, impregnating all female members as a religious requirement, and fathering 26 children. Thériault's followers, including 12 adults and 22 children, lived under his totalitarian rule in a commune and were subject to severe physical and sexual abuse.

16/05/1946

John Law, English sociologist and academic

John Law, is a sociologist and science and technology studies scholar, currently on the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. He has remained one of the leading proponents of Actor-Network Theory together with Madeleine Akrich, Michel Callon and Bruno Latour.

Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter and producer

Robert Fripp is an English musician, composer, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and only constant member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Peter Hammill, Daryl Hall, the Roches, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to more than 700 official releases.

16/05/1944

Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader

William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Antal Nagy, Hungarian footballer

Antal Nagy is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a striker. In his only season for Standard de Liège (1968–69), he won the Belgian championship and he became the Belgian First Division top scorer.

Friedrich Schorlemmer, German Protestant theologian (died 2024)

Friedrich Schorlemmer was a German Protestant theologian. He was a prominent member of the civil rights movement in East Germany, leading to the Peaceful Revolution. Remaining active in politics and society after German reunification in 1990, he was engaged in the Wittenberg town council and several organisations as an activist for peace and nature preservation, and as a critical voice.

Danny Trejo, American actor

Danny Trejo is an American actor. In his body of work he appears as a character actor. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide.

16/05/1943

Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician

Elizabeth Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews is a British Labour politician and life peer. She was Chair of English Heritage from July 2009 to July 2013.

Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany

Daniel Ray Coats is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat from the state of Indiana. A Republican, Coats has served in the United States House of Representatives, in the United States Senate, as United States Ambassador to Germany, and as Director of National Intelligence.

Wieteke van Dort, Dutch actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist (died 2024)

Louisa Johanna Theodora "Wieteke" van Dort was a Surabaya-born Javindo actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist. On 29 April 1999, Queen Beatrix appointed her Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

16/05/1942

David Penry-Davey, English lawyer and judge (died 2015)

Sir David Herbert Penry-Davey was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.

16/05/1941

Denis Hart, Australian archbishop

Denis James Hart is a retired Australian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018.

16/05/1939

Mario Segni, Italian professor and politician

Mariotto "Mario" Segni is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one-time president of Italy.

16/05/1938

Stuart Bell, English lawyer and politician (died 2012)

Sir Stuart Bell was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough from the 1983 general election until his death in 2012. He was known as the longest serving Second Church Estates Commissioner, serving in this role during the entire period of Labour government from 1997 to 2010.

Ivan Sutherland, American computer scientist and academic

Ivan Edward Sutherland is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subject at the University of Utah in the 1970s was pioneering in the field. Sutherland, Evans, and their students from that era developed several foundations of modern computer graphics. He received the 1988 ACM Turing Award for the invention of the Sketchpad, an early predecessor to the sort of graphical user interface that has become ubiquitous in personal computers, and his contributions to computer graphics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the National Academy of Sciences among many other major awards. In 2012, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for "pioneering achievements in the development of computer graphics and interactive interfaces".

Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian television host and sexologist (died 2018)

Marco Aurelio Denegri Santa Gadea was a Peruvian intellectual, literary critic, television host and sexologist.

16/05/1937

Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (died 2015)

Yvonne Joyce Craig was an American actress best known for her role as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins, and the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Craig was a philanthropist and "an advocate for workers unions, free mammograms, and equal pay for women".

Jim Hunt, American politician, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (died 2025)

James Baxter Hunt Jr. was an American politician and attorney who was the 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina. He was the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

16/05/1936

Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (died 2018)

Karl Lehmann was a German prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to the cardinalate in 2001.

16/05/1935

Floyd Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Floyd Robert Donald Smith is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and coach. Smith played 616 total games in the National Hockey League (NHL), doing so for the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Buffalo Sabres.

16/05/1934

Kenneth O. Morgan, Welsh historian and author

Kenneth Owen Morgan, Baron Morgan, is a Welsh historian and author, known especially for his writings on modern British history and politics and on Welsh history. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster on radio and television. He has been an influential intellectual resource in the Labour Party.

Antony Walker, English general (died 2023)

General Sir Antony Kenneth Frederick Walker, was a British Army officer who served as Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies from 1990 to 1992.

16/05/1931

Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (died 2014)

Vujadin Boškov was a Yugoslavian football player and manager.

Hana Brady, Jewish-Czech Holocaust victim (died 1944)

Hana "Hanička" Brady was a Czechoslovak Jewish girl murdered in the gas chambers of the German concentration camp at Auschwitz, located in the occupied territory of Poland, during the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2002 non-fiction children's book Hana's Suitcase, written by Karen Levine.

Lowell P. Weicker Jr., American soldier and politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut (died 2023)

Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and the 85th governor of Connecticut.

16/05/1930

Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist and composer (died 2000)

Friedrich Gulda was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.

16/05/1929

Betty Carter, American singer-songwriter (died 1998)

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."

John Conyers, American lawyer and politician (died 2019)

John James Conyers Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the longest-serving African American member of Congress in history.

Claude Morin, Canadian academic and politician (died 2026)

Claude Morin was a Canadian politician from Quebec, who was the Parti Québécois Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of Louis-Hébert, from 1976 to 1981. He became embroiled in controversy in 1992 when the affaire Morin came to light.

Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (died 2012)

Adrienne Cecile Rich was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse". Rich criticized the rigid identities that are sometimes created by feminism, called for feminism that is flexible and open to being transformed, and drew attention to the existing current of solidarity and creativity among women, which she named the "lesbian continuum."

K. Natwar Singh, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (died 2024)

Natwar Singh was an Indian politician and diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service who later served as India's Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Having been suspended by the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2006, he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2008 but was removed from the party within four months.

16/05/1928

Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (died 1989)

Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin Jr. was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman and manager, who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yankees. First known as a scrappy infielder who made considerable contributions to the championship Yankee teams of the 1950s, he then built a reputation as a manager who would initially make bad teams good, before ultimately being fired amid dysfunction. In each of his stints with the Yankees he managed them to winning records before being fired by team owner George Steinbrenner or resigning under fire.

16/05/1926

Glen Michael, British television presenter and entertainer (died 2025)

Cecil Edward Buckland, known professionally as Glen Michael, was a British children's television presenter and entertainer. He hosted the popular children's television show Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade, which ran for 26 years on Scottish Television from 1966. He also acted on stage across Scotland supporting comic Jack Milroy as a feed, later working with Rikki Fulton too. He appeared in the three series of The Adventures of Francie and Josie and in other television shows. He was a radio presenter for several years between 1974 and 2009.

Robert Jay Lifton, American psychiatrist and author (died 2025)

Robert Jay Lifton was an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.

16/05/1925

Nancy Roman, American astronomer (died 2018)

Nancy Grace Roman was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and stellar motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program".

Ola Vincent, Nigerian banker and economist (died 2012)

Olatunde Olabode Vincent was a Nigerian economist and banker who was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1977 to 1982.

Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013)

Nílton dos Santos was a Brazilian footballer who primarily played as a wingback. At international level, he was a member of the Brazil squads that won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups.

16/05/1924

Barbara Bachmann, American microbiologist (died 1999)

Barbara Joyce Bachmann was a lecturer at Yale University, UC Berkeley, Columbia and NYU, and is best known as director of the E. coli Genetic Stock Center and for publishing editions of the standard E. coli K-12 genetic linkage map.

Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia (died 2019)

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara was a Gambian politician who served as prime minister from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President of The Gambia from 1970 to 1994, when he was overthrown by Yahya Jammeh.

16/05/1923

Victoria Fromkin, American linguist and academic (died 2000)

Victoria Alexandra Fromkin was an American linguist who taught at UCLA. She studied slips of the tongue, mishearing, and other speech errors, which she applied to phonology, the study of how the sounds of a language are organized in the mind.

Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)

Merton Howard Miller was an American economist, and the co-author of the Modigliani–Miller theorem (1958), which proposed the irrelevance of debt-equity structure. He shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990, along with Harry Markowitz and William F. Sharpe. Miller spent most of his academic career at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

Peter Underwood, English parapsychologist and author (died 2014)

Peter Underwood was an English author, broadcaster and parapsychologist. Underwood was born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Described as "an indefatigable ghost hunter", he wrote many books which surveyed alleged hauntings within the United Kingdom - beginning the trend of comprehensive regional 'guides' to (purportedly) haunted places. One of his well-known investigations concerned Borley Rectory, which he also wrote about.

16/05/1921

Harry Carey Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012)

Henry George Carey Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.

16/05/1920

Martine Carol, French actress (died 1967)

Martine Carol was a French film actress. She frequently was cast as an elegant blonde seductress. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she was the leading sex symbol and a top box-office draw of French cinema, and she was considered a French version of America's Marilyn Monroe. One of her more famous roles was as the title character in Lola Montès (1955), directed by Max Ophüls, in a role that required dark hair. However, by late 1956, roles for Carol had become fewer, partly because of the introduction of Brigitte Bardot.

16/05/1919

Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (died 1987)

Władziu Valentino Liberace was an American pianist, singer, and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule.

Ramon Margalef, Spanish ecologist and biologist (died 2004)

Ramon Margalef López was a Spanish biologist and ecologist. He was Emeritus Professor of Ecology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona. Margalef, one of the most prominent scientists that Spain has produced, worked at the Institute of Applied Biology (1946–1951), and at the Fisheries Research Institute, which he directed during 1966–1967. He created the Department of Ecology of the University of Barcelona, from where he trained a huge number of ecologists, limnologists and oceanographers. In 1967 he became Spain's first professor of ecology.

16/05/1918

Wilf Mannion, English footballer and manager (died 2000)

Wilfrid James Mannion was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward, making over 350 senior appearances for Middlesbrough. He also played international football for England. With his blonde hair, he was nicknamed "The Golden Boy".

16/05/1917

Ben Kuroki, American sergeant and pilot (died 2015)

Ben Kuroki was the only American of Japanese descent in the United States Army Air Forces to serve in combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II. He flew a total of 58 combat missions over Europe, North Africa, and Japan during World War II. He was also an advocate for Japanese-Americans after World War II.

James C. Murray, American lawyer and politician (died 1999)

James Cunningham Murray was a U.S. representative from Illinois from 1955 to 1957. He graduated from De Paul University Law School in 1940 and subsequently worked as a lawyer. He served in the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945.

Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (died 1986)

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo, was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel Pedro Páramo, and the collection of short stories El Llano en llamas. In spite of Rulfo's slim literary production, he is considered one of the greatest Mexican and Latin American writers of the twentieth century who has influenced many subsequent writers including the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

16/05/1916

Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (died 2009)

Ephraim Katzir was an Israeli biophysicist and Labor Party politician. He was the president of Israel from 1973 until 1978.

16/05/1915

Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2010)

Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli was an Italian film director and screenwriter.

16/05/1914

Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author (died 2009)

Edward Twitchell Hall Jr. was an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is remembered for developing the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion, and describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space. Hall was an influential colleague of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller.

16/05/1913

Gordon Chalk, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Queensland (died 1991)

Sir Gordon William Wesley Chalk, was Premier of Queensland for a week, from 1 to 8 August 1968. He was the first and only Queensland Premier from the post-war Liberal Party.

Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (died 1987)

Woodrow Charles Herman was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his death in 1987. His bands often played music that was cutting edge and experimental; their recordings received numerous Grammy nominations with three wins plus a lifetime achievement award for Herman.

16/05/1912

Studs Terkel, American historian and author (died 2008)

Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for The Good War and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

16/05/1910

Olga Bergholz, Russian poet and author (died 1975)

Olga Fyodorovna Berggolts was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, playwright and journalist. She is most famous for her work on the Leningrad radio during the city's siege, when she became the symbol of the city's resilience.

Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator (died 2014)

Count Higashifushimi Kunihide was the titular head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, an extinct branch of the Imperial House of Japan, and a Buddhist monk. He was the youngest brother of Empress Kōjun and was the maternal uncle of Emperor Emeritus Akihito. If he had kept his Imperial status, at the time of his death, at age 103, he would have been the longest-lived member, of the Imperial House of Japan. His Dharma name was Jigō (慈洽).

16/05/1909

Margaret Sullavan, American actress and singer (died 1960)

Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. She began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1933, she caught the attention of film director John M. Stahl and made her screen debut that same year in Only Yesterday. She continued to be successful on stage and film, best known for The Shop Around the Corner.

Luigi Villoresi, Italian race car driver (died 1997)

Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956.

16/05/1907

Bob Tisdall, Irish hurdler (died 2004)

Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall was an Irish athlete who won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

16/05/1906

Ernie McCormick, Australian cricketer (died 1991)

Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Test matches from 1935 to 1938.

Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter and educator (died 1988)

Alfred Pellan was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting.

Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan lawyer, journalist, and author (died 2001)

Arturo Uslar Pietri was a Venezuelan intellectual, historian, writer, television producer, and politician.

Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (died 1996)

Margret Elizabeth Rey was a German-born American writer and illustrator, best known for the Curious George series of children's picture books that she and her husband H. A. Rey created from 1939 to 1966.

16/05/1905

Henry Fonda, American actor (died 1982)

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. Known for his work on screen and stage, he often portrayed characters who embodied an everyman image.

H.E. Bates, British writer (died 1974)

Herbert Ernest Bates, better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer of novels and short stories. His best-known works include Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May and My Uncle Silas.

16/05/1903

Charles F. Brannock, American inventor and manufacturer (died 1992)

Charles F. Brannock was the inventor and manufacturer of the Brannock Device for measuring overall length, width, and heel-to-ball length of the foot.

16/05/1898

Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (died 1980)

Tamara Łempicka, known outside Poland as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly stylized paintings of nudes.

Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet and academic (died 1993)

Desanka Maksimović was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal Misao in 1920, while she was studying at the University of Belgrade. Within a few years, her poems appeared in the Serbian Literary Herald, Belgrade's most influential literary publication. In 1925, Maksimović earned a French Government scholarship for a year's study at the University of Paris. Upon her return, she was appointed a professor at Belgrade's elite First High School for Girls, a position she would hold continuously until World War II.

Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (died 1956)

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.

16/05/1897

Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist and academic (died 1993)

Zvi Saliternik was an Israeli entomologist.

16/05/1894

Walter Yust, American journalist and writer (died 1960)

Walter M. Yust was an American journalist and writer. Yust was the American editor-in-chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1938 to 1960.

16/05/1892

Osgood Perkins (actor, born 1892), American actor (died 1937)

James Ridley Osgood Perkins was an American actor.

16/05/1890

Edith Grace White, American ichthyologist (died 1975)

Edith Grace White was an American zoologist known for her studies of elasmobranchs. She was a professor of biology at Wilson College, and was a research associate of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

16/05/1888

Royal Rife, American microbiologist and instrument maker (died 1971)

Royal Raymond Rife was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography.

16/05/1887

Maria Lacerda de Moura, Brazilian teacher and anarcha-feminist (died 1945)

Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher, writer and anarcha-feminist. The daughter of spiritist and anti-clerical parents, she grew up in the city of Barbacena, in the interior of Minas Gerais, where she graduated as a teacher at the Escola Normal Municipal de Barbacena and participated in official efforts to tackle social inequality through national literacy campaigns and educational reforms.

16/05/1883

Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, 3rd President of Turkey (died 1986)

Mahmut Celâlettin "Celâl" Bayar was a Turkish economist and politician who was the president of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 1937 to 1939.

16/05/1882

Simeon Price, American golfer (died 1945)

Simeon Taylor "Sim" Price Jr. was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

16/05/1879

Pierre Gilliard, Swiss author and academic (died 1962)

Pierre Gilliard was a Swiss academic and author, best known as the French-language tutor to the five children of Russian emperor Nicholas II from 1905 to 1918. In 1921, after the Russian Revolution, he published a memoir, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, about his time with the family. In his memoirs, Gilliard described Empress Alexandra's torment over her son Alexei's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of the starets (elder) Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.

16/05/1876

Fred Conrad Koch, American biochemist and endocrinologist (died 1948)

Frederick Conrad Koch was an American biochemist and endocrinologist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Koch graduated from the University of Illinois in 1899. He was affiliated with the University of Chicago from 1912 to 1941, serving as chairman of the department of biochemistry from 1936 to 1941. He retired as professor emeritus, and was director of biomedical research at Armour and Company. He was known primarily for his work on male sex hormones and testicular function. He served as the 19th president of the Endocrine Society, which in 1957 established the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award, the society's highest honor.

16/05/1862

Margaret Fountaine, English lepidopterist and diarist (died 1940)

Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine, was a Victorian lepidopterist, natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. She is also known for her personal diaries, which were edited into two volumes by W.F. Cater for the popular market and published posthumously.

16/05/1859

Horace Hutchinson, English golfer (died 1932)

Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, his best result being sixth in the 1890 Open Championship.

16/05/1831

David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (died 1900)

David Edward Hughes, was a Welsh-American inventor, practical experimenter, and professor of music known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone. He is generally considered to have been born in London but his family moved around that time so he may have been born in Corwen, Wales.

16/05/1827

Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect, designed the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum (died 1921)

Petrus Josephus Hubertus "Pierre" Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station (1881–1889) and the Rijksmuseum (1876–1885), both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100. Moreover, he restored many monuments.

16/05/1824

Levi P. Morton, American banker and politician, 22nd United States Vice President (died 1920)

Levi Parsons Morton was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York.

Edmund Kirby Smith, American general (died 1893)

Edmund Kirby Smith was a Confederate States Army general, who oversaw the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 to 1865. Before the American Civil War, Smith served as an officer of the United States Army.

16/05/1821

Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician and statistician (died 1894)

Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev was a Russian mathematician and considered to be the founding father of Russian mathematics.

16/05/1819

Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (died 1890)

Johann Voldemar Jannsen was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the Eesti Postimees, and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nationalist song "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm", which became the national anthem of Estonia after its independence. Jannsen was the father of poet Lydia Koidula.

16/05/1804

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator who founded the first U.S. kindergarten (died 1894)

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.

16/05/1801

William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (died 1872)

William Henry Seward was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory.

16/05/1788

Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (died 1866)

Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.

16/05/1763

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (died 1829)

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of chromium and beryllium.

16/05/1718

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (died 1799)

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook, the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university and the second woman appointed as a professor overall.

16/05/1710

William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (died 1782)

William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, PC, styled as Lord Talbot from 1737 to 1761, was an English peer and Whig politician. Talbot was a notable figure among opposition Whig politicians during the reign of King George II before later coming to Court during the reign of King George III, taking the office of Lord Steward of the Household.

16/05/1641

Dudley North, English economist and politician (died 1691)

Sir Dudley North was an English merchant, politician, economist and writer on free trade. He was also a member of the North family.

16/05/1611

Pope Innocent XI (died 1689)

Pope Innocent XI, born Benedetto Odescalchi, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 21 September 1676 until his death on 12 August 1689.

16/05/1606

John Bulwer, British doctor (died 1656)

John Bulwer was an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher who wrote five works exploring the Body and human communication, particularly by gesture. He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people, the plans for an Academy he outlines in Philocophus and The Dumbe mans academie.

16/05/1542

Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German noblewoman (died 1580)

Countess Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg was a German noblewoman. She was born in Lichtenberg, the eldest surviving daughter of Count Philipp IV and his wife, Countess Eleonore of Fürstenberg.

16/05/1455

Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (died 1522)

Wolfgang I of Oettingen was a Count of Oettingen-Oettingen.

16/05/1418

John II of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458 (probable; (died 1458)

John II or III of Cyprus was the King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458. He was previously a titular Prince of Antioch.

Lives Remembered on 16th May

On 16th May, 99 remarkable people passed away — from 290 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

16/05/2025

Domingos Maubere, East Timorese Catholic priest and activist (born 1952)

Domingos da Silva Soares, popularly known as Padre Maubere or Amu Du, was an East Timorese Roman Catholic priest, activist, and independence leader. Born in Letefoho in what was then Portuguese Timor, he attended seminary in Portugal and was ordained in 1978. In 1980, he returned to East Timor and became involved in the resistance against the Indonesian occupation (1975–1999), often supporting the guerrillas and coordinating with the movement's leaders. As a pastor in Timor-Leste, he served in parishes in Ossu, Letefoho, Ermera, Suai, and Becora, Dili.

16/05/2024

Dabney Coleman, American actor (born 1932)

Dabney Wharton Coleman was an American actor. He was recognized for his roles portraying egomaniacal and unlikeable characters in comedic performances. Throughout his career, he appeared in over 175 films and television programs and received awards for both comedic and dramatic performances.

Eddie Gossage, American public speaker and businessman (born 1958)

William Edgar Gossage was an American motorsports executive and promoter. He was best known as the president of the Texas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) banked racetrack in Fort Worth, Texas, which ran stock car racing and Indy car racing events throughout his tenure. He also was employed at other companies, holding various public relations positions.

16/05/2023

Norm Green, American long-distance runner (born 1932)

Dr. Norman (Norm) Green was an American long-distance runner. He set numerous American and World records over his career. He still holds the current M55 American record for the 10,000 metres. In 1996 he was elected into the inaugural class of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, the first long-distance runner. For more than a decade, Green was the director of the Hall of Fame.

16/05/2021

Bruno Covas, Brazilian lawyer, politician (born 1980)

Bruno Covas Lopes was a Brazilian lawyer, economist, and politician who was a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) and served as the mayor of São Paulo from 2018 until his death in 2021.

16/05/2019

Piet Blauw, Dutch politician (born 1937)

Pieter Marinus "Piet" Blauw was a Dutch politician for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He was born in Alkmaar, North Holland and was a farmer by profession. Blauw was elected to the House of Representatives in 1981, serving until 1998.

Bob Hawke, Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (born 1929)

Robert James Lee Hawke was an Australian politician, trade unionist, economist and central banker who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1969 to 1980 and president of the Labor Party national executive from 1973 to 1978.

I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect (born 1917)

Ieoh Ming Pei was a Chinese-American architect.

16/05/2015

Prashant Bhargava, American director and producer (born 1973)

Prashant Bhargava was an Indian-American filmmaker and designer. He died of a heart attack from a history of heart trouble. Bhargava's short film Sangam, described by Greg Tate of the Village Voice as "an elegant and poetic evocation of immigrant angst, memory and haunted spirituality", premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and PBS. His other directorial efforts include the documentary portrait of his grandmother Ammaji, experimental Super 8 short Backwaters and the poignant and meditative Kashmir, an audiovisual performance with band Dawn of Midi

Moshe Levinger, Israeli rabbi and author (born 1935)

Moshe Levinger was an Israeli Religious Zionist activist and an Orthodox Rabbi who, since 1967, had been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. He is especially known for leading Jewish settlement in Hebron in 1968, and for being one of the principals of the now defunct settler movement Gush Emunim, founded in 1974, among whose ranks he assumed legendary status. Levinger was reportedly involved in violent acts against Palestinians.

Flora MacNeil, Scottish Gaelic singer (born 1928)

Flora MacNeil, MBE was a traditional singer of Scottish Gaelic folk music. MacNeil gained prominence after meeting Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson during the early 1950s, and continued to perform into her later years.

16/05/2014

Chris Duckworth, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (born 1933)

Christopher Anthony Russell Duckworth was a Rhodesian cricketer who played in two Tests for South Africa in 1957.

Vito Favero, Italian cyclist (born 1932)

Vito Favero was an Italian road racing cyclist. He was professional from 1956 to 1962. In the 1958 Tour de France, he finished second. Stage 14 of the 1958 Tour was won by Federico Bahamontes but Favero took over the Yellow Jersey. At that point, he was already the 8th different rider to lead the race, and he would hold his lead for four stages when Charly Gaul won stage 18 and Raphaël Géminiani took over as the 9th different rider to lead the race. Géminiani would hold the lead for three stages, but in stage 21, Favero retook the lead as Gaul added another stage win. Favero would remain in Yellow for another two stages until Gaul won the final time trial and became the record-setting eleventh rider to wear the Maillot Jaune in a single edition of the Tour.

Bud Hollowell, American baseball player and manager (born 1943)

Buddy Ryan "Bud" Hollowell was an American professional baseball player and minor league manager. After his athletic career, he became an educator and author.

Clyde Snow, American anthropologist and author (born 1928)

Clyde Snow was an American forensic anthropologist. Some of his skeletal confirmations include John F. Kennedy, victims of John Wayne Gacy, King Tutankhamun, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, and Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

16/05/2013

Angelo Errichetti, American politician (born 1928)

Angelo Joseph Errichetti was an American Democratic Party politician who served as Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and in the New Jersey Senate before being indicted during Abscam.

Bryan Illerbrun, Canadian football player (born 1957)

Bryan Illerbrun was a professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played fourteen seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for three teams. He was a part of the BC Lions' Grey Cup victory in 1985 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders' Grey Cup victory in 1989.

Frankie Librán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (born 1948)

Francisco Librán Rosas was a Puerto Rican athlete who distinguished himself for performing professionally on all three major sports in the island. Most notably, Librán played as an infielder in Major League Baseball during the late 60s. He batted and threw right-handed, and was listed at 6 ft (1.8 m) tall and 168 lb (76 kg). Librán also practiced track and field, and softball. Because of his versatility, he is usually referred to as "the most complete Puerto Rican athlete". He is survived by his two daughters Yeidie J. Librán and Yara E. Librán.

Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1933)

Heinrich Rohrer was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst Ruska. The Heinrich Rohrer Medal is presented triennially by the Surface Science Society of Japan with IBM Research – Zurich, Swiss Embassy in Japan, and Ms. Rohrer in his memory. The medal is not to be confused with the Heinrich Rohrer Award presented at the Nano Seoul 2020 conference.

Paul Shane, British actor and comedian (born 1940)

George Frederick Speight, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for his television work, in particular for playing Ted Bovis in the 1980s BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.

Dick Trickle, American race car driver (born 1941)

Richard Leroy Trickle was an American race car driver. He raced for decades around the short tracks of Wisconsin, winning many championships along the way. Trickle competed in the ASA, ARTGO, ARCA, All Pro, IMCA, NASCAR, and USAC.

Bernard Waber, American author and illustrator (born 1921)

Bernard Waber was an American children's author most famous for the books The House on East 88th Street (1962), Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (1965) and the subsequent books in the Lyle series.

16/05/2012

Patricia Aakhus, American author and academic (born 1952)

Patricia "Patty" Aakhus, also known by her maiden name and pseudonym Patricia McDowell, was an American novelist and director of International Studies at the University of Southern Indiana. She specialized in Irish themes and won Readercon's Best Imaginative Literature Award in 1990 and the Cahill Award for The Voyage of Mael Duin's Curragh.

James Abdnor, American soldier and politician (born 1923)

Ellis James Abdnor was an American politician who served as a member of the United States Senate from South Dakota. He was also the 15th administrator of the Small Business Administration under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Chuck Brown, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1936)

Charles Louis Brown was an American guitarist, bandleader, and singer known as "The Godfather of Go-Go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed around the Washington, D.C., area in the mid-1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.

Ernie Chan, Filipino-American illustrator (born 1940)

Ernesto Chan, born and sometimes credited as Ernie Chua, was a Filipino-American comics artist, known for work published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including many Marvel issues of series featuring Conan the Barbarian. Chan also had a long tenure on Batman and Detective Comics. Other than his work on Batman, Chan primarily focused on non-superhero characters, staying mostly in the genres of horror, war, and sword and sorcery.

Kevin Hickey, American baseball player (born 1956)

Kevin John Hickey was an American left-handed pitcher who spent six seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Chicago White Sox (1981–1983) and Baltimore Orioles (1989–1991). It was with the White Sox that he was a reliever with the American League (AL) West titlist in 1983 and a batting practice pitcher for the 2005 World Series Champions.

16/05/2011

Ralph Barker, English author (born 1917)

Ralph Hammond Cecil Barker was an English non-fiction author with over twenty-five books to his credit. He wrote mainly about the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Air Force (RAF) operations in the First and Second World Wars, and about cricket.

Bob Davis, Australian footballer and coach (born 1928)

Robert "Bob" Davis was an Australian rules footballer who played in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Edward Hardwicke, English actor (born 1932)

Edward Cedric Hardwicke was an English actor who had a career on the stage and on-screen. He was best known for playing Captain Pat Grant in Colditz (1972–73), and Dr. Watson in Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes (1986–94).

Kiyoshi Kodama, Japanese actor (born 1934)

Kiyoshi Kodama was a Japanese TV personality and actor. He hosted the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation quiz show Panel Quiz Attack 25 continuously for thirty-six years from its start in April 1975 until he was forced to step down due to poor health at the end of March 2011. His signature catchphrase on the show is "Attack Chance!"

16/05/2010

Ronnie James Dio, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1942)

Ronald James Padavona, known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell.

Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1918)

Henry Jones Jr. was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with an honorary Doctorate of Music for his musical accomplishments.

16/05/2008

Robert Mondavi, American winemaker, co-founded the Opus One Winery (born 1913)

Robert Gerald Mondavi was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically, which became the standard for New World wines. The Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis opened in October 2008 in his honor.

16/05/2005

Andrew Goodpaster, American general (born 1915)

Andrew Jackson Goodpaster was a United States Army general who served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR), from 1 July 1969, and Commander in Chief of the United States European Command (CINCEUR) from 5 May 1969 until his retirement 17 December 1974. As such, he was the commander of all NATO (SACEUR) and United States (CINCEUR) military forces stationed in Europe and the surrounding regions.

16/05/2003

Mark McCormack, American lawyer and sports agent, founded IMG (born 1930)

Mark Hume McCormack was an American lawyer, sports agent and writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG, an international management organization serving sports figures and celebrities.

16/05/2002

Alec Campbell, Australian soldier (born 1899)

Alexander William Campbell was the final surviving Australian participant of the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. Campbell joined the Australian Army at the age of 16 in 1915, and served as a stores carrier for two months during the fighting at Gallipoli. He was invalided home and discharged in 1916. He later worked in a large number of roles, was twice married and had nine children. He is the great-grandfather of actress, singer, and model Ruby Rose.

16/05/1997

Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (born 1903)

Elbridge Durbrow was a Foreign Service officer and diplomat who served as the Counselor of Embassy and Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow in the late 1940s and then as the US ambassador to South Vietnam from March 14, 1957, to April 16, 1961.

16/05/1996

Jeremy Michael Boorda, American admiral (born 1939)

Jeremy Michael Boorda was a United States Navy admiral who served as the 25th Chief of Naval Operations. Boorda is notable as the first person to have risen from the enlisted ranks to become Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-ranking billet in the United States Navy.

16/05/1994

Alain Cuny, French actor (born 1908)

René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Odéon-Théâtre de France.

16/05/1993

Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1938)

Marvin Earl Johnson was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. He was influential in the development of the Motown style of music, primarily for the song "Come to Me," which was the first record issued by Tamla Records, the precursor to the famous label.

16/05/1990

Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor (born 1925)

Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician.

Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer, and screenwriter, creator of The Muppets (born 1936)

James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, actor, animator, creative producer, and director who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), as well as creating the Muppets for Sesame Street (1969–present).

16/05/1989

Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and songwriter (born 1939)

Leila Kasra also known as Hedieh, was a prominent Iranian contemporary poet and lyricist who has written lyrics for notable artists including Ebi, Dariush, Sattar, Vigen, Moein, Mahasti, Andy, Homeyra, Morteza, Hassan Shamaizadeh, Siavash Shams and many more. She was best known for writing more than 30 songs for Hayedeh.

16/05/1985

Margaret Hamilton, American actress (born 1902)

Margaret Brainard Hamilton was an American character actress, vaudevillian and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theater, film, radio and television. She often played villains and is best known to modern audiences for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz.

16/05/1984

Andy Kaufman, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (born 1949)

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an "anti-comedian". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."

Irwin Shaw, American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short story writer (born 1913)

Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.

16/05/1981

Ernie Freeman, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1922)

Ernest Aaron Freeman was an American pianist, organist, bandleader, and arranger. He was responsible for arranging many successful rhythm and blues and pop records from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Willy Hartner, German physician and academic (born 1905)

Willy Hartner was a German scientist and polymath. He studied at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, where he obtained his PhD in physics in 1928 and where he later served as professor from 1940, as ordinary professor [German academic terminology] from 1946.

16/05/1979

A. Philip Randolph, American union leader and activist (born 1889)

Asa Philip Randolph was an American railwayman, trade unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American-led labor union. In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a prominent voice. His continuous agitation with the support of fellow labor rights activists against racist labor practices helped lead President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. The group then successfully maintained pressure, so that President Harry S. Truman proposed a new Civil Rights Act and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 in 1948, promoting fair employment and anti-discrimination policies in federal government hiring, and ending racial segregation in the armed services.

16/05/1977

Modibo Keïta, Malian politician, 1st President of Mali (born 1915)

Modibo Keïta was a Malian politician who served as the first President of Mali from 1960 to 1968. He espoused a form of African socialism. He was deposed in a coup d'état in 1968 by Moussa Traoré.

16/05/1961

George A. Malcolm, American lawyer and jurist (born 1881)

George Arthur Malcolm was an American lawyer who emerged as an influential figure in the development of the practice of law in the Philippines in the 20th century. Constitutional scholar and academic Joaquin Bernas described Malcolm as "the man who more than any single American contributed most to early constitutional development in the Philippines." At age 35, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, where he would serve for 19 years. His most enduring legacy perhaps lies in his role in the establishment of the College of Law at the University of the Philippines.

16/05/1957

Eliot Ness, American federal agent (born 1903)

Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

16/05/1956

H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (born 1876)

Harry Burnett Reese was an American inventor and businessman known for creating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and founding the H. B. Reese Candy Company. In 2009, he was posthumously inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame.

16/05/1955

James Agee, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic(born 1909)

James Rufus Agee was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for Time, he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family (1957), won the author a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize. Agee is also known as a co-writer of the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and as the screenwriter of the film classics The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter.

Manny Ayulo, American race car driver (born 1921)

Manuel Leaonedas Ayulo was an American racecar driver. His efforts, along with those of friend and teammate Jack McGrath, helped establish track roadsters as viable race cars. Ayulo was killed in practice for the 1955 Indianapolis 500 when his car crashed straight into a concrete wall. He was found to have not been wearing a seat belt and his pockets "were filled with wrenches".

16/05/1954

Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor and manager (born 1893)

Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted it until 1954.

16/05/1953

Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist and composer (born 1910)

Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-born Romani jazz guitarist and composer who lived most of his life in France. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

16/05/1947

Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1861)

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino acid tryptophan, in 1901. He was President of the Royal Society from 1930 to 1935.

Kalle Hakala, Finnish politician (born 1880)

Kalle Juhonpoika Hakala was a Finnish newspaper editor, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he represented Mikkeli Province between October 1934 and May 1947. He had previously represented Mikkeli Province from February 1911 to May 1918 and from May 1924 to August 1933. He was imprisoned for a year following the end of the Finnish Civil War.

Zhang Lingfu, Chinese general (born 1903)

Zhang Lingfu was a high-ranking general of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. He successfully fought against the Communists and the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1947, his unit was surrounded by Chinese communist forces commanded by Field Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu. Zhang was unable to breakout from the communist encirclement because the relief efforts headed by his nationalist colleagues did not arrive in time, and he was killed in action in the Menglianggu Campaign on May 16, 1947.

16/05/1946

Bruno Tesch, German chemist and businessman (born 1890)

Bruno Emil Tesch was a German chemist, entrepreneur, and war criminal. Together with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, he invented the insecticide Zyklon B. He was the owner of Tesch & Stabenow, a pest control company he co-founded in 1924 with Paul Stabenow in Hamburg, Germany. During the Holocaust, Tesch sold vast quantities of Zyklon B, utilising his pesticide as a way to commit genocide. Over 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis using Zyklon B. A former employee of Tesch later said he was motivated not by ideology, but financial gain.

16/05/1944

George Ade, American journalist, author, and playwright (born 1866)

George Ade was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, librettist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters' dialog.

Filip Mișea, Aromanian activist, physician and politician (born 1873)

Filip Mișea was an Aromanian activist, physician and politician. Mișea became an Ottoman deputy, with him and Nicolae Constantin Batzaria being the only Aromanians to ever enter the Ottoman parliament. He would later move to Romania and devote himself to medicine there.

16/05/1943

Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist and academic (born 1865)

Alfred Erich Hoche was a German psychiatrist known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia and his later recanting thereof.

Nigger, black labrador retriever belonging to Wing Commander Guy Gibson of the Royal Air Force, and the mascot of No. 617 Squadron.

Nigger was a male black labrador retriever belonging to Wing Commander Guy Gibson of the Royal Air Force, and the mascot of No. 617 Squadron. Gibson owned the dog when he was previously a member of 106 Squadron. Nigger often accompanied Gibson on training flights and was a great favourite of the members of both 106 and 617 Squadrons. He was noted for his liking of beer, which he drank from his own bowl in the Officers' Mess.

16/05/1938

Joseph Strauss, American engineer, co designed The Golden Gate Bridge (born 1870)

Joseph Baermann Strauss was an American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. He was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

16/05/1936

Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, Greek general and politician (born 1860)

Leonidas Paraskevopoulos was a Greek military officer and politician. He played a major role in Greece's war effort during the First World War, and was the commander-in-chief of the Army of Asia Minor during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). In his later life, he was a member of the Greek Senate and served as its speaker in 1930–32.

16/05/1926

Mehmed VI, the 36th and last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (born 1861)

Mehmed VI Vahideddin, also known as Şahbaba among the Osmanoğlu family, was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate Ottoman caliph, reigning from 4 July 1918 until 1 November 1922, when the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923.

16/05/1920

Levi P. Morton, American politician, 22nd United States Vice President (born 1824)

Levi Parsons Morton was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York.

16/05/1913

Louis Perrier, Swiss architect and politician (born 1849)

Frédéric-François-Louis Perrier was a Swiss architect and politician who was a Federal Councillor from 1912 until his death in 1913. As of 2009, he is the member with the shortest time in office.

16/05/1910

Henri-Edmond Cross, French Neo-Impressionist painter (born 1856)

Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix, was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase of that movement. He was a significant influence on Henri Matisse and many other artists. His work was instrumental in the development of Fauvism.

16/05/1891

Ion C. Brătianu, Romanian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Romania (born 1821)

Ion Constantin Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th-century Romania. He was the son of Dincă Brătianu and the younger brother of Dumitru Brătianu, as well as the father of Ion I. C. Brătianu, Dinu Brătianu and Vintilă Brătianu.

16/05/1890

Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet, linguist and theologist (born 1843)

Mihkel Veske was an Estonian poet and linguist.

16/05/1882

Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (born 1799)

Reuben Chapman was an American lawyer and politician. He served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1835 to 1847, and as the 13th governor of Alabama from 1847 to 1849.

16/05/1862

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English politician (born 1796)

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was an English politician in colonial Canada and New Zealand. He is considered a key figure in the establishment in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s of British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. He also played a role in the history of Canada, being involved in the drafting of Lord Durham's Report and serving as a member of the Parliament of the Province of Canada for a short time.

16/05/1861

John Stevens Henslow, British priest, geologist and doctoral advisor to Charles Darwin (born 1796)

John Stevens Henslow was an English Anglican priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to Charles Darwin.

16/05/1830

Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (born 1768)

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre, Burgundy and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series, which eventually developed into Fourier analysis and harmonic analysis, and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's law of conduction are also named in his honour. Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect.

16/05/1823

Grace Elliott, Scottish courtesan and spy (born c. 1754)

Grace Dalrymple Elliott was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution published posthumously in 1859. She was mistress, first to the future George IV, by whom she is said to have borne an illegitimate daughter, and then to the Duke of Orléans. Elliott trafficked correspondence and helped condemned Royalists and members of the French nobility escape from the First French Republic during the Reign of Terror. She was arrested several times but managed to avoid the guillotine, and was released following the military coup that ended the Terror and resulted in the execution of Robespierre.

16/05/1818

Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (born 1775)

Matthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and dramatist, whose writings are often classified as "Gothic horror". He was frequently referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his 1796 Gothic novel The Monk. He also worked as a diplomat, politician and an estate owner in Jamaica.

16/05/1790

Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (born 1720)

Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, PC, FRS, styled Viscount Royston between 1754 and 1764, was a British politician and writer.

16/05/1778

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (born 1718)

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness,, known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1754 to 1761.

16/05/1703

Charles Perrault, French author and academic (born 1628)

Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The best known of his tales include "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Bluebeard".

16/05/1696

Mariana of Austria, Queen consort of Spain (born 1634)

Mariana of Austria was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband Philip IV of Spain died in 1665. Appointed Regent for their infant son Charles II, she remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696.

16/05/1691

Jacob Leisler, German-American politician, 8th Colonial Governor of New York (born 1640)

Jacob Leisler was a German-born politician and colonial administrator in the Province of New York. He gained wealth in New Amsterdam in the North American fur trade and tobacco business. In what became known as Leisler's Rebellion following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he took control of the city, and ultimately the entire province, from appointees of deposed King James II, in the name of the Protestant accession of William III and Mary II.

16/05/1669

Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter and architect, designed the Santi Luca e Martina (born 1596)

Pietro da Cortona was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.

16/05/1667

Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1607)

Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, KG, styled Lord Wriothesley before 1624, was an English statesman, a staunch supporter of King Charles II who after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 rose to the position of Lord High Treasurer, which term began with the assumption of power by the Clarendon Ministry. He "was remarkable for his freedom from any taint of corruption and for his efforts in the interests of economy and financial order", a noble if not a completely objective view of his work as the keeper of the nation's finances. He died before the impeachment of Lord Clarendon, after which the Cabal Ministry took over government.

16/05/1657

Andrew Bobola, Polish missionary and martyr (born 1591)

Andrew Bobola, SJ was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the "Apostle of Lithuania" and the "hunter of souls". He was beaten and tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

16/05/1620

William Adams, English sailor and navigator (born 1564)

William Adams, better known in Japan as Miura Anjin , was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He was later granted samurai status, and was recognised as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century.

16/05/1561

Jan Tarnowski, Polish noble and statesman (born 1488)

Jan Amor Tarnowski was a Polish nobleman, knight, military commander, military theoretician, and statesman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was Grand Crown Hetman from 1527, and was the founder of the city of Tarnopol, where he built the Ternopil Castle and the Ternopil Pond. The first Count of the Holy Roman Empire in the Tarnowski family (1547).

16/05/1412

Gian Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (born 1388)

Gian Maria Visconti was the second Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti. He was known to be cruel and was eventually assassinated. He had no children.

16/05/1375

Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, officer, statesman and poet (born 1311)

Liu Ji, courtesy name Bowen, better known as Liu Bowen, was a Chinese military strategist, philosopher, and politician who lived in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. He was born in Qingtian County. He served as a key advisor to Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty, in the latter's struggle to overthrow the Yuan dynasty and unify China proper under his rule. Liu is also known for his prophecies and has been described as the "Divine Chinese Nostradamus". He and Jiao Yu co-edited the military treatise known as the Huolongjing.

16/05/1265

Simon Stock, English-French saint (born 1165)

Simon Stock, OCarm was an English Catholic priest and saint who lived in the 13th century and was an early prior of the Carmelite Order. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Brown Scapular. Popular devotion to Saint Simon Stock is usually associated with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

16/05/1182

John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine general (born 1132)

John Komnenos Vatatzes, or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes in the sources, was a major military and political figure in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of Manuel I Komnenos and Alexios II Komnenos. He was born c. 1132, and died of natural causes during a rebellion he raised against Andronikos I Komnenos in 1182.

16/05/1115

Lambert of Arras, Flemish bishop

Lambert of Guînes was the bishop of Arras (1094–1115). He was a major regional player and an active proponent of the Cluniac reform movement.

16/05/0995

Fujiwara no Michitaka, Japanese nobleman (born 953)

Fujiwara no Michitaka , the first son of Kaneie, was a Kugyō of the Heian period. He served as regent (Sesshō) for the Emperor Ichijō, and later as Kampaku. Ichijō married Michitaka's daughter Teishi (Sadako), thus continuing the close ties between the Imperial family and the Fujiwara.

16/05/0934

Meng Hanqiong, eunuch official of Later Tang

Meng Hanqiong, was a eunuch of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang. He became powerful late in the reign of its second emperor Li Siyuan, in association with Li Siyuan's favorite concubine Consort Wang, and continued to be during the reign of Li Siyuan's son and successor Li Conghou. He was killed by Li Conghou's adoptive brother Li Congke, who overthrew Li Conghou.

16/05/0895

Qian Kuan, Chinese nobleman

Qian Kuan, courtesy name Hongdao, was the father of the warlord Qian Liu who founded the Wuyue kingdom.

16/05/0290

Emperor Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor (born 236)

Emperor Wu of Jin, personal name Sima Yan, courtesy name Anshi (安世), was a grandson of Sima Yi, nephew of Sima Shi and son of Sima Zhao. He became the first emperor of the Jin dynasty after forcing Cao Huan, last emperor of the state of Cao Wei, to abdicate to him. He reigned from 266 to 290, and after conquering the state of Eastern Wu in 280, was the emperor of a reunified China. Emperor Wu was also known for his extravagance and sensuality, especially after the unification of China; legends boasted of his incredible potency among ten thousand concubines.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 16th May

Christian feast day: Aaron (Coptic Church)

Aaron was a Miaphysite Coptic saint. His apocryphal legend says of him, "When he was sick, he made roasted pigeons fly into his mouth." He has a feast in the Coptic Calendar of saints on May 16.

Christian feast day: Abda and Abdjesus, and companions: Abdas of Susa

Abdas, was bishop of Susa in Iran. Socrates of Constantinople calls him "bishop of Persia". He was executed under the orders of shah Yazdegerd I after refusing to rebuild a Zoroastrian fire temple that he had destroyed.

Christian feast day: Andrew Bobola

Andrew Bobola, SJ was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the "Apostle of Lithuania" and the "hunter of souls". He was beaten and tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

Christian feast day: Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)

Brendan of Clonfert is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, and Brendan the Bold. The Irish translation of his name is Naomh Bréanainn or Naomh Breandán. He is mainly known for his legendary voyage to find the "Isle of the Blessed" which is sometimes referred to as "Saint Brendan’s Island". The written narrative of his journey comes from the immram Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis.

Christian feast day: Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)

Caroline Chisholm was an English humanitarian known mostly for her support of immigrant female and family welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the calendar of saints of the Church of England. Her path to sainthood within the Catholic Church has commenced; she had converted to Catholicism around the time of her marriage and reared her children as Catholic.

Christian feast day: Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)

Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani, also known as Gemma of Lucca, was an Italian mystic, canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church in 1940. She has been called the "daughter of the Passion" because of her profound imitation of the Passion of Christ. She is especially venerated in the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus (Passionists).

Christian feast day: Germerius

Saint Germerius was bishop of Toulouse from 510 to 560 AD. There is some question as to whether he actually existed. He is the patron saint of the abbey of Lézat.

Christian feast day: Honoratus of Amiens

Saint Honoratus of Amiens was the seventh bishop of Amiens. His feast day is May 16.

Christian feast day: Peregrine of Auxerre

Peregrine (Peregrinus) of Auxerre is venerated as the first bishop of Auxerre and the builder of its first cathedral. A strong local tradition states that he was a priest of Rome appointed by Pope Sixtus II to evangelize this area at the request of the Christians resident in that part of Gaul. He preached at Marseille, Lyon, and converted most of the inhabitants of Auxerre to Christianity.

Christian feast day: Possidius

Possidius was a friend of Augustine of Hippo who wrote a biography and an indiculus or list of his works. He was bishop of Calama in the Roman province of Numidia.

Christian feast day: Simon Stock

Simon Stock, OCarm was an English Catholic priest and saint who lived in the 13th century and was an early prior of the Carmelite Order. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Brown Scapular. Popular devotion to Saint Simon Stock is usually associated with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Christian feast day: Ubald (see Saint Ubaldo Day)

Ubald of Gubbio was a medieval bishop of Gubbio, in Umbria, today venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. Saint Ubaldo Day is still celebrated at the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo in Gubbio in his honor, as well as at Jessup, Pennsylvania.

Christian feast day: May 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

May 15 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 17

Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))

Christianity in Sudan has a long and rich history, dating back to the early centuries of the Christian era. Ancient Nubia was reached by Coptic Christianity by the 1st century. The Coptic Church was later influenced by Greek Christianity, particularly during the Byzantine era. From the 7th century, the Christian Nubian kingdoms were threatened by the Islamic expansion, but the southernmost of these kingdoms, Alodia, survived until 1504.

Mass Graves Day (Iraq)

Mass graves in Iraq are characterized as unmarked sites containing at least six bodies. Some can be identified by mounds of earth piled above the ground or as deep pits that appear to have been filled. Some older graves are more difficult to identify, having been covered by vegetation and debris over time. Sites have been discovered in all regions of the country and contain members of every major religious and ethnic group in Iraq as well as foreign nationals, including Kuwaitis and Saudis.

National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan)

A national day is a day on which celebrations mark the statehood or nationhood of a state or its people. It may be the date of independence, of becoming a republic, of becoming a federation, or a significant date for a patron saint or a ruler.

Teachers' Day (Malaysia)

Teachers' Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers. It may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community tone in education. This is one of the most celebrated days and the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days. For example, Argentina has commemorated Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on 11 September as Teachers' Day since 1915. In India, the birthday of the second president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 5 September, is celebrated as Teachers' Day since 1962.

What Happened on 16th May?

55 significant events took place on Tuesday, 16th May — stretching from 946 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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; the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera along the north, which it claims together with several small Spanish-controlled islands; and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south, partly occupied by Morocco since 1975. 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, Berber, European, and African cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

16/05/1929

In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a neighborhood 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.

The 1918 White victory parade in Helsinki was a military parade of the Finnish White Guard on 16 May 1918 celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War, which officially ended the day before. The parade took place in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The parade was presided by General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces, a position he would resign from 14 days later. It consisted of 12,000 men marching down the streets of the capital. It is regarded today as a political show of force organized by Mannerheim to strengthen his position vis-à-vis the German troops in the country. The parade played an important role in Mannerheim's later career, as a result of which he became nationally known to the point of becoming the 6th President of Finland in the mid-1940s. The Whites also organized victory parades in other cities they had occupied during the war. Large parades were also held in Vaasa and Vyborg, both of which Mannerheim attended.

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 unitary and 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.

16/05/1891

The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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 ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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.

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.

16/05/1832

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

Juan Godoy was a Chilean farmer and miner who in 1832 discovered an outcrop (reventón) of silver 50 km (31 mi) south of Copiapó in Chañarcillo, sparking the Chilean silver rush.

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 the Greek diaspora as independence day on 25 March.

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 was the final period of the Russian monarchy, spanning 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.

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).

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.

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 took place on May 16, 1771. It was the final confrontation of the Regulator Rebellion in colonial North Carolina. The rebellion was instigated because of various issues with the colonial government, and was primarily aimed at needed reforms to the Currency Act. Regulator supporters demanded other changes, including an end to the corruption of local politicians, a right to secret ballot voting, land reforms, and transparency in government. Named after the nearby Great Alamance Creek, the battle took place in what was then Orange County in the Piedmont area, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of present-day Burlington, North Carolina).

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 consort of France as the wife of Louis XVI from 10 May 1774 until the abolition of the French monarchy in 1792 during the French Revolution.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

16/05/1003

Patrician John Crescentius, who has seized control of Rome, selects Pope John XVII as the new pope.

John Crescentius also John II Crescentius or Crescentius III was the son of Crescentius the Younger. He succeeded to his father's title of consul and patrician of Rome in 1002 and held it to his death.

16/05/0999

Rebel Turkish warlord Mahmud of Ghazni defeats Samanid Emir Mansur II in battle at Merv.

Year 999 (CMXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. It was the 999th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 999th year of the 1st millennium, the 99th year of the 10th century, and the 10th and last year of the 990s decade,

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.

On this day

International Day of Living Together in Peace

World Endangered Species Day

What the Weather Had in Store for Prag on 16th May 2026

16th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 16th May

Famous Birthdays on 16th May

Ryan Gravenberch, Dutch footballer

Luis Garcia, Dominican-American baseball player

Louisa Chirico, American tennis player

Elizabeth Ralston, Australian footballer

Kathinka von Deichmann, Liechtenstein tennis player

Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norwegian biathlete

Karol Mets, Estonian footballer

IU, Korean singer-songwriter and actress

Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player

Kirstin Maldonado, American singer and songwriter

Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player

Joey Graceffa, American internet celebrity

Ashley Wagner, American figure skater

Amanda Carreras, Gibraltarian tennis player

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor

Darko Šarović, Serbian sprinter

Omar Strong, American basketball player

Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model

Jesús Castillo, Mexican footballer

Martynas Gecevičius, Lithuanian basketball player

Jaak Põldma, Estonian tennis player

Tom Onslow-Cole, English race car driver

Megan Fox, American actress

Andy Keogh, Irish footballer

Shamcey Supsup, Filipino model and architect

Anja Mittag, German footballer

Rodrigo Peters Marques, Brazilian footballer

Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player

Darío Cvitanich, Argentinian footballer

Tomáš Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player

Jensen Lewis, American baseball player

Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2011)

Daniel Kerr, Australian footballer

Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player

Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player

Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer

Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spanish tennis player

Michael Oberlechner, Austrian politician

Scott Nicholls, English motorcycle racer

Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer and manager

Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress

Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter

Dirk Nannes, Australian-Dutch cricketer

Tony Kakko, Finnish musician, composer, and vocalist

Simon Whitfield, Canadian triathlete

Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and rapper

Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author

Christian Califano, French rugby player

Matthew Hart, New Zealand cricketer

Phil Clarke, English rugby league player and sportscaster

Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player

Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress

David Boreanaz, American actor

Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller

Steve Lewis, American sprinter

Ralph Tresvant, American singer and producer

Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach

Susan Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford, British politician

Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress

Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor

Thurman Thomas, American football player

Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist

Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist, engineer, and academic

John Salley, American basketball player and actor

Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist

Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Rachel Griffith, Anglo-American economist

David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic

Helga Radtke, German long jumper

Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter