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October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 76 days remaining until the end of the year.
Up to 1950
- 456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
- 690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
- 1590 – Composer Carlo Gesualdo murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria, at the Palazzo San Saverio in Naples.
- 1780 – Great Hurricane of 1780 devastates the Caribbean.
- 1781 – George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia, after the Siege of Yorktown.
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette is executed on the guillotine.
- 1813 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Leipzig between Napoleon Bonaparte and the forces of the Sixth Coalition.
- 1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
- 1843 – William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non–commutative extension of complex numbers.
- 1846 – William T. G. Morton demonstrates anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
- 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).
- 1875 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
- 1905 – Partition of Bengal in India.
- 1909 – William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit meeting between Presidents of the United States and Mexico.
- 1916 – In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.
- 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded.
- 1934 – Chinese Communists begin the Long March.
- 1939 – World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
- 1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
- 1945 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City.
- 1946 – Execution of Nazi war criminals who were sentenced in the Nuremberg Trials.
- 1949 – East Germany and the Soviet Union form diplomatic relations.
1951 – 2000
- 1951 – Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is assassinated.
- 1962 – John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of military sites in Cuba.
- 1963 – Ludwig Erhard is chosen to succeed Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of Germany.
- 1964 – The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
- 1964 – Leonid Brezhnev is inaugurated as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with Alexei Kosygin becoming Premier.
- 1968 – At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for their part in the Black Power Salute.
- 1970 – In response to the October Crisis, Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.
- 1970 – The University of Augsburg in Bavaria opens.
- 1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are announced as the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1975 – Rahima Banu, a two–year–old girl from Bangladesh, is the last person known to be infected with naturally–occurring smallpox.
- 1978 – Karol Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II.
- 1978 – Wanda Rutkiewicz becomes the first person from Poland, and the first European woman, to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
- 1984 – Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1984 – The British TV series The Bill is first shown.
- 1986 – Reinhold Messner reaches the top of Lhotse in the Himalayas with Hans Kammerlander. Messner becomes the first person to climb all the mountains over 8000 metres high.
- 1987 – The southern part of the United Kingdom is hit by a major storm which causes a lot of damage, especially with fallen trees, and kills 18 people.
- 1991 – George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people.
- 1994 – The majority of voters in Finland support entry into the EU.
- 1995 – The Skye Bridge, linking the Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland, is opened.
- 1995 – Million–Man March on Washington, DC.
- 1996 – 84 people are crushed to death at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala.
- 1998 – Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London after Spain issued an arrest warrant for murder.
From 2001
- 2002 – The Bibliotheca Alexandrina library is opened in Alexandria, Egypt.
- 2006 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Hawaii, causing widespread damage.
- 2012 – Planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered orbiting a star outside the Solar System.
- 2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.
- 2013 – Erna Solberg becomes Prime Minister of Norway, succeeding Jens Stoltenberg. Solberg is Norway's second female Prime Minister, after Gro Harlem Brundtland.
- 2013 – US politicians agree to end the government shutdown, and narrowly avoid the United States being unable to repay its debts.
- 2017 – The remainder of Hurricane Ophelia hits the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
- 2017 – Maltese blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is murdered in a car bomb attack.
- 2020 – Murder of Samuel Paty of Islamist terrorism happens.
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Up to 1800
- 1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English soldier (d. 1450)
- 1430 – King James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
- 1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
- 1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
- 1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)
- 1663 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, French–born Austrian general (d. 1736)
- 1679 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (d. 1745)
- 1710 – Andreas Hadik, Austro–Hungarian general (d. 1790)
- 1714 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
- 1726 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
- 1729 – Pierre van Maldere, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1768)
- 1751 – Frederika Louisa of Hesse–Darmstadt, Queen of Prussia (d. 1805)
- 1752 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian (d. 1827)
- 1754 – Morgan Lewis, Governor of New York (1804–07) (d. 1844)
- 1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
- 1760 – Jonathan Dayton, American politician (d. 1824)
- 1762 – Paul Hamilton, Governor of South Carolina (1804–06) and U.S. Secretary of Navy (1809–12) (d. 1816)
- 1789 – William Burton, Governor of Delaware (1859–63) (d. 1866)
- 1795 – William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and writer (d. 1876)
1801 – 1900
- 1802 – Isaac Murphy, Governor of Arkansas (1864–68) (d. 1882)
- 1804 – Benjamin Russell, American artist (d. 1885)
- 1806 – William Pitt Fessenden, U.S. Secretary of Treasury (1864–65) (d. 1869)
- 1815 – Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
- 1819 – Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire (d. 1886)
- 1831 – Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (d. 1910)
- 1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
- 1841 – Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea and 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)
- 1847 – Maria Pia of Savoy (d. 1911)
- 1849 – George Washington Williams, American jurist, historian and politician (d. 1891)
- 1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
- 1854 – Karl Kautsky, Czech–born German theoretician (d. 1938)
- 1855 – Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (d. 1931)
- 1861 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian (d. 1927)
- 1863 – Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
- 1876 – Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer, rugby union and soccer player (d. 1913)
- 1878 – Eugenio Canfari, Italian sports official (d. 1962)
- 1878 – Miguel Llobet, Catalan guitarist and composer (d. 1938)
- 1878 – Maxie Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
- 1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
- 1885 – Dorando Pietri, Italian marathon runner (d. 1942)
- 1886 – David Ben–Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
- 1886 – Armin T. Wegner, German poet (d. 1978)
- 1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American writer (d. 1953)
- 1890 – Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
- 1890 – Maria Goretti, Italian murder victim and saint (d. 1902)
- 1895 – Ling Hau Shang, Convicted Triad Leader (d. 1954)
- 1897 – Louis de Cazenave, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
- 1900 – Primo Conti, Italian painter and poet (d. 1988)
1901 – 1950
- 1901 – Federico Munerati, Italian footballer (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Big Joe Williams, American blues guitarist (d. 1982)
- 1905 – Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer (d. 1990)
- 1908 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian political leader (d. 1985)
- 1912 – Clifford Hansen, American politician, Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)
- 1914 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
- 1918 – Géori Boué, French soprano (d. 2017)
- 1918 – Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Henri Vernes, Belgian writer and comics creator
- 1922 – Max Bygraves, English singer, songwriter and entertainer (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby commentator (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Linda Darnell, American actress (d. 1965)
- 1925 – Angela Lansbury, British–born actress
- 1927 – Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
- 1928 – Mary Daly, American philosopher, theologian and professor (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress (d. 2016)
- 1929 – Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress
- 1929 – Ivor Allchurch, Welsh footballer (d. 1997)
- 1930 – John Polkinghorne, English physicist, theologian and priest
- 1930 – Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress and singer
- 1931 – Valery Klimov, Ukrainian–Russian violinist
- 1931 – Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator (d. 2012)
- 1932 – Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, German politician and manager (d. 1991)
- 1932 – Gudbergur Bergsson, Icelandic writer
- 1936 – Akira Machida, Japanese judge, 15th Chief Justice of Japan
- 1936 – Peter Bowles, English actor
- 1936 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (d. 1994)
- 1938 – Nico, German musician, fashion model and actress (d. 1988)
- 1940 – Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer–songwriter (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Baddeley Devesi, 1st Governor–General of the Solomon Islands (d. 2012)
- 1941 – Tim McCarver, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1941 – Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician
- 1943 – Fred Turner, Canadian bassist (Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
- 1946 – Suzanne Somers, American actress
- 1947 – Bob Weir, American singer and musician
- 1947 – Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
- 1947 – David Zucker, American director and screenwriter
- 1950 – Angry Grandpa, American internet personality (d. 2017)
1951 – 1975
- 1952 – Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton, English politician
- 1954 – Corinna Harfouch, German actress
- 1954 – Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Scottish politician
- 1956 – Marin Alsop, American conductor
- 1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
- 1959 – Tessa Munt, English politician
- 1959 – John Whittingdale, English politician
- 1960 – Bob Mould, American singer and guitarist
- 1960 – Cressida Dick, English police officer, Head of the London Metropolitan Police
- 1960 – Guy LeBlanc, Canadian keyboardist and composer (d. 2015)
- 1961 – Yahiro Kazama, Japanese footballer
- 1962 – Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (d. 2010)
- 1962 – Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer (d. 2017)
- 1962 – Flea, Australian–American musician (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
- 1964 – Kathryn Edwards, American model, actress, television personality, and philanthropist
- 1964 – James Thompson, American–Finnish author (d. 2014)
- 1965 – Steve Lamacq, British DJ
- 1965 – Tom Tolbert, American basketball player
- 1966 – Stefan Reuter, German footballer
- 1967 – Davina McCall, English television presenter
- 1968 – Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer and conductor
- 1970 – Mehmet Scholl, German footballer
- 1972 – Adrianne Frost, American comedienne, actress and author
- 1972 – Tomas Lindberg, Swedish singer–songwriter
- 1973 – Justin Credible, American wrestler
- 1973 – Thomas Myhre, Norwegian footballer
- 1974 – Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer
- 1975 – Kellie Martin, American actress and director
From 1976
- 1977 – John Mayer, American singer–songwriter
- 1979 – Erin Brown, American actress, model, movie maker and musician
- 1982 – Prithotraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, producer and singer
- 1982 – Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
- 1982 – Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
- 1983 – Rémi Ochlik, French photographer (d. 2012)
- 1983 – Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player
- 1983 – Loreen, Swedish singer
- 1984 – Shayne Ward, English singer, winner of the 2005 X Factor
- 1985 – Verena Sailer, German sprinter
- 1985 – Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
- 1986 – Inna, Romanian singer
- 1986 – Craig Pickering, British sprinter
- 1988 – Zoltan Stieber, Hungarian footballer
- 1988 – Max Thieriot, American actor
- 1988 – Tumua Anae, American water polo player
- 1989 – Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player
- 1990 – Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir (Yohanna), Icelandic singer
- 1990 – Amina Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1991 – Jedward, Irish pop singers
- 1992 – Viktorija Golubic, Swiss tennis player
- 1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player
- 1994 – Amelia Lily, English singer
- 1997 – Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player
- 2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal, Nepalese princess
<!–– Do not add people without Wikipedia articles to this list Do not trust "this year in history" websites for accurate date information Do not link multiple occurrences of the same year, just link the first occurrence. ––>
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Up to 1900
- 640 – Saint Gall, monk and missionary (b. around 550)
- 1333 – Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)
- 1355 – Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)
- 1396 – Agnolo Gaddi, Italian painter
- 1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
- 1591 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
- 1628 – Francois de Malherbe, French poet (b. 1555)
- 1655 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician and theorist (b. 1591)
- 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French–American explorer and politician (b. 1658)
- 1750 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer (b. 1687)
- 1755 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)
- 1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and statesman (b. 1739)
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (b. 1755)
- 1793 – John Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b. 1728)
- 1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
- 1799 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian activist (b. 1760)
- 1822 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian ballet dancer (b. 1724)
- 1888 – John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
1901 – 2000
- 1913 – Ralph Rose, American athlete (b. 1885)
- 1937 – Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
- 1944 – Jon Sveinsson, Icelandic writer (b. 1857)
- 1946 – Nazi war criminals executed following Nuremberg trials:
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
- Arthur Seyss–Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader (b. 1892)
- Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1884)
- Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner, SS officer (b. 1903)
- 1947 – Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)
- 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1895)
- 1952 – Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian–Pakistani Muslim leader and poet (b. 1876)
- 1954 – Jules Rimet, French football administrator (b. 1873)
- 1959 – George Marshall, United States Secretary of State (b. 1880)
- 1962 – Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
- 1966 – George O'Hara, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1899)
- 1971 – Robin Boyd, Australian architect (b. 1919)
- 1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer and composer (b. 1909)
- 1975 – Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)
- 1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
- 1982 – Mario del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)
- 1983 – Jakob Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
- 1983 – Willi Ritschard, Swiss politician (b. 1918)
- 1989 – Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1990 – Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (b. 1919)
- 1991 – Ole Beich, Danish bass player (b. 1955)
- 1992 – Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (b. 1898)
- 1997 – James Michener, American writer (b. 1907)
From 2001
- 2003 – Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
- 2004 – Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Valentin Paniagua Corazao, President of Peru (b. 1936)
- 2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Tose Proeski, Macedonian singer (b. 1981)
- 2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)
- 2011 – Dan Wheldon, British auto racer (b. 1978)
- 2012 – Eddie Yost, American baseball player (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Ed Lauter, American actor (b. 1938)
- 2014 – John Spencer–Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English peer (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Patrick Paul D'Souza, Indian bishop (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Sumi Haru, American actress (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Tim Hauser, American musician (b. 1941)
- 2015 – Ralph Andrews, American television producer (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Francesc de Paula Burguera, Spanish journalist (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Anthony Foley, Irish rugby player and coach (b. 1973)
- 2016 – Kigeli V, former King of Rwanda (b. 1936)
- 2016 – Arsen Pavlov, Russian soldier (b. 1983)
- 2017 – Roy Dotrice, English actor (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Sean Hughes, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1965)
- 2017 – Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese blogger and journalist (b. 1964)
- 2017 – John Dunsworth, Canadian actor (b. 1946)
- 2024 – Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas (b. 1962)
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