October 16

October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 76 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
• 690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
• 1384 – Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.
• 1590 – Carlo Gesualdo, composer, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.
• 1780 – Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War.
• 1781 – George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
• 1793 – The Battle of Wattignies ends in a French victory.
• 1813 – The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.
• 1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
• 1841 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
• 1843 – Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers.
• 1846 – William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.
• 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
• 1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".
• 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.
• 1875 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
• 1882 – The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
• 1905 – The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.
• 1906 – The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.
• 1909 – William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold a summit, a first between a U.S. and a Mexican president, and they only narrowly escape assassination.
• 1916 – In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.
• 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
• 1934 – Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.
• 1939 – World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
• 1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
• 1943 – Holocaust: Raid of the Ghetto of Rome
• 1944 – Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker's first steady foil, debuts in the The Beach Nut, a Walter Lantz's cartoon.
• 1945 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.
• 1946 – Nuremberg trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial.
• 1949 – Nikos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.
• 1949 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.
• 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.
• 1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
• 1964 – Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin are inaugurated as General Secretary of the CPSU and Premier, respectively and the collective leadership is established.
• 1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
• 1968 – Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
• 1968 – Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1970 – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.
• 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1975 – The Balibo Five, a group of Australian-based television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
• 1975 – Rahima Banu, a two-year-old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.
• 1975 – The Australian Coalition opposition parties using their senate majority, vote to defer the decision to grant supply of funds for the Whitlam Government's annual budget, sparking the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.
• 1978 – Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
• 1978 – Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1984 – The Bill debuts on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police procedural in British television history.
• 1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1986 – Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.
• 1991 – Luby's shooting: George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20 in Luby's Cafeteria.
• 1993 – Anti-Nazism riot breaks out in Welling in Kent, after police stop protesters approaching the British National Party headquarters.
• 1995 – The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C.
• 1995 – The Skye Bridge is opened.
• 1996 – Eighty-four people are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 football fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.
• 1998 – Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a warrant from Spain requesting his extradition on murder charges.
• 2002 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
• 2012 – The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered.
• 2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

Births

• 1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)
• 1430 – James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
• 1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian cardinal and diplomat (d. 1542)
• 1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese samurai (d. 1585)
• 1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
• 1679 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech viol player and composer (d. 1745)
• 1710 – András Hadik, Austrian-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1790)
• 1714 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist and academic (d. 1795)
• 1726 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish-German painter and educator (d. 1801)
• 1729 – Pierre van Maldere, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1768)
• 1751 – Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1805)
• 1752 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian and academic (d. 1827)
• 1754 – Morgan Lewis, American general, lawyer, and politician, 3rd Governor of New York (d. 1844)
• 1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer and author (d. 1843)
• 1762 – Paul Hamilton, American soldier and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1816)
• 1789 – William Burton, American physician and politician, 39th Governor of Delaware (d. 1866)
• 1795 – William Buell Sprague, American minister, historian, and author (d. 1876)
• 1802 – Isaac Murphy, American educator and politician, 8th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1882)
• 1804 – Benjamin Russell, American painter and educator (d. 1885)
• 1806 – William P. Fessenden, American lawyer and politician, 26th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1869)
• 1815 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
• 1819 – Austin F. Pike, American lawyer and politician (d. 1886)
• 1831 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (d. 1910)
• 1832 – Vicente Riva Palacio, Mexican liberal intellectual, novelist (d. 1896)
• 1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
• 1841 – Itō Hirobumi, Japanese lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)
• 1854 – Karl Kautsky, Czech-German journalist, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1938)
• 1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1900)
• 1855 – Samad bey Mehmandarov, Azerbaijani general and politician, 3rd Azerbaijani Minister of Defense (d. 1931)
• 1861 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian and scholar (d. 1927)
• 1863 – Austen Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
• 1869 – Claude H. Van Tyne, American historian and author (d. 1930)
• 1872 – Walter Buckmaster, English polo player and businessman, co-founded Buckmaster & Moore (d. 1942)
• 1876 – Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 1913)
• 1881 – William Orthwein, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1955)
• 1883 – Vasiliki Maliaros, Greek-American actress (d. 1973)
• 1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
• 1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli soldier and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
• 1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
• 1888 – Paul Popenoe, American founder of relationship counseling (d. 1979)
• 1890 – Michael Collins, Irish general and politician, 2nd Irish Minister for Finance (d. 1922)
• 1890 – Maria Goretti, Italian martyr and saint (d. 1902)
• 1890 – Paul Strand, American photographer and director (d. 1975)
• 1897 – Louis de Cazenave, French soldier (d. 2008)
• 1898 – William O. Douglas, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1980)
• 1900 – Edward Ardizzone, Vietnamese-English author and illustrator (d. 1979)
• 1900 – Primo Conti, Italian painter and poet (d. 1988)
• 1900 – Goose Goslin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1971)
• 1903 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French author and pianist (d. 2003)
• 1904 – Björn Berglund, Swedish actor (d. 1968)
• 1905 – Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer and manager (d. 1990)
• 1906 – León Klimovsky, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1996)
• 1907 – Richard Titmuss, English sociologist and academic (d. 1973)
• 1908 – Olivia Coolidge, English-American author and educator (d. 2006)
• 1908 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian general and politician, Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Otto von Bülow, German commander (d. 2006)
• 1912 – Clifford Hansen, American rancher and politician, 26th Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)
• 1912 – Karl Ristikivi, Estonian author and poet (d. 1977)
• 1913 – Gino Bechi, Italian actor and singer (d. 1993)
• 1918 – Louis Althusser, Algerian-French philosopher and academic (d. 1990)
• 1918 – Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and academic (d. 2013)
• 1918 – Tony Rolt, English racing driver and engineer (d. 2008)
• 1919 – Kathleen Winsor, American journalist and author (d. 2003)
• 1921 – Matt Batts, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
• 1921 – MacKenzie Miller, American horse trainer and breeder (d. 2010)
• 1922 – Max Bygraves, English-Australian actor and singer (d. 2012)
• 1922 – Leon Sullivan, American minister and activist (d. 2001)
• 1923 – Linda Darnell, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
• 1923 – Bert Kaempfert, German conductor and composer (d. 1980)
• 1923 – Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2010)
• 1924 – Gerard Parkes, Irish-Canadian actor (d. 2014)
• 1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress, singer, and producer
• 1926 – Charles Dolan, American businessman, founded Cablevision and HBO
• 1927 – Günter Grass, Polish-German author, poet, playwright, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
• 1928 – Mary Daly, American philosopher and theologian (d. 2010)
• 1928 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress
• 1929 – Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress
• 1930 – John Polkinghorne, English physicist, theologian and priest
• 1930 – Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress and singer
• 1931 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
• 1931 – Valery Klimov, Ukrainian-Russian violinist and educator
• 1931 – Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress
• 1931 – P. W. Underwood, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
• 1932 – John Grant, English journalist and politician (d. 2000)
• 1932 – Henry Lewis, American bassist and conductor (d. 1996)
• 1932 – Lucien Paiement, Canadian physician and politician (d. 2013)
• 1934 – Peter Ashdown, English racing driver
• 1936 – Peter Bowles, English actor and screenwriter
• 1936 – Andrei Chikatilo, Ukrainian-Russian serial killer (d. 1994)
• 1936 – Mladen Koščak, Croatian footballer (d. 1997)
• 1936 – Akira Machida, Japanese lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of Japan
• 1938 – Nico, German singer-songwriter, model, and actress (d. 1988)
• 1938 – Carl Gunter, Jr., American politician (d. 1999)
• 1939 – Joe Dolan, Irish singer (d. 2007)
• 1940 – Barry Corbin, American actor and producer
• 1940 – Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player and coach (d. 2003)
• 1940 – Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist (d. 2009)
• 1941 – Tim McCarver, American baseball player, sportscaster, and singer
• 1941 – Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician
• 1943 – Fred Turner, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player (Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Brave Belt)
• 1944 – Kaizer Motaung, South African footballer and manager
• 1945 – Stefan Buczacki, English horticulturalist, botanist, and television host
• 1945 – Dave Hill, English actor
• 1945 – Paul Monette, American author and poet (d. 1995)
• 1946 – Geoff Barnett, English footballer
• 1946 – Suzanne Somers, American actress and producer
• 1947 – Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player and coach
• 1947 – Bob Weir, American singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Grateful Dead, The Other Ones, Bobby and the Midnites, Kingfish, RatDog, Furthur, and The Dead)
• 1947 – David Zucker, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1948 – Alison Chitty, English production designer and costume designer
• 1948 – Hema Malini, Indian actress, director, producer, and politician
• 1948 – Leo Mazzone, American baseball player and coach
• 1949 – Crazy Mohan, Indian actor, screenwriter, and playwright
• 1950 – Károly Horváth, Romanian-Hungarian cellist, flute player, and composer (d. 2015)
• 1952 – Christopher Cox, American lawyer and politician
• 1952 – Cordell Mosson, American bass player (Parliament-Funkadelic) (d. 2013)
• 1952 – Coşkun Sabah, Turkish singer
• 1952 – Ron Taylor, American actor and singer (d. 2002)
• 1952 – Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton, English politician
• 1953 – Tony Carey, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Rainbow, Planet P Project, and Over the Rainbow)
• 1953 – Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazilian footballer and manager
• 1953 – Fred Ridgeway, Irish-English actor (d. 2012)
• 1953 – Martha Smith, American model and actress
• 1953 – Al Sobotka, American businessman
• 1954 – Lorenzo Carcaterra, American author and blogger
• 1954 – Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
• 1954 – Serafino Ghizzoni, Italian rugby player
• 1954 – Corinna Harfouch, German actress
• 1955 – Ellen Dolan, American actress
• 1956 – Marin Alsop, American violinist and conductor
• 1956 – John Chavis, American football player and coach
• 1956 – Meg Rosoff, American-English author
• 1956 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet, author, and playwright (d. 1992)
• 1957 – Priidu Beier, Estonian poet and educator
• 1958 – Roy McDonough, English footballer and manager
• 1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1959 – Kevin Brennan, Welsh journalist and politician
• 1959 – Marc Collins-Rector, American businessman, founded Digital Entertainment Network
• 1959 – Brian Harper, American baseball player and coach
• 1959 – Gary Kemp, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Spandau Ballet)
• 1959 – Philip Maini, mathematician at the University of Oxford
• 1959 – Tessa Munt, English lawyer and politician
• 1959 – Jamie Salmon, English-New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster
• 1959 – Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian flute player and composer
• 1959 – John Whittingdale, English politician, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• 1960 – Guy LeBlanc, Canadian keyboard player and songwriter (Nathan Mahl and Camel) (d. 2015)
• 1960 – Bob Mould, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Hüsker Dü and Sugar)
• 1961 – Marc Levy, French author
• 1961 – Randy Vasquez, American actor, director, and producer
• 1962 – Flea, Australian-American bass player, songwriter, and actor (Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Is This?, Atoms for Peace, and Fear)
• 1962 – Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player and activist (d. 2010)
• 1962 – Ken Chinn, Canadian singer-songwriter (SNFU and Slaveco.)
• 1962 – Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer
• 1962 – Nico Lazaridis, German footballer
• 1963 – Brendan Kibble, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bam Balams, Navahodads, and Vampire Lovers)
• 1963 – Timothy Leighton, English physicist and academic
• 1964 – Shawn Little, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
• 1964 – James Thompson, American-Finnish author (d. 2014)
• 1965 – Kang Kyung-ok, South Korean illustrator
• 1965 – Steve Lamacq, English radio host
• 1965 – Tom Tolbert, American basketball player and sportscaster
• 1966 – Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, American voice actress, singer, and director
• 1966 – Olof Lundh, Swedish journalist
• 1967 – Jason Everman, American guitarist (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mind Funk, and OLD)
• 1967 – Michael Laffy, Australian footballer
• 1967 – Davina McCall, English television host and actress
• 1968 – Randall Batinkoff, American actor and producer
• 1968 – Mark Lee, Singaporean actor and singer
• 1968 – Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor
• 1968 – Elsa Zylberstein, French actress
• 1969 – Roy Hargrove, American trumpet player and composer
• 1969 – Takao Omori, Japanese wrestler
• 1969 – Terri J. Vaughn, American actress and producer
• 1969 – Wendy Wilson, American singer-songwriter (Wilson Phillips)
• 1970 – Kazuyuki Fujita, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
• 1970 – Mehmet Scholl, German footballer and manager
• 1971 – Chad Gray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mudvayne and Hellyeah)
• 1971 – Paul Sparks, American actor
• 1971 – Popi Maliotaki, Greek singer
• 1972 – Adrianne Frost, American comedian, actress, and author
• 1972 – Darius Kasparaitis, Lithuanian-Russian ice hockey player and coach
• 1972 – Tomas Lindberg, Swedish singer-songwriter (At the Gates, Lock Up, Disfear, The Great Deceiver, Grotesque, The Crown, Skitsystem, and Liers in Wait)
• 1972 – Kordell Stewart, American football player and radio host
• 1973 – Justin Credible, American wrestler
• 1973 – María Eugenia Larraín, Chilean model and actress
• 1973 – David Unsworth, English footballer and manager
• 1974 – Aurela Gaçe, Albanian singer
• 1974 – Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1975 – Mahmood Al Zarooni, Emirati horse rider and trainer
• 1975 – Ernesto Noel Aquino, Honduran footballer
• 1975 – Sally Biddulph, British journalist and presenter
• 1975 – Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer
• 1975 – Jacques Kallis, South African cricketer
• 1975 – Christophe Maé, French singer
• 1975 – Kellie Martin, American actress, director, and producer
• 1976 – Ryan Fitzgerald, Australian footballer and radio host
• 1977 – John Mayer, American singer-songwriter, rapper, guitarist, and producer (John Mayer Trio & Fifth Harmony)
• 1977 – Laura Wade, English playwright
• 1978 – Ethan Luck, American guitarist and drummer (The O.C. Supertones, Demon Hunter, and Relient K)
• 1979 – Nicola Blackwood, South African-English politician
• 1979 – Erin Brown, American actress, director, and screenwriter
• 1979 – Kristy Hinze, Australian model, actress and television host
• 1980 – Sue Bird, American basketball player
• 1980 – Jeremy Jackson, American actor and singer
• 1980 – Timana Tahu, Australian rugby player
• 1981 – Ali B, Dutch rapper
• 1981 – Martin Halle, Danish footballer
• 1981 – Boyd Melson, American boxer
• 1981 – Anthony Reyes, American baseball player
• 1981 – Caterina Scorsone, Canadian actress
• 1981 – Gregory Sedoc, Dutch hurdler
• 1981 – Frankie Edgar, American mixed martial artist
• 1982 – Pippa Black, Australian actress
• 1982 – Vincy Chan, Hong Kong singer
• 1982 – Gareth McGrillen, Australian bass player and producer (Knife Party and Pendulum)
• 1982 – Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
• 1982 – Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
• 1982 – Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, singer, and producer
• 1983 – Loreen, Swedish singer and producer
• 1983 – Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player
• 1984 – Rachel Reilly, American talk show host and actress
• 1984 – Shayne Ward, English singer and actor
• 1985 – Verena Sailer, German sprinter
• 1985 – Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
• 1986 – Inna, Romanian singer-songwriter and dancer
• 1986 – Nicky Adams, English-Welsh footballer
• 1986 – Derk Boerrigter, Dutch footballer
• 1986 – Craig Pickering, English sprinter and bobsledder
• 1988 – Zoltán Stieber, Hungarian footballer
• 1989 – Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player
• 1990 – Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, Danish-Icelandic singer
• 1990 – Anirudh Ravichander, Indian singer-songwriter and actor
• 1992 – Rika Adachi, Japanese model and actress
• 1992 – Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player
• 1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player
• 1992 – Kostas Fortounis, Greek footballer
• 1993 – Jovit Baldivino, Filipino singer and actor
• 1993 – Caroline Garcia, French tennis player
• 1994 – Amelia Lily, English singer-songwriter
• 2000 – David Rawle, Irish actor
• 2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal

Deaths

• 1333 – Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
• 1355 – Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)
• 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter and engraver (b. 1472)
• 1555 – Hugh Latimer, English bishop and saint (b. 1487)
• 1555 – Nicholas Ridley, English bishop and martyr (b. 1500)
• 1591 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
• 1594 – William Allen, English cardinal (b. 1532)
• 1621 – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch organist and composer (b. 1562)
• 1628 – François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
• 1649 – Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1621)
• 1655 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (b. 1591)
• 1660 – John Cook, English politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales (b. 1608)
• 1679 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, Irish-English soldier and politician (b. 1621)
• 1680 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian-Austrian field marshal (b. 1609)
• 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French-American explorer and politician, 3rd French Governor of Louisiana (b. 1658)
• 1730 – Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha, Greek politician, 139th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1666)
• 1750 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German lute player and composer (b. 1687)
• 1755 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)
• 1774 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (b. 1750)
• 1781 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral (b. 1705)
• 1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and politician (b. 1739)
• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian wife of Louis XVI of France (b. 1755)
• 1793 – John Hunter, Scottish-English surgeon and philosopher (b. 1728)
• 1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (b. 1726)
• 1799 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman Indian activist (b. 1760)
• 1810 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian religious leader, founded the breslov hasidic group (b. 1772)
• 1822 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian-English dancer (b. 1724)
• 1877 – Théodore Barrière, French playwright (b. 1823)
• 1888 – John Wentworth, American journalist and politician, 19th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
• 1908 – Joseph Leycester Lyne, English monk (b. 1837)
• 1909 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, German poet and playwright (b. 1856)
• 1913 – Ralph Rose, American shot putter, discus, and hammer thrower (b. 1885)
• 1937 – Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
• 1946 – Nuremberg trial executions of the Main Trial:
  • Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician (b. 1900)
  • Wilhelm Frick, German lawyer and politician, German Minister of the Interior (b. 1877)
  • Alfred Jodl, German general (b. 1890)
  • Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
  • Wilhelm Keitel, German field marshal (b. 1882)
  • Alfred Rosenberg, Estonian architect and politician (b. 1893)
  • Fritz Sauckel, German sailor and politician (b. 1894)
  • Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian lawyer and politician, 16th Federal Chancellor of Austria (b. 1892)
  • Julius Streicher, German journalist and politician (b. 1887)
  • Joachim von Ribbentrop, German lieutenant and politician, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany (b. 1893)
• 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (b 1895)
• 1952 – Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and poet (b. 1876)
• 1956 – Jules Rimet, French businessman (b. 1873)
• 1957 – John Anthony Sydney Ritson, English rugby player, mines inspector, engineer and professor of mining (b. 1887)
• 1959 – Minor Hall, American drummer (b. 1897)
• 1959 – George Marshall, American general and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Defense, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1880)
• 1962 – Gaston Bachelard, French poet and philosopher (b. 1884)
• 1964 – Patsy Callighen, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1906)
• 1966 – George O'Hara, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1899)
• 1968 – Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (b. 1914)
• 1971 – Robin Boyd, Australian architect and educator, designed the Domain Park Flats (b. 1919)
• 1972 – Nick Begich, American lawyer and politician (b. 1932)
• 1972 – Hale Boggs, American lawyer and politician (b. 1914)
• 1972 – Leo G. Carroll, English-American actor (b. 1886)
• 1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer, composer, and actor (b. 1909)
• 1974 – Chembai, Indian singer (b. 1895)
• 1975 – Don Barclay, American actor and singer (b. 1892)
• 1975 – Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)
• 1978 – Dan Dailey, American actor, singer, dancer, and director (b. 1913)
• 1979 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author and critic (b. 1903)
• 1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician, 5th Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel (b. 1915)
• 1981 – Eugene Eisenmann, Panamanian-American lawyer and ornithologist (b. 1906)
• 1982 – Mario Del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)
• 1983 – Kelso, American race horse (b. 1957)
• 1983 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer and conductor (b. 1895)
• 1986 – Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist and pianist (b. 1921)
• 1989 – Walter Farley, American author and educator (b. 1915)
• 1989 – Scott O'Dell, American journalist and author (b. 1898)
• 1989 – Cornel Wilde, Slovak-American actor, singer, director, and producer (b. 1915)
• 1990 – Art Blakey, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1919)
• 1990 – Jorge Bolet, Cuban-American pianist and educator (b. 1914)
• 1991 – Ole Beich, Danish bass player (Guns N' Roses and L.A. Guns) (b. 1955)
• 1992 – Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (b. 1898)
• 1996 – Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)
• 1996 – Eric Malpass, English author (b. 1910)
• 1997 – Audra Lindley, American actress (b. 1918)
• 1997 – James A. Michener, American author and philanthropist (b. 1907)
• 1998 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1943)
• 1999 – Jean Shepherd, American radio host, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
• 2000 – Mel Carnahan, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 51st Governor of Missouri (b. 1934)
• 2001 – Etta Jones, American singer-songwriter (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Avni Arbaş, Turkish painter (b. 1919)
• 2003 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
• 2003 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
• 2004 – Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Elmer Dresslar, Jr., American voice actor and singer (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Ursula Howells, English actress (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Eugene Gordon Lee, American actor (b. 1933)
• 2005 – David Reilly, American singer-songwriter and producer (God Lives Underwater) (b. 1971)
• 2006 – Ross Davidson, Scottish actor (b. 1949)
• 2006 – Tommy Johnson, American tuba player and educator (b. 1935)
• 2006 – John Victor Murra, Ukrainian-American anthropologist and academic (b. 1916)
• 2006 – Valentín Paniagua, Peruvian lawyer and politician, 91st President of Peru (b. 1936)
• 2006 – Lister Sinclair, Indian-Canadian actor and playwright (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish-English actress and singer (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Toše Proeski, Macedonian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1981)
• 2007 – Barbara West, English survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (b. 1911)
• 2008 – Dagmar Normet, Estonian author and translator (b. 1921)
• 2010 – Eyedea, American rapper and producer (Eyedea & Abilities and Face Candy) (b. 1981)
• 2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)
• 2011 – Dan Wheldon, English racing driver (b. 1978)
• 2012 – Frank Moore Cross, American scholar and academic (b. 1921)
• 2012 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (b. 1936)
• 2012 – Mario Gallegos, Jr., American firefighter and politician (b. 1950)
• 2012 – Bódog Török, Hungarian handball player and coach (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Eddie Yost, American baseball player and coach (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Govind Purushottam Deshpande, Indian playwright and academic (b. 1938)
• 2013 – George Hourmouziadis, Greek archaeologist and academic (b. 1932)
• 2013 – Ed Lauter, American actor (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Laurel Martyn, Australian ballerina and choreographer (b. 1916)
• 2013 – Robert B. Rheault, American colonel (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Saggy Tahir, Pakistani-American lawyer and politician (b. 1944)
• 2014 – Ioannis Charalambopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
• 2014 – Allen Forte, American musicologist and theorist (b. 1926)
• 2014 – Sumi Haru, American actress (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Tim Hauser, American singer (The Manhattan Transfer) (b. 1941)
• 2014 – Seppo Kuusela, Finnish basketball player and coach (b. 1934)
• 2014 – John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English businessman (b. 1926)
• 2015 – Richard J. Cardamone, American lawyer and judge (b. 1925)
• 2015 – Denis Cuspert, German rapper (b. 1975)
• 2015 – James W. Fowler, American psychologist and academic (b. 1940)
• 2015 – William James, Australian general and physician (b. 1930)
• 2015 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

• Air Force Day (Bulgaria)
• Boss's Day (United States and Canada)
• Christian feast day:
  • Blessed Thevarparampil Kunjachan (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church / Catholic Church)
  • Fortunatus of Casei
  • Gall
  • Gerard Majella
  • Hedwig of Silesia
  • Hugh Latimer (Anglicanism)
  • Marguerite Marie Alacoque
  • Marie-Marguerite d'Youville
  • Nicholas Ridley (Anglicanism)
  • Silvanus of Ahun
  • October 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Day of Pope John Paul II (Poland)
• Death anniversary of Liaquat Ali Khan (Pakistan)
• Teachers' Day (Chile)
• World Anaesthesia Day (International)
• World Food Day (International)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to October 16.

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada