August 16

1787 Lieutenant William Bligh took command of The Bounty on August 16, 1787. His mission for the Bounty was to collect breadfruit from Tahiti in the hope that it could serve as cheap food for slaves in the West Indies. Disaffected crewmen, led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain. After being cast adrift as a result of the Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh survived a 47-day journey to Timor and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice.

Mutiny HMS Bounty 1790 painting by Robert Dodd

1827 British pioneer in women's education Frances Mary Buss was born on August 16, 1827. At the age of 23 she founded the North London Collegiate School for Ladies, and became its head (1850-94) - the first female teacher to call herself a headmistress.

1837 Abraham Lincoln met Mary Owens from Kentucky when she was visiting her sister. He courted her for a time in the mid 1830s but they both had second thoughts about their relationship. On August 16, 1837, Lincoln wrote Mary a letter suggesting he would not blame her if she ended the relationship. She never replied and the courtship ended. Lincoln married Mary Todd five years later.

1846 Italian composer Gioachino Rossini first met the French artists' model and hostess Olympe Pélissier in the 1830s. She famously sat to Vernet for his picture of "Judith and Holofernes." They began a serious relationship in Paris after Rossini separated from his first wife Isabella Colbran. Olympe began to cook for the composer and manage his business affairs, although they only married on August 16, 1846 after Isabella's death. They remained together until Rossini's death in 1868. 

Vernet's Judith and Holofernes, for which Pélissier modelled

1858 On August 16, 1858 Queen Victoria cabled President James Buchanan over the first transatlantic cable. The message was 98 words long and took 16.5 hours to transmit. Just a few weeks later, the cable stopped working. It would take another eight years before the countries laid a working transatlantic cable that provided reliable communication across the Atlantic Ocean. 

1861 Ranavalona I was sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to her death on August 16, 1861. A ruthless ruler of Madagascar, during her reign the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million. 

1884 Luxembourgish-American writer, editor, and magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback was born on August 16, 1884. He provided a forum for the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories. Although Greenback was the first in modern times to use the term "science fiction", he preferred to call it “scientifiction.” The annual awards at the World Science Fiction Convention are called the “Hugos” after Hugo Gernsback,

February 1928 cover of Amazing Stories

1888 Thomas Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888 in Tremadog, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd), Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge. Lawrence first went to the Middle East in 1909 when he traveled to Syria as part of his Oxford University studies. He fought with Arab leaders in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turkish rule during World War I, and was the inspiration for the film Lawrence of Arabia.

1891 The San Sebastian Church in Manila, the only all-steel church in Asia, was officially consecrated on August 16, 1891. It was designed by the Spanish architect Genaro Palacios and it took 10 years to complete. Gustave Eiffel, the same engineer behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris, was reputed to have been involved in its construction, as well.

The San Sebastian Basilica under construction in 1890

1898 August 16 is celebrated by many people around the world as Roller Coaster Day. It is the anniversary of the day in 1898 when the first roller coaster with a vertical loop patent was granted to Edwin Prescott from Massachusetts. Prescott’s “Loop the Loop” rollercoaster was installed at Coney Island Amusement Park, New York, in 1901. Capable of carrying only four riders, it drew not only paying riders, but crowds of spectators willing to pay to watch the coaster in action,

1914 The first naval battle of World War 1 took place on August 16, 1914, just twelve days after Germany’s unsatisfactory reply to Britain’s 1914 ultimatum over Belgium. It consisted of a British steamer, HMS Gwendolen, firing a single shot at its German rival, the Hermann Von Wissmann, on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.

1930 Fiddlesticks was the first animated sound cartoon that was photographed in two-strip Technicolor. It was made by Ub Iwerks and released on August 16, 1930. The cartoon featuring Iwerks's character Flip the Frog was a critical and commercial success.

1934 Donnie Dunagan (born August 16, 1934) enlisted in the Marine Corps and became the Marines' youngest-ever drill instruction. He served three tours in Vietnam and was wounded several times, earning three purple hearts. Dunagan managed to keep a big secret throughout his entire military career. He was a voice actor in Walt Disney's Bambi movie, providing the voice of young Bambi.

1944 John Logie Baird gave the world's first demonstration on August 16, 1944 of a fully electronic color television display. Baird's 600-line color system used triple interlacing, using six scans to build each picture. Baird's Telechrome was not only the first single-tube color television display, it could also display stereoscopic (3D) images.

1946 A day of widespread riot and manslaughter between Hindus and Muslims took place in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 'Direct Action Day,' August 16, 1946, as a result of the Muslim League's call for an independent Pakistan. More than 4,000 people lost their lives and 100,000 residents were left homeless in Calcutta within 72 hours.

1948 Baseball great Babe Ruth died of cancer on August 16, 1948, at 8:01 p.m in his sleep at the age of 53. His open casket was placed on display in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium, where it remained for two days; 77,000 people filed past to pay him tribute. Babe Ruth's funeral Mass took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral; a crowd estimated at 75,000 waited outside. Ruth was buried on a hillside in Section 25 at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

1954 Sports Illustrated was published for the first time on August 16, 1954. It was claimed that 250,000 subscriptions had been sold for the magazine before the first issue came off of the presses. The magazine gained rapid popularity and had a significant impact on sports journalism and coverage. 

1958 Madonna Louise Ciccone was born to "Tony" Ciccone and Madonna Louise Fortin in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958. Since Madonna had the same name as her mother, family members called her "Little Nonni". Madonna moved from Michigan to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. In 1979 Madonna became romantically involved with musician Dan Gilroy. Together, they formed her first band, the Breakfast Club, for which Madonna sang and played drums and guitar.

1960 The Zurich and London Agreement was signed by the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, and representatives of the Greek and Turkish communities in February 1959. It led to the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus on August 16, 1960. The establishment of the Republic of Cyprus marked the end of British rule and the beginning of a new era of self-determination for the Cypriot people

1962 The Beatles fired their original drummer Pete Best in favor of Ringo Starr on August 16, 1962.  Afterwards, Best formed a new band and released the album: Best of the Beatles, a play on his own name. This led to disappointment from fans who bought the album without reading the track listing.

1972 The 1972 Moroccan coup attempt was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco on August 16, 1972. Four Moroccan pilots intercepted a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II and fired on it. The King (himself a pilot), grabbed the radio and told the rebel pilots, "Stop firing! The tyrant is dead!" Fooled, the rebels broke off their attack and the coup failed.

1976 Punk rock developed in New York City in the mid-1970s. Punk rock pioneers The Ramones played their first show in a local New York club named CBGB on August 16, 1974. The Ramones, along with other Big Apple acts such as Television, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, and Patti Smith quickly gained a following with their loud, angry songs. In 1977 The Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", a mash note to surfing, punk girls and New York  became the first punk song to hit the pop charts.

1977 Unable to go anywhere without being mobbed by fans, Elvis Presley became increasingly reclusive in his last years. He gained weight and took various prescription drugs. Elvis died of heart failure in Memphis on August 16, 1977. He was sitting on a toilet at the time reading The Scientific Search for Jesus. Elvis' death in 1977 in no way diminished his popularity with his fans. His records continued to sell, and his legend brought on a whole generation of imitators.

1994 French actress Brigitte Bardot has had four husbands: She was married to director Roger Vadim from 1952 to 1957, actor Jacques Charrier in 1959 to 1962, with whom she had her only child, a son named Nicolas-Jacques, and German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs from 1966 to 1969. She married her current husband Bernard d'Ormale on August 16, 1992.

1994 IBM introduced in the mid 1990s a phone with a touchscreen display input that could send emails and run third party apps. The Simon Personal Communicator was made available to consumers on August 16, 1994. Although the term "smartphone" was not coined until 1997, because of Simon's features and capabilities, it can be referred to as the first smartphone.

IBM Simon and charging base (1994)

2003 Idi Amin was deposed as Uganda President in 1979. He fled Kampala as Tanzanian troops and Uganda National Liberation Front forces closed in. He escaped first to Libya, where he stayed until 1980, and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia, Idi Amin passed away on August 16, 2003 from kidney failure at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah in a simple grave without any fanfare.

2005 In 1940 an ecumenical community, Taizé, was founded by a Swiss Reformed Protestant Brother Roger on a mountain near Cluny in southern Burgundy, France.  Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work. A schizophrenic Romanian woman stabbed Brother Roger in the throat during the evening prayer service at Taizé in front of 2,500 horrified young pilgrims on August 16, 2005. He died within minutes.

2008 The concrete core of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago was topped off at 1,389 feet on August 16, 2008. It surpassed the city's John Hancock Center as the building with the highest residence (apartment or condo) in the world, and held this title until the completion of the Burj Khalifa.

2009 Usain Bolt set a new world record at the World Championships in Berlin on August 16, 2009. The Jamaican ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds, breaking his own record of 9.69 seconds set a year earlier – the biggest improvement since the start of electronic timing. Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds for 100 metres equals an average speed of 23.35mph.  His 200 metres speed is just slower at 23.31mph but his top speed has been measured at 27.44mph.

2013 On August 16, 2013, Google went down for five minutes and in that time, the global internet traffic dropped by 40%. The outage was caused by a problem with Google's DNS servers, which are responsible for translating human-readable domain names into the numeric IP addresses that computers use to communicate with each other. When the DNS servers went down, users were unable to access Google's services, which caused a ripple effect throughout the internet.