April 16 - Events

Events

• 1178 BC – The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus' return home from the Trojan War.
• 73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.
• 1071 – Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.
• 1346 – The Serbian Empire is proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the Balkans.
• 1521 – Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.
• 1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
• 1746 – The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverianforces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.
• 1780 – The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
• 1799 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordannear Acre.
• 1853 – The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
• 1858 – The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.
• 1862 – American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia becomes law.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederateartillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• 1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
• 1910 – The University of Queensland is founded, with the names of the members of the first Senate published in the Queensland Government Gazette.
• 1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
• 1917 – Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.
• 1919 – Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by theBritish.
• 1922 – The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed.
• 1925 – During the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia, 150 are killed and 500 are wounded.
• 1941 – World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.
• 1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians throws the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating theChicago White Sox 1-0.
• 1943 – Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
• 1944 – Allied forces started bombimng of Belgrade,killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
• 1945 – The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
• 1945 – The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).
• 1945 – More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
• 1946 – Syria gains independence.
• 1947 – Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
• 1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• 1953 – Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia.
• 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
• 1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• 1990 – The "Doctor of Death", Jack Kevorkian, participates in his first assisted suicide.
• 1992 – The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
• 2003 – The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.
• 2004 – The super liner RMS Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first trans-Atlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.
• 2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest spree killing in modern American history. Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 and injures 23 before committing suicide.