Today in History July 16

463 – Start of Lunar Cycle of Hilarius

622 – Moslem Era begins-Mahomet begins flight from Mecca to Medina

1054 – Three Roman legates fracture relations between Western and Eastern Christian churches by placing invalid Papal Bull of Excommunication on altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Often dated as start of the East-West Schism.

1429 – Joan of Arc and the French army enter the city of Rheims

1439 – Kissing is banned in England (to stop germs from spreading)

1519 – Public debate between Martin Luther and  theologist John Eck at Pleissenburg Castle in Liepzig, Luther denies the divine right of the Pope

1618 – Captain John Gilbert patents first dredger in Britain

1845 – New York Yacht Club holds its first regatta

1900 – A report appears in London that all foreigners in Peking, China, have been massacred. Although soon exposed as false, the report helps mobolize support for relief of foreigners

1918 – A Bolshevik firing squad at Ekaterinburg, Siberia, executes Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family

1936 – First x-ray photo of arterial circulation, Rochester, NY

1945 –First test detonation of an atomic bomb, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico

1951 – Novel “Catcher in Rye” by J. D. Salinger published

1969 – Apollo 11, carrying first men to land on Moon, launched

1988 – Carl Lewis runs 100 m in 9.78 sec

1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy collides with Jupiter

1704 – John Kay, England, machinist, invented flying shuttle

1746 – Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian monk/discoverer (1st asteroid-Ceres)

1872 – Roald Amundsen, Norway, explorer, discovered South Pole

1907 – Orville Redenbacher, popcorn King (Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet)

1911 – Ginger Rogers, [Virginia McMath], Independ Mo, (Gay Divorcee)

276 – Mark Annius Florianus, emperor of Rome (276), murdered

1546 – Anne Askew, English Protestant (burned at the stake) (b. 1521)

	John F. Kennedy Jr.

1557 – Anne of Cleves, queen of England/4th wife of Henry VIII, dies at 41

1871 – Tad Lincoln, son of  Abraham Lincoln

1882 – Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)

1981 – Harry Chapin, folk vocalist (Taxi), dies in car crash at 38

1991 – Robert Motherwell, US painter (Elegies to Spanish Rep), dies at 76

1995 – Juan Manuel Fangio, autoracing legend, dies at 84

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., American publisher, lawyer and Tribecan resident, dies in a plane crash at 38 with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette