January 16

Historic Events

2020

The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate. ›

2020

The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA. ›

2018

Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve. ›

2016

Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant. ›

2012

The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence. ›

2011

Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism. ›

2006

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. ›

2003

The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry. ›

2002

War in Afghanistan: The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban. ›

2001

Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa. ›

2001

US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War. ›

1998

In Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala, thirteen American students on a school trip are attacked and robbed at gunpoint; five were raped. ›

1995

An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died. ›

1992

El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives. ›

1991

Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War. ›

1984

A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month. ›

1983

Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20. ›

1979

Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt. ›

1969

Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before. ›

1969

Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk. ›

1959

Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51. ›

1945

World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker. ›

1942

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Chełmno extermination camp. ›

1942

Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard. ›

1921

The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa. ›

1920

The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France. ›

1919

Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later. ›

1913

Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results. ›

1909

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. ›

1900

The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands. ›

1883

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress. ›

1878

Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule. ›

1862

Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape. ›

1847

Westward expansion of the United States: John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. ›

1809

Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña. ›

1786

Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson. ›

1780

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent. ›

1757

Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela. ›

1716

King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain. ›

1707

The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain. ›

1641

Reapers' War: The Junta de Braços (parliamentary assembly) of the Principality of Catalonia accepts the proposal of establishment of the Catalan Republic, under French protection. ›

1605

The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain. ›

1572

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried and found guilty of treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. ›

1556

Philip II becomes King of Spain. ›

1547

Grand Prince Ivan IV is crowned as Tsar of all Russia. ›

1537

Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection attempting to resist the English Reformation, begins. ›

1362

Saint Marcellus's flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea. ›

1349

Basel Massacre: Dozens to hundreds of Jews were burned to death by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death. ›

1275

Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester. ›

1120

Crusades: The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. ›

929

Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III establishes the Caliphate of Córdoba. ›

550

The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison. ›

378

General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán. ›

27 BC

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. ›

1458 BC

Hatshepsut dies at the age of 50 and is buried in the Valley of the Kings. ›