Today in History
October 16
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Oscar Wilde
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690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
1590 – Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: The British-led Royalton raid is the last Native American raid on New England.
1793 – French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.
1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
1940 – Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
1950 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is published.
1962 – Cuban missile crisis begins: Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles(the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point)
1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
1978 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
1998 – Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.
2002 – The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.
Births
1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese samurai (d. 1585)
1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
1754 – Morgan Lewis, American general, lawyer, and politician, 3rd Governor of New York (d. 1844)
1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet (d. 1900)
1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli soldier and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
1888 – Eugene O’Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
1890 – Paul Strand, American photographer and director (d. 1975)
1927 – Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
Deaths
1355 – Louis the Child, king of Sicily (b. 1338)
1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and politician (b. 1739)
1946 – Nuremberg trial executions of the Main Trial:
Hans Frank, German lawyer, politician and war criminal (b. 1900)
Wilhelm Frick, German lawyer and politician, German Minister of the Interior (b. 1877)
Alfred Jodl, German general (b. 1890)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
Wilhelm Keitel, German field marshal (b. 1882)
Alfred Rosenberg, Estonian architect and politician (b. 1893)
Fritz Sauckel, German sailor and politician (b. 1894)
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian lawyer and politician, 16th Federal Chancellor of Austria (b. 1892)
Julius Streicher, German journalist and politician (b. 1887)
Joachim von Ribbentrop, German lieutenant and politician, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany (b. 1893)
1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer, composer, and actor (b. 1909)
1990 – Art Blakey, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1919)