August 16 - Events

Events

• 1513 – Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) – King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who are then forced to retreat.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswicktroops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden – The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
• 1792 – Maximilien Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
• 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
• 1819 – Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.
• 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-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 U.S. history.
• 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
• 1859 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
• 1865 – Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic regains its independence after 4 years of fighting against theSpanish Annexation.
• 1868 – Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami that follows a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Peru-Chile Trench off the coast. The earthquake and tsunami kill an estimated 25,000 people in Arica and perhaps 70,000 people in all.
• 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-La-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
• 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
• 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tōhoku University) admits its first female students.
• 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary.
• 1914 – World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
• 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. To date, Chapman is the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first beingDoc Powers in 1909.
• 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.
• 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in the British Mandate of Palestine between Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.
• 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
• 1940 – World War II: The Communist Party is banned in German-occupied Norway.
• 1941 – HMS Mercury, Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
• 1942 – World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
• 1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
• 1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
• 1945 – Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.
• 1954 – The first edition 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 (31,300 m), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
• 1962 – Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) replaces Pete Best as drummer of The Beatles.
• 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A newconstitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.
• 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
• 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
• 1987 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes on take-off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport inRomulus, Michigan (Detroit), killing 155 passengers and crew. The sole survivor is four-year-old Cecelia Cichan.
• 1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.
• 1992 – In response to an appeal by President Fernando Collor de Mello to wear green and yellow as a way to show support for him, thousands of Brazilians take to the streets dressed in black.
• 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing the 160 aboard.