Historical Events on 16 Aug

Historical Events on 16 Aug

1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting over themâ€"a case considered equal to the act of destroying stamped government documents, which by law necessitated one hundred floggings by a bamboo rod.
1513 - Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) - King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who were forced to retreat.
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 - Eleven people die and 400 are injured by cavalry charges at the Peterloo Massacre 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 will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1865 - Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic regains its independence after 4 years of fighting against the Spanish Annexation.
1868 - Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Peru-Chile Trench off the coast. The earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 25,000 people in Arica and perhaps 70,000 people in all.
1869 - Battle of Acosta Ã'u: A Paraguay 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.
1914 - World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
1915 - World War I: Should victory be achieved over the Central Powers, the Triple Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia: the Austro-Hungarian territories of Baranja, Srem, Slavonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the eastern â…" of Dalmatia (from the river of
1920 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in 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 only player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game.
1920 - The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.
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 was made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
1945 - Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, was captured by Soviet troops.
1946 - The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, is established, and Ichirō Ishikawa is appointed its representative.
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), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.
1962 - Pete Best replaced by Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as drummer for The Beatles.
1964 - Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution 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 peop
1972 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon, in an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, 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 in Romulus, 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.
1993 - The Debian distribution was first announced by Ian Murdock, then a student at Purdue University. Murdock initially called his system the "Debian Linux Release"
2003 - U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
2005 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing the 160 aboard.