On this day in history

June 16

29 births · 7 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

East German uprising of 1953

73 years ago

Born this day

1854

Oscar Wilde

Died aged 46

Photo (modified): Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

Oldest record

713th

Giovanni Boccaccio

birth anniversary

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Famous births29

1313 · 713 yrs

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he gained sufficient notoriety to be known simply as "the Certaldese".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): Raffaello Sanzio Morghen / After Vincenzo Gozzini · Public domain

1754 · 272 yrs

Salawat Yulayev

Salawat Yulayulı, Russianized to Salavat Yulayev (Bashkir: Салауат Юлай-улы, romanized: Salawat Yulay-ulı; Russian: Салават Юлаев, romanized: Salavat Yulayev; June 1754 – 8 October 1800) was a Bashkir national hero who helped lead the Pugachev's Rebellion. He was also a poet and singer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 46

View profile Photo (modified): Gummy-beer · CC0

1829 · 197 yrs

Gerónimo

Gerónimo (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Goyaałé, lit. 'the one who yawns',; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 79

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

1854 · 172 yrs

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential dramatists in London in the early 1890s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 46

View profile Photo (modified): Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1858 · 168 yrs

Gustaf V of Sweden

Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 92

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

1888 · 138 yrs

Alexander Friedmann

Alexander Alexandrovich Friedmann (also spelled Friedman or Fridman;; Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Фри́дман; 16 June 1888 – 16 September 1925) was a Russian and Soviet physicist and mathematician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 138

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

1890 · 136 yrs

Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel ( LORR-əl; born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English actor, comedian, director and writer who was in the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films and cameo roles.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 136

View profile Photo (modified): US Department of Agriculture · Public domain

1897 · 129 yrs

Georg Wittig

Georg Wittig (German:; 16 June 1897 – 26 August 1987) was a German chemist who reported a method for synthesis of alkenes from aldehydes and ketones using compounds called phosphonium ylides in the Wittig reaction. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Herbert C. Brown in 1979.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 129

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1902 · 124 yrs

Barbara McClintock

Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 124

View profile Photo (modified): Smithsonian Institution /Science Service; Restored by Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1929 · 97 yrs

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (Arabic: الشيخ صباح الأحمد الجابر الصباح, romanized: ash-Shaykh Ṣabāḥ al-ʾAḥmad al-Jābir aṣ-Ṣabāḥ; 16 June 1929 – 29 September 2020) was the Emir of Kuwait from 24 January 2006 until his death in 2020. He was the fourth son of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 97

View profile Photo (modified): The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain

1934 · 92 yrs

William F. Sharpe

William Forsyth Sharpe (born June 16, 1934) is an American economist. He is the STANCO 25 Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 92

View profile Photo (modified): Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

1937 · 89 yrs

Simeon II of Bulgaria

Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (born 16 June 1937) is a Bulgarian politician who was the last Tsar of the Tsardom of Bulgaria as Simeon II (1943–1946) and served as prime minister of the Republic of Bulgaria as Simeon Sakskoburggotski (2001–2005).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsAge 89

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

Showing 12 of 29

Famous deaths7

1722 · 304 yrs

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was a British army officer and statesman.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 72

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Michael Dahl · Public domain

1958 · 68 yrs

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy (7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian Communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1953 to 1955.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): ismeretlen szerző (Nagy Imre Emlékház tulajdona) · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Hector Pieterson

Zolile Hector Pieterson (18 August 1963 – 16 June 1976) was a South African schoolboy who was shot and killed at the age of 12 during the Soweto uprising in 1976, when the police opened fire on black students protesting the enforcement of teaching in Afrikaans, mostly spoken by the white and coloured populations in…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 63

View profile Photo (modified): Sam Nzima · Public domain

1977 · 49 yrs

Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (US: VUR-nər von BROWN; German:; 23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German American aerospace engineer and space architect.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center · Public domain

2008 · 18 yrs

Cyd Charisse

Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American dancer and actress. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0

2016 · 10 yrs

Jo Cox

Helen Joanne Cox (née Leadbeater; 22 June 1974 – 16 June 2016) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from May 2015 until her murder in June 2016. She was a member of the Labour Party.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 52

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2017 · 9 yrs

Helmut Kohl

Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998 and oversaw the end of the Cold War, German reunification, and the creation of the European Union (EU).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 96

View profile Photo (modified): Christian Lambiotte · CC BY 4.0

Events5

1948 · 78 yrs

Malayan Emergency

The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War, (1948–1960) was a guerrilla war fought in Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya and the Commonwealth (British Empire).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1953 · 73 yrs

East German uprising of 1953

The East German uprising of 1953 (German: Volksaufstand vom 17. Juni 1953) was an uprising that occurred over the course of two days in German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 16 to 17 June 1953.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1976 · 50 yrs

Soweto uprising

The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots or the Soweto rebellion, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1996 · 30 yrs

1996 Russian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Russia on 16 June 1996, with a second round being held on 3 July 1996. It resulted in a victory for the incumbent Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who ran as an independent politician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2024 · 2 yrs

UEFA Euro 2024 Group C

Group C of UEFA Euro 2024 took place from 16 to 25 June 2024. The group contained Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia and England.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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