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 137th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 229 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 3, 2024 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 476,616 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 ‘hectatriacontaheptagon’ day.
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 258 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 4,164 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.
- 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.
- 1811 –Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
- 1843 –The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
- 1874 –A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
- 1877 –May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
- 1943 –Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1960 –Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1975 –India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favor of merging with India.
- 2005 –Kuwait permits women’s suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
Who were born on May 16?
- 1913 –Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- 1918 –Wilf Mannion, English former footballer (d. 2000)
- 1921 –Harry Carey, Jr., American actor
- 1937 –Yvonne Craig, American actress
- 1944 –Danny Trejo, American actor
- 1948 –Adrian Legg, English guitarist
- 1958 –Glenn Gregory, British musician (Heaven 17)
- 1977 –Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress
- 1983 –Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1991 –Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player
Who died on May 16?
- 1778 –Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat (b. 1718)
- 1955 –James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
- 1988 –Charles Keeping, English illustrator (b. 1924)
- 1990 –Sammy Davis, Jr., American entertainer (b. 1925)
- 1992 –Chalino Sánchez, Mexican musician (b. 1960)
- 1997 –Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (b. 1903)
- 2000 –Bodacious the Bull, rodeo bull (b. 1988)
- 2008 –David Mitton, British television director (b. 1939)
- 2008 –Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (b. 1913)
- 2010 –Ronnie James Dio, American heavy metal vocalist (b. 1942)
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