This Day in History
16 Apr 1178
BC A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus legendary King of Ithaca to his kingdom after the Trojan War
16 Apr 1071
Bari falls to Robert Guiscard ending Byzantine rule in Italy
16 Apr 1346
The Serbian Empire is proclaimed in Skopje at an Easter assembly and Stephen Uro IV Duan crowned Emperor over much of the Balkans
16 Apr 1395
Azzo X dEste is defeated at the Battle of Portomaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops.
More History
Lenin returns from exile to lead the Russian Revolution
On April 16 1917 Vladimir Lenin leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Re...
Texas City explodes
At 912 a.m. in Texas Citys port on Galveston Bay a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignites ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials i...
Apollo 16 departs for moon
From Cape Canaveral Florida Apollo 16 the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions is successfully launched on its 238000-mile journey to the moon. On Apri...
Hallucinogenic effects of LSD discovered
In Basel Switzerland Albert Hofmann a Swiss chemist working at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory accidentally consumes LSD-25 a synthetic drug ...
United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong
In an effort to help blunt the ongoing North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong after a four-year lull.In ...
Johnson arrives in Honolulu
At a series of meetings in Honolulu President Johnson discusses recent Allied and enemy troop deployments with U.S. military leaders. He also conferred with So...
Bob Feller throws no-hitter
On April 16 1940 the Cleveland Indians Bob Feller pitches his first no-hitter. He went on to throw two more no-hitters in his career only two other p...
Washington leaves Mt. Vernon for his inauguration
On this day in 1789 newly elected President George Washington leaves his Mount Vernon Virginia home and heads for New York where he is sworn in as the first...
Western gunslinger, Bat Masterson, fights in last shootout
On the streets of Dodge City famous western lawman and gunfighter Bat Masterson fights the last gun battle of his life.Bartholomew Bat Masterson ...
David Soul, of Starsky & Hutch, has the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts
On April 16 1977 David Souls smash-hit single Dont Give Up On Us Baby reaches the top of the U.S. pop charts. But the story of a...
British author Kingsley Amis is born
British author Kingsley Amis is born to a lower-middle-class clerk and his wife.Amis mother encouraged him to write at an early age and he later attend...
Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin born
On April 16 1889 future Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin is born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London England.Chaplin one of the most financially successful st...
Fertilizer explosion kills 581 in Texas
A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City Texas on this day in 1947. Nearly 600 people l...
Bernard Baruch coins the term Cold War
Multimillionaire and financier Bernard Baruch in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives coins...
Union ships pass through Confederate barrage at Vicksburg
Union Admiral David Dixon Porter leads 12 ships past the heavy barrage of Confederate artillery at Vicksburg Mississippi. He lost only one ship and the operat...
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