HISTORY TODAY: October 16

1901

President Theodore Roosevelt incites controversy by inviting
black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House.

1555		The Protestant martyrs Bishop Hugh Latimer and Bishop Nicholas Ridley are burned at the stake for heresy in England.
1701		Yale University is founded as The Collegiate School of Killingworth, Connecticut by Congregationalists who consider Harvard too liberal.
1793		Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded by guillotine during the French Revolution.
1813		The United States defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. [From MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History]
1859		Abolitionist John Brown, with 21 men, seizes the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, Va. U.S. Marines capture the raiders, killing several. John Brown is later hanged in Virginia for treason.
1901		President Theodore Roosevelt incites controversy by inviting black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House.
1908		The first airplane flight in England is made at Farnborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S. citizen.
1934		Mao Tse-tung decides to abandon his base in Jiangxi due to attacks from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. With his pregnant wife and about 30,000 Red Army troops, he sets out on the “Long March.”
1940		Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General.
1946		Ten Nazi war criminals are hanged in Nuremberg, Germany.
1973		Israeli General Ariel Sharon crosses the Suez Canal and begins to encircle two Egyptian armies.
1995		The Million Man March for ‘A Day of Atonement’ takes place in Washington, D.C.
1998		General Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, is arrested in London for extradition on murder charges
Born on October 16
1758		Noah Webster, U.S. teacher, lexicographer and publisher who wrote the American Dictionary of the English Language.
1797		Lord Cardigan, leader of the famed Light Brigade.
1849		George Washington Williams, historian, clergyman and politician.
1854		Oscar Wilde, dramatist, poet, novelist and critic.
1886		David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman.
1888		Eugene O’Neill, Nobel Prize-winning playwright (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh).
1898		William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
1906		Cleanth Brooks, Kentucky-born writer and educator.
1919		Kathleen Winsor, writer, Forever Amber.
1925		Angela Lansbury, stage, screen, and TV actress
1927		Gunter Grass, novelist, playwright, painter and sculptor best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum.
1930		Dan Pagis, Romanian-born Israeli poet.
1931		Charles “Chuck” Colson, special counsel to Pres. Richard Nixon (1969-73);  one of the “Watergate Seven,” he was sentenced to prison for obstruction of justice.
1949		Suzanne Somers, actress (Three’s Company TV series).
1958		Tim Robbins, actor, screenwriter, director, producer; won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Mystic River 2003.
1969		Roy Hargrove, jazz trumpeter; won Grammy Awards for albums in 1998 (Habana) and 2002 (Directions in Music).
1977		John Mayer, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (“Your Body is a Wonderland,” 2003).
2003		Princess Kritika of Nepal.

MORE HISTORY