Historical Events on 16 Jul

Historical Events on 16 Jul

1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Eastern Christian churches by placing an invalid Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar in the Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. This is often dated as the start of t
1661 - The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
1683 - Manchu/Chinese Qing Dynasty naval forces under commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
1769 - Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission in California. The mission later evolves into the city of San Diego.
1782 - First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio.
1790 - The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia (seat of government).
1809 - The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declared its independence from Spanish Crown and formed the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, lead by Pedro Domingo Murillo.
1862 - American Civil War: David Farragut becomes the first United States Navy rear admiral.
1880 - Dr. Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licenced to practice medicine in Canada.
1931 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
1935 - The world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1942 - Holocaust: Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv: the Vichy France government orders French police officers to round up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
1945 - Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
1948 - The city of Nazareth, hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel led by Ben Dunkelman, after little more than token resistance, during 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
1951 - King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.
1957 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1973 - Watergate Scandal: Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
1979 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
1981 - Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister until he retired on October 31, 2003, making him Asia's longest-serving political leaders (22 years as Prime Minister of Malaysia).
1983 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
1994 - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter. Impacts continue until July 22nd.
1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy.
2004 - Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
2007 - An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and aftershock of 6.6 occurs off the Niigata coast, Japan, killing 8 people with at least 800 injured and damaging a nuclear power plant. See 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake.
622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar.