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, 485,376 hours 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.
Do people and celebrities interest you? Discover all the May 16 famous birthdays who share your special day. Learn some fun facts about your birthday!
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May 16 Historical Events
- 1204 –Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1532 –Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 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.
- 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).
- 1918 –The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
- 1943 –Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1960 –Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1961 –Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
- 1983 –Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.
- 2003 –In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
Who were born on May 16?
- 1710 –William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
- 1831 –David E. Hughes, British inventor and musician (d. 1900)
- 1916 –Ephraim Katzir, Israeli politician (d. 2009)
- 1917 –James C. Murray, American politician (d. 1999)
- 1919 –Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
- 1921 –Harry Carey, Jr., American actor
- 1950 –J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1961 –Kevin McDonald, Canadian comedian and actor
- 1966 –Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1978 –David Ford, English singer and songwriter
Who died on May 16?
- 1265 –Saint Simon Stock, English saint (b. 1165)
- 1569 –Dirk Willems, Dutch Anabaptist
- 1667 –Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
- 1778 –Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat (b. 1718)
- 1913 –Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1849)
- 1926 –Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
- 1981 –Ernie Freeman, American pianist and arranger (b. 1922)
- 1988 –George Pyrounakis, Greek religious figure (b. 1910)
- 1990 –Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
- 2010 –Hank Jones, American jazz pianist (b. 1918)
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