1569 Dirk Willems, a Dutch Anabaptist, faced persecution after baptizing others in his home. While imprisoned, he escaped using a makeshift rope to traverse a frozen moat. Despite being pursued, Willems turned back to rescue his captor, leading to his recapture. Subsequently, he endured torture and was ultimately burned at the stake on May 16, 1569, near his hometown of Aspere,
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| Dirk Willems rescue from the 1685 edition of Martyrs Mirror |
1717 Voltaire lived in a France which was oppressively mis-governed and overtaxed and the writer was not shy in lampooning the ruling class. In 1716 Voltaire wrote a satirical poem about the Duke of Orleans that resulted in a nearly year-long imprisonment at the Bastille. He was imprisoned from May 16, 1717 to April 15, 1718 in a windowless cell with ten-foot-thick walls.
1763 James Boswell was a close friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. They first met in a London bookshop on May 16, 1763, when Johnson was 53 and Boswell a mere 21. Their friendship inspired Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson one of the greatest biographies ever written. Boswell's wife was scornful of her husband’s devotion to this lumbering, ungainly man whose manners displeased her. She said of Johnson, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear."
1767 The first known public performance in Britain to use a piano occurred at Covent Garden Theater, London on May 16, 1767. In a play bill for a performance of The Beggar's Opera, it was announced that "at the end of Act 1, Miss Brickler will sing a favourite song from Judith, accompanied by Mr. Dibdin on a new instrument called piano-forte."
1770 Marie Antoinette married Louis-Auguste (later Louis XVI of France) on May 16, 1770. The Wedding Mass was celebrated with great pomp at Versailles' Chapel Royal. Louis-Auguste and Marie-Antoinette were then married in front of the court, with Marie-Antoinette wearing a magnificent dress with huge white hoops covered in diamonds and pearls.
1806 Railway pioneer George Stephenson married Frances (Fanny) Henderson in November 1802. Their first child Robert was born in 1803, and their second child, a daughter was born in July 1805. She was named Frances after her mother. Little Frances died after just three weeks and was buried in St Bartholomew's Parish Church near Newcastle. In 1806 Fanny died probably of consumption (tuberculosis). She was buried in the same churchyard as their daughter on May 16, 1806.
1831 Welsh-born scientist and professor of music David Edward Hughes was born on May 16, 1831. The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone (then called transmitter). This was independently developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US in the mid 1870s. Hughes' microphone used a piece of pine board to pick up sound.
1849 The German composer Richard Wagner's involvement in left-wing politics abruptly ended his welcome in Dresden. He took part in the 1848 German revolutionary riots and following year Wagner manned the barricades in the Dresden uprising. A warrant for his arrest was issued on May 16, 1849 and he was forced to flee to Switzerland. Wagner settled in Zürich, where he spent the next twelve years in exile.
1861 Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as H. H. Holmes, was born on May 16, 1861. He was the first recognized serial killer in United States history. While he confessed to 27 murders, only nine could be plausibly confirmed. Holmes, who sold the skeletons of his victims to medical science, was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896.
1866 The United States Congress authorized the minting of the country's first copper-nickel five-cent coin, the Shield nickel, on May 16, 1866. The Shield nickel was the first five-cent coin made of a copper-nickel alloy, and it featured a shield on the obverse (front) side of the coin. The Shield nickel replaced the previous five-cent coin known as the "Half Dime," which was made of silver.
1881 The world's first electric tramway went into service on May 16, 1881. The 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long line started at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station on the Anhalt Railway line. It ran on already existing tracks that had been used for building the Prussian military academy (Hauptkadettenanstalt) at Lichterfelde West.
1888 Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla moved from Budapest in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison. They quarreled and soon Tesla started working on his own with other people investing in his work. On May 16, 1888 Tesla delivered a lecture describing the equipment which would allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. He received a patent for a dynamo-electric machine the same year.
1891 George A Hormel set up a butcher’s shop in Austin, Minnesota on May 16, 1891. Over the years, his business grew and evolved into what is now known as the Hormel Foods Corporation. One of Hormel's most famous products is spam, which was first introduced in 1937. Spam is a canned meat product made from chopped pork and ham, and it has become widely recognized and enjoyed around the world.
1763 James Boswell was a close friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. They first met in a London bookshop on May 16, 1763, when Johnson was 53 and Boswell a mere 21. Their friendship inspired Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson one of the greatest biographies ever written. Boswell's wife was scornful of her husband’s devotion to this lumbering, ungainly man whose manners displeased her. She said of Johnson, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear."
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| A 1781 literary party at Sir Joshua Reynolds' with Boswell left and Johnson 2nd left |
1767 The first known public performance in Britain to use a piano occurred at Covent Garden Theater, London on May 16, 1767. In a play bill for a performance of The Beggar's Opera, it was announced that "at the end of Act 1, Miss Brickler will sing a favourite song from Judith, accompanied by Mr. Dibdin on a new instrument called piano-forte."
1770 Marie Antoinette married Louis-Auguste (later Louis XVI of France) on May 16, 1770. The Wedding Mass was celebrated with great pomp at Versailles' Chapel Royal. Louis-Auguste and Marie-Antoinette were then married in front of the court, with Marie-Antoinette wearing a magnificent dress with huge white hoops covered in diamonds and pearls.
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| Marriage of Marie Antoinette with Louis-Auguste. Claude-Louis Desrais (1746-1816) |
1806 Railway pioneer George Stephenson married Frances (Fanny) Henderson in November 1802. Their first child Robert was born in 1803, and their second child, a daughter was born in July 1805. She was named Frances after her mother. Little Frances died after just three weeks and was buried in St Bartholomew's Parish Church near Newcastle. In 1806 Fanny died probably of consumption (tuberculosis). She was buried in the same churchyard as their daughter on May 16, 1806.
1831 Welsh-born scientist and professor of music David Edward Hughes was born on May 16, 1831. The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone (then called transmitter). This was independently developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US in the mid 1870s. Hughes' microphone used a piece of pine board to pick up sound.
1849 The German composer Richard Wagner's involvement in left-wing politics abruptly ended his welcome in Dresden. He took part in the 1848 German revolutionary riots and following year Wagner manned the barricades in the Dresden uprising. A warrant for his arrest was issued on May 16, 1849 and he was forced to flee to Switzerland. Wagner settled in Zürich, where he spent the next twelve years in exile.
1861 Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as H. H. Holmes, was born on May 16, 1861. He was the first recognized serial killer in United States history. While he confessed to 27 murders, only nine could be plausibly confirmed. Holmes, who sold the skeletons of his victims to medical science, was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896.
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| Full confession of Holmes |
1866 The United States Congress authorized the minting of the country's first copper-nickel five-cent coin, the Shield nickel, on May 16, 1866. The Shield nickel was the first five-cent coin made of a copper-nickel alloy, and it featured a shield on the obverse (front) side of the coin. The Shield nickel replaced the previous five-cent coin known as the "Half Dime," which was made of silver.
1881 The world's first electric tramway went into service on May 16, 1881. The 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long line started at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station on the Anhalt Railway line. It ran on already existing tracks that had been used for building the Prussian military academy (Hauptkadettenanstalt) at Lichterfelde West.
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| Lichterfelde tram, 1882 |
1888 Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla moved from Budapest in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison. They quarreled and soon Tesla started working on his own with other people investing in his work. On May 16, 1888 Tesla delivered a lecture describing the equipment which would allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. He received a patent for a dynamo-electric machine the same year.
1891 George A Hormel set up a butcher’s shop in Austin, Minnesota on May 16, 1891. Over the years, his business grew and evolved into what is now known as the Hormel Foods Corporation. One of Hormel's most famous products is spam, which was first introduced in 1937. Spam is a canned meat product made from chopped pork and ham, and it has become widely recognized and enjoyed around the world.
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| The building in which George A. Hormel started his business. |
1919 The Anglican Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson was born on May 16, 1919. A left wing modernist, Robinson was a major force in promoting the modern liberal Christian theology that came to the fore in the 1960s. Robinson came to many people's attention when in 1960 he controversially defended the publication in Britain of D.H. Lawrence's famously sexually explicit novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1929 The first Academy Awards ceremony took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show. The guests at the first Academy Awards ceremony knew who had won three months in advance but still paid $5 a ticket for their seats. The first winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the only silent film to achieve that honor was Wings.
1947 On May 16, 1947, jazz singer Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing narcotics in her New York apartment. She was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, popularly known as "Camp Cupcake" and released early in March 1948 because of good behavior. Holiday said she never "sang a note" at Alderson even though people wanted her to.
1955 Gymnast Olga Korbut was born on May 16, 1955, in Grodno, Belorussian S.S.R. (now Belarus). Korbut captivated the world at the 1972 Olympics at Munich with her lithe grace and charm. She won a gold medal as a member of the winning Soviet team, as well as individual golds in the beam and floor exercises. The Associated Press awarded her the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Trophy, which had not been given to a competitor from the Soviet Union or its satellite countries since 1931.
1960 American physicist Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California on May 16, 1960. In doing so, he beat several other research teams. Even the first laser was recognized as being potentially dangerous. Theodore Maiman characterized the first laser as having a power of one "Gillette" as it could burn through one Gillette razor blade.
1966 Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China launched the Cultural Revolution on May 16, 1966. Officially it was a campaign to rid China of its liberal bourgeois elements and to continue the revolutionary class struggle. However, Mao knew nothing about economics and his cultural revolution led to much destruction of property, the loss of skilled manpower (many scientists and engineers were put in jail or sent to work on the farms), managerial expertise and lower productivity.
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| Cultural Revolution propaganda poster. Wikipedia |
1975 Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabel became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 16. 1975. Furthermore, Junko Tabei also holds the distinction of being the first woman to conquer the Seven Summits, which involves climbing the highest peak on every continent.
1990 A major outbreak of BSE or mad cow’s disease in the late 1980s in Britain resulted many shying away from eating beef. On May 16, 1990, a photograph of British minister John Selwyn Gummer feeding his daughter a British beefburger appeared in many newspapers. Because of the growing anxiety about BSE the British minister was keen to show the world that British beef was safe.
1990 The Muppets creator Jim Henson died aged 53 died from Streptococcus pneumoniae, an infection that causes bacterial pneumonia, on May 16, 1990. His coffin was topped by Kermit, bearing a sign that read: "I've lost my voice." Jim Henson's death was a significant loss to the entertainment industry, and his contributions to puppetry and television continue to be celebrated.
1991 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress on May 16, 1991. She was the first British monarch to address the US Congress. In her speech, the Queen praised the close relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, and she spoke about the importance of freedom, democracy, and human rights. She also spoke about the need for cooperation between the two countries to address global challenges such as terrorism and climate change.
2012 The world record for the largest bagpipe ensemble consisted of 333 participants at an event organized by the Art of Living Foundation in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 16, 2012. The attempt used traditional Bulgarian "kaba gaida" bagpipes which are from the Rhodope region of Bulgaria.
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