August 16

August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 137 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances

Events

1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bennington - British forces are defeated by American troops.
1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1812 - War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1841 - US President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in US history.
1858 - US President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1896 - George Carmack discovers gold in the Klondike.
1920 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in his head and fatally wounded with a fastball from Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. Chapman will die early the next day, becoming the only person to ever die during a major league baseball game (as of 2003).
1928 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, DC after killing about 20 people.
1930 - First colour sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, was made by Ub Iwerks
1954 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published.
1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1960 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m). He sets unbeaten (as of 2003) world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft, 614 mi/h (982 km/h).
1962 - The Beatles fire Pete Best and replace him with Ringo Starr.
1964 - Vietnam War: In a coup, General Nguyen Khanh replaces Duong Van Minh as South Vietnam's chief of state and establishes a new constitution, which the US Embassy helped draft.
1966 - Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong with the intent to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.
1972 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he was traveling back to Rabat.
1984 - Carmaker John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.
1987 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport killing all but one of the 156 people on-board (sole survivor was four-year old Cecelia Cichan). The crew forgot to properly set the planes flaps.

Births

1845 - Gabriel Lippmann, physicist (+ 1921)
1862 - Amos Alonzo Stagg, college sports coach (football, basketball and baseball) (+ 1965)
1868 - Bernarr McFadden, publisher
1884 - Hugo Gernsback, editor and publisher
1888 - T. E. Lawrence, writer, soldier
1894 - George Meany, labor union activist (+ 1980)
1902 - Georgette Heyer, novelist (+ 1975)
1913 - Menachem Begin, Israeli soldier and politician (+ 1992)
1920 - Charles Bukowski, poet (+ 1994)
1925 - Fess Parker, actor
1928 - Ann Blyth, actress
1930 - Frank Gifford, pro football player, sports announcer
1930 - Robert Culp, actor
1931 - Eydie Gorme, singer
1940 - Bruce Beresford, film director
1946 - Lesley Ann Warren, actress
1954 - James Cameron, director
1958 - Angela Bassett, actress
1959 - Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone), singer, actress
1960 - Timothy Hutton, Academy Award winning actor
1967 - Pamela Smart, murderess

Deaths

1864 - Confederate General John Chambliss
1899 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist
1907 - James Hector, geologist
1921 - King Peter I of Serbia
1938 - Robert Johnson, blues singer and guitarist
1948 - Babe Ruth, baseball player
1949 - Margaret Mitchell, novelist
1956 - Bela Lugosi, actor
1977 - Elvis Presley, singer, actor
1979 - John Diefenbaker, thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada
1989 - Amanda Blake, actress
2002 - Martin Deutsch, physicist, discoverer of positronium
2003 - Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator

Holidays and observances

January, February, March, April,May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December