What are the important events that happened on April 16? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

April 16: Facts & Myths About This Day

April 16 is the 106^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 259 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 3, 2025 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 29,079,360 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 ‘hectahexagon’ day.

Aries is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 307 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 4,499 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

April 16 Historical Events

• 1178 BC –
  The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus’ return home from the Trojan War.
• 1582 –
  Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
• 1799 –
  Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.
• 1912 –
  Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
• 1917 –
  Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.
• 1945 –
  More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
• 1962 –
  Walter Cronkite takes over as the lead news anchor of the CBS Evening News, during which time he would become “the most trusted man in America”.
• 2001 –
  India and Bangladesh begin a five-day border conflict, but are unable to resolve the disputes about their border.
• 2007 –
  President of Côte d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo declares the First Ivorian Civil War to be over.
• 2007 –
  Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest spree killing in modern American history. Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 and injures 23 before committing suicide.

Who were born on April 16?

• 1319 –
  King John II of France (d. 1364)
• 1682 –
  John Hadley, British inventor (d. 1744)
• 1943 –
  Dave Peverett, English musician (Foghat, Savoy Brown) (d. 2000)
• 1947 –
  Gerry Rafferty, Scottish musician and songwriter (d. 2011)
• 1953 –
  Peter Garrett, Australian singer (Midnight Oil)
• 1956 –
  Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier
• 1963 –
  Saleem Malik, Pakistani cricketer
• 1969 –
  Fernando Viña, American baseball player
• 1976 –
  Lukas Haas, American actor
• 1985 –
  Mark Baker, Welsh author and historian

Who died on April 16?

• 924 –
  Berengar of Friuli, King of Italy
• 1859 –
  Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)
• 1915 –
  Nelson W. Aldrich, American politician (b. 1841)
• 1930 –
  José Carlos Mariátegui, Peruvian journalist, political philosopher and activist (b. 1894)
• 1946 –
  Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automobile designer (b. 1884)
• 1947 –
  Rudolf Höß, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp (b. 1900)
• 1997 –
  Roland Topor, French illustrator (b. 1938)
• 2001 –
  Alec Stock, English football manager (b. 1917)
• 2005 –
  Kim Mu-saeng, South Korean actor (b. 1943)
• 2007 –
  Seung-Hui Cho, American spree killer (b. 1984)