622 The Prophet Muhammad's preaching in Mecca met with much opposition and at times he was stoned, so he concluded that Allah intended the divine message and call to be vindicated by political means. Muhammad moved his base from Mecca to the predominately agricultural settlement of Medina. The Islamic calendar began on July 16, 622 during the year in which the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra, occurred.
1228 Francis of Assisi was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228. In acknowledgement of his love for the countryside and wild creatures, he was designated patron saint of ecology in 1980. It has become customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on Saint Francis' feast day.
1377 Richard II of England was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, Prince of Wales. His father died before him, and he became king in 1377, when he was just 10 years old. He was crowned on July 16, 1377 at Westminster Abbey. His uncle John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster was regent until Richard II could rule. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue for military protection.
1439 Kissing was banned in England on July 16, 1439 to stop the spread of pestilence and disease. It was remarkable that the Parliament of King Henry VI of England should issue a proclamation banning kissing, centuries before the understanding of the concepts of hygiene and germs.
1557 Anne of Cleves, 4th wife of King Henry VIII, died at Chelsea Old Manor on July 16, 1557. eight weeks before her forty-second birthday. The cause of her death was most likely to have been cancer. She is buried at Westminster Abbey.
1723 English painter and academic Joshua Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, England on July 16, 1723 to the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School and his wife Theophila. Joshua was bought up in an atmosphere of learning. Samuel’s first inclination was to bring up his son up as an apothecary – however, by 1740, it was clear that Joshua’s future lay in art. Reynolds took up painting aged 28 with immediate success especially amongst the Whig aristocracy.
1769 The first Californian mission and presidio were established by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and Spanish soldier Gaspar de Portolá in San Diego on July 16, 1769. The mission would become the city of San Diego. It was named for the Catholic Didacus of Alcalá, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego.
1782 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most successful opera during his lifetime was the Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on July 16, 1782. A knockabout nursery farce, it was popular due to its oriental setting at a time of war with Turkey. After its premiere, Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the comment that it had "too many notes".
1790 On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act was signed into law by President George Washington, which established the District of Columbia as the permanent capital of the United States. The location was chosen along the Potomac River to appease both northern and southern states, as it was situated between the North and South. The District of Columbia is commonly referred to as Washington D.C.
1228 Francis of Assisi was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228. In acknowledgement of his love for the countryside and wild creatures, he was designated patron saint of ecology in 1980. It has become customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on Saint Francis' feast day.
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| Legend of St. Francis, Sermon to the Birds, upper Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi |
1377 Richard II of England was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, Prince of Wales. His father died before him, and he became king in 1377, when he was just 10 years old. He was crowned on July 16, 1377 at Westminster Abbey. His uncle John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster was regent until Richard II could rule. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue for military protection.
1439 Kissing was banned in England on July 16, 1439 to stop the spread of pestilence and disease. It was remarkable that the Parliament of King Henry VI of England should issue a proclamation banning kissing, centuries before the understanding of the concepts of hygiene and germs.
1557 Anne of Cleves, 4th wife of King Henry VIII, died at Chelsea Old Manor on July 16, 1557. eight weeks before her forty-second birthday. The cause of her death was most likely to have been cancer. She is buried at Westminster Abbey.
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| A portrait of Anne in the 1540s by Bartholomäus Bruyn the elder. |
1723 English painter and academic Joshua Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, England on July 16, 1723 to the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School and his wife Theophila. Joshua was bought up in an atmosphere of learning. Samuel’s first inclination was to bring up his son up as an apothecary – however, by 1740, it was clear that Joshua’s future lay in art. Reynolds took up painting aged 28 with immediate success especially amongst the Whig aristocracy.
1769 The first Californian mission and presidio were established by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and Spanish soldier Gaspar de Portolá in San Diego on July 16, 1769. The mission would become the city of San Diego. It was named for the Catholic Didacus of Alcalá, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego.
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| Mission San Diego de Alcalá By Bernard Gagnon |
1782 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most successful opera during his lifetime was the Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on July 16, 1782. A knockabout nursery farce, it was popular due to its oriental setting at a time of war with Turkey. After its premiere, Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the comment that it had "too many notes".
1790 On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act was signed into law by President George Washington, which established the District of Columbia as the permanent capital of the United States. The location was chosen along the Potomac River to appease both northern and southern states, as it was situated between the North and South. The District of Columbia is commonly referred to as Washington D.C.
1809 On July 16, 1809 the Bolivian city of La Paz declared its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and formed the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo. The Republic of Bolivia was created in 1825 at the Congress of Upper Peru.
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| Government Palace of Bolivia in downtown La Paz. By Skykid 123ve |
1821 Mary Baker Eddy was born in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1821. Mary spent much of her youth sick with obscure nervous disorders. Inspired by a miraculous healing Eddy experienced after reading the account in Matthew 9 of how Jesus healed the paralytic, her success led her to developing the Christian Science sect, which regards sickness as a mere illusion to be overcome by right thinking.
1862 David Farragut became the first person to be promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy on July 16, 1862. Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term "flag officer", to distinguish the rank from the traditions of the European navies.
1871 Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary had four sons, who were spoiled by their devoted parents and annoyed the whole neighborhood with their rowdy behaviour. Eddie died a month before his fourth birthday probably of tuberculosis. "Willie" Lincoln died of a fever aged 12. and their fourth son Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, died of heart failure at the age of 18 on July 16, 1871. Robert Todd Lincoln was the only one of Lincoln's sons to reach adulthood.
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| Tad Lincoln with his father looking at a photo album |
1872 Roald Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg on July 16, 1872. Amundsen's father, Jens was a ship owner and many of his family were also ship owners and captains. His mother encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. This freed him to become an explorer and he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole .
1927 The German-American author and illustrator Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel is best known for authoring more than 60 children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. He began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines and newspapers in February 1927. Geisel's first nationally published cartoon was printed in the July 16, 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post for which he earned $25.
1931 C. T. Studd was an outstanding cricketer who represented England in international matches against Australia, before becoming a missionary. Studd founded in 1913 the Heart of Africa Mission and served in Africa until his death on July 16, 1931.
1931 The Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, signed the nation's first constitution on July 16, 1931. It was intended to officially replace the Fetha Nagast, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages. The constitution represented the first time in history that an absolute ruler had voluntarily shared sovereignty with his subjects.
1935 The world’s first parking meter, Park-O-Meter No. 1, was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on July 16, 1935. It was designed by Oklahoma State University engineering professors Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A. Hale who had begun working on the device two years earlier at the request of Oklahoma City, lawyer and newspaper publisher Carl C. Magee.
1945 The Atomic Age began on July 16, 1945, when the USA successfully detonated a plutonium-based nuclear bomb. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. At 05:29:21 MWT the bomb exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT (84 TJ). The desert sand, largely made of silica, melted and became a mildly radioactive light green glass. The explosion left a crater in the desert 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.
1950 On July 16, 1950, 173,850 paid spectators packed into Rio de Janiero's Maracanã stadium, then the world's biggest, for the final game of the 1950 World Cup. Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1, breaking the locals' hearts. The local media dubbed it the Maracanazo (a term still used when a visiting team triumphs). The game holds the world record for the highest attendance at any soccer match, ever.
1951 During his World War II service J.D, Salinger began working on a play featuring a disaffected teenager named Holden Cauldfield, Salinger even kept pages on his person when marching into battle. After the war, Salinger continued working on his Holden Cauldfield story, which became his cult classic of teenage angst, The Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the Rye was published by Little, Brown and Company on July 16, 1951. It became an immediate popular success.
1956 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed its very last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 16, 1956, due to changing economics. The circus' president, John Ringling North, announced that starting in 1957 they would exhibit in permanent venues, such as sports stadiums and arenas that had the seating already in place.
1966 Mao Zedong enjoyed swimming. On July 16, 1966 the 72-year-old Chinese leader chose to join 5,000 other swimmers in Wuhan’s 11th annual Cross-Yangtze Competition. He allegedly swam 10 miles (16 km) in just over an hour from the Wuhan Bridge over the Yangtze to prove his fitness and to prove himself invincible.
1979 The New York Renaissance basketball team, the first all-black professional basketball team, was founded by Robert L. "Bob" Douglas. Nicknamed the "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972, the first African American to be enshrined. Bob Douglas died on July 16, 1979.
1979 During the 1970s, Saddam Hussein was vice president under the weak and old President of Iraq, General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. At a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, he created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. Saddam formally took office as President of Iraq on July 16, 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior.
1991 Italian mycologist Bruno Cetto died on July 16, 1991. (A mycologist is a person who studies mushrooms and fungi). He published his first book on mushrooms in 1948, and his seven-volume series, I Funghi dal Vero, was published between 1964 and 1992. This series is considered to be one of the most comprehensive and authoritative works on mushrooms in the world. Bruno Cetto described 2,147 types of mushroom.
1995 The Amazon online shop was launched on July 16, 1995 by Jeff Bezos, originally selling only books. The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is one of the largest rivers in the world and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with "A" and therefore shows up near the beginning of alphabetical lists. By 2000 Amazon claimed 17 million customers in over 160 countries, and was one of the world's most visited Web sites.
2017 Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic in straight sets (6-3, 6-1, 6-4) to win his record eighth Wimbledon title on July 16, 2017. He was 35 years and 338 days old at the time, making him the oldest men's singles champion at Wimbledon since 1930.
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