What are the important events that happened on May 16? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 16: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 16 is the 136th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 229 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 3, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,122,560 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontahexagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 277 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,529 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 16 Historical Events
- 1204 –Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 –The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
- 1532 –Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1770 –14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 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.
- 1822 –Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
- 1868 –President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
- 1874 –A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
- 1891 –The International Electro-Technical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world’s first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electrical current (the most common form today).
- 1969 –Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
Who were born on May 16?
- 1718 –Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
- 1897 –Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist (d. 1994)
- 1930 –Betty Carter, American jazz singer (d. 1998)
- 1931 –Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- 1966 –Janet Jackson, American singer
- 1966 –Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1975 –Tony Kakko, Finnish singer (Sonata Arctica)
- 1976 –Brian Langtry, American lacrosse player
- 1977 –Emiliana Torrini Icelandic singer and songwriter
- 1980 –Melanie Lofton, American journalist
Who died on May 16?
- 1657 –Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1691 –Jacob Leisler, American colonist (b. 1640)
- 1703 –Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- 1947 –Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1861)
- 1979 –A. Philip Randolph, American civil rights activist and labor union leader (b. 1889)
- 1985 –Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1988 –Charles Keeping, English illustrator (b. 1924)
- 2008 –Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (b. 1913)
- 2011 –Bill Skiles, American comic (b. 1931)
- 2011 –Edward Hardwicke, English actor (b. 1932)
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