On this day in history

August 16

29 births · 22 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2014 Summer Youth Olympics

12 years ago

Born this day

1958

Madonna

Turns 68

Photo (modified): chrisweger · CC BY-SA 2.0

Oldest record

629th

Albert II of Germany

birth anniversary

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Famous births29

1397 · 629 yrs

Albert II of Germany

Albert II (German: Albrecht II., 10 August 1397 – 27 October 1439) was King of the Romans and a member of the House of Habsburg. By inheritance he became Albert V, Duke of Austria.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 42

View profile Photo (modified): anonymous · Public domain

1645 · 381 yrs

Jean de La Bruyère

Jean de La Bruyère (UK:, UK:; French:; 16 August 1645 – 11 May 1696) was a French philosopher and moralist who was noted for his satire.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun / After Pierre Drevet / After Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean · Public domain

1821 · 205 yrs

Arthur Cayley

Arthur Cayley (16 August 1821 – 26 January 1895) was an English mathematician who worked mostly on algebra. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics, and was a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge for 35 years.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): Herbert Beraud (1845–1896) · Public domain

1832 · 194 yrs

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (German:; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, professor, and one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was the first person to call himself a psychologist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1845 · 181 yrs

Gabriel Lippmann

Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann ( LIP-muhn; French:; 16 August 1845 – 12 July 1921) was a French physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 for his invention of the Lippmann plate, a method of photographically reproducing colours based on the interference phenomenon.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

1888 · 138 yrs

T. E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing · Public domain

1899 · 127 yrs

Andrei Platonov

Andrei Platonovich Platonov (Russian: Андрей Платонович Платонов, IPA:; né Klimentov; 28 August 1899 – 5 January 1951) was a Soviet Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher, playwright, and poet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 127

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1904 · 122 yrs

Wendell Meredith Stanley

Wendell Meredith Stanley (August 16, 1904 – June 15, 1971) was an American biochemist, virologist and Nobel laureate. Stanley's work contributed to lepracidal compounds, diphenyl stereochemistry, and the chemistry of the sterols.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1913 · 113 yrs

Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician who founded the political parties Herut and Likud and served as prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983.

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PoliticsWould be 113

View profile Photo (modified): Menachem Begin 1978.jpg : USAF personnel derivative work: Ladislav Faigl ( talk ) · Public domain

1920 · 106 yrs

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski ( boo-KOW-skee; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, German:; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 106

View profile Photo (modified): Artgal73 · CC BY 2.5

1929 · 97 yrs

Bill Evans

William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 97

View profile Photo (modified): Steve Schapiro · Public domain

1934 · 92 yrs

Pierre Richard

Pierre Richard (born Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays; 16 August 1934) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmAge 92

View profile Photo (modified): Harald Krichel · CC BY-SA 4.0

Showing 12 of 29

Famous deaths22

1705 · 321 yrs

Jacob Bernoulli

Jacob Bernoulli (6 January 1655 – 16 August 1705) was a Swiss mathematician. He sided with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz during the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy and was an early proponent of Leibnizian calculus, to which he made numerous contributions.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Niklaus Bernoulli (1662-1716) · Public domain

1886 · 140 yrs

Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also called Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (pronounced; IAST: Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa), born Ramakrishna Chattopadhyay (his childhood nickname was Gadadhar), was an Indian Hindu mystic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Abinash Chandra Dna · Public domain

1888 · 138 yrs

John Pemberton

John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist, chemist, and Confederate States Army officer who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyDied aged 57

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1893 · 133 yrs

Jean-Martin Charcot

Jean-Martin Charcot (French:; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 67

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified photographer · Public domain

1899 · 127 yrs

Robert Bunsen

Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (German:; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861 with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · CC BY-SA 4.0

1900 · 126 yrs

José Maria de Eça de Queirós

José Maria de Eça de Queiroz or Queirós (European Portuguese:; 25 November 1845 – 16 August 1900) is generally considered to have been the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style. Zola considered him to be far greater than Flaubert.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 54

View profile Photo (modified): Photographia Contemporanea In O Contemporâneo, nº 108, Lisboa [1882], p. [1] · Public domain

1916 · 110 yrs

Umberto Boccioni

Umberto Boccioni (US:; Italian:; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 144

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1921 · 105 yrs

Peter I of Serbia

Peter I (Serbo-Croatian: Петар I Карађорђевић, romanized: Petar I Karađorđević; 11 July 1844 – 16 August 1921) was King of Serbia from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918. On 1 December 1918, he became King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and he held that title until his death three years later.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Uroš Predić · Public domain

1948 · 78 yrs

Babe Ruth

George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 131

View profile Photo (modified): Charles M. Conlon · Public domain

1949 · 77 yrs

Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 125

View profile Photo (modified): New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Aumuller, Al, photographer. · Public domain

1956 · 70 yrs

Bela Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by his stage name Bela Lugosi was a Hungarian–American actor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 144

View profile Photo (modified): Fortepan adományozó SALY NOÉMI · Public domain

1957 · 69 yrs

Irving Langmuir

Irving Langmuir (January 31, 1881 – August 16, 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and metallurgical engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 145

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

Showing 12 of 22

Events5

1812 · 214 yrs

Battle of Smolensk

The Battle of Smolensk was the first major battle of the French invasion of Russia. It took place on 16–18 August 1812 and involved about 45,000 men of the Grande Armée under Emperor Napoleon I against about 30,000 Russian troops under General Barclay de Tolly.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1819 · 207 yrs

Peterloo Massacre

The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people were killed and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomanry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

1996 · 30 yrs

1996 Summer Paralympics

The 1996 Summer Paralympic in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 15 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of US$81 million.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2006 · 20 yrs

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals tournament took place between August 2006 and November 2007. Fifty teams were divided into seven groups.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2014 · 12 yrs

2014 Summer Youth Olympics

The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (Chinese: 2014年夏季青年奧林匹克运动会; pinyin: Èr líng yī sì Nián Xiàjì Qīngnián Àolínpǐkè Yùndònghuì), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games Chinese: 第二届夏季青年奧林匹克运动会; pinyin: Dì'èrjiè Xiàjì Qīngnián Àolínpǐkè Yùndònghuì, and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 (Chinese: 南京2014; pinyin:…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

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