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November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining.
Events
- 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
- 1384 - Hedwig is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.
- 1532 - Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa.
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: Hessian mercenaries capture Fort Washington from the Patriots.
- 1821 - American Old West: Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail.
- 1849 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his execution is canceled at the last minute.
- 1857 - The relief of Lucknow. The most Victoria Crosses won in a single day (24).
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Campbell Station near Knoxville, Tennessee. Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces.
- 1885 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel is executed for high treason.
- 1896 - First transmission of electrical power between two cities was sent from Niagara Falls to industries in Buffalo, New York. (See War of Currents.)
- 1904 - John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube.
- 1906 - Opera star Enrico Caruso is charged with an indecent act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo.
- 1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
- 1914 - The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.
- 1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
- 1940 - World War II: In response to Germany leveling Coventry two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
- 1940 - Holocaust: In Poland, Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
- 1940 - New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
- 1943 - World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vermork, Norway.
- 1945 - Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
- 1957 - Serial killer Edward Gein murders his last victim, Bernice Worden.
- 1965 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
- 1969 - The first episode of The Clangers is broadcast by the BBC.
- 1973 - Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
- 1973 - US President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
- 1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in theaters.
- 1979 - The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in Bucharest, Romania.
- 1980 - Louis Althusser murders his wife and immediately confesses.
- 1981 - Luke and Laura marry on General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history.
- 1988 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that the Estonia was "sovereign" but stopped short of declaring independence.
- 1988 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister.
- 1989 - A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.
- 1990 - Rocky V is the 5th and final Rocky sequel to open in theaters, starring Sylvester Stallone.
- 1996 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
- 1997 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
- 2000 - Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US President to visit Vietnam.
- 2001 - The first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is released, becoming the second highest grossing film around the world of all time.
- 2004 - X-43A scramjet becomes the fastest air-breathing jet flying at nearly Mach 10 at approx. 11,200 km/h or 3.11 km/s
Births
- 42 BC - Tiberius, Roman emperor (d. 37)
- 1717 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist (d. 1793)
- 1720 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer (d. 1788)
- 1766 - Rodolphe Kreutzer, French violinist (d. 1831)
- 1836 - David Kalakaua of Hawaii, last king of the Kingdom of Hawaii (d. 1891)
- 1873 - W. C. Handy, American blues composer (d. 1958)
- 1889 - George Kaufman, playwright (d. 1961)
- 1894 - Richard Coudenhove Kalergi, politician (d. 1972)
- 1895 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d.1963)
- 1896 - Lawrence Tibbett, American actor and singer (d. 1960)
- 1896 - Oswald Mosley, British fascist (d. 1980)
- 1905 - Eddie Condon, jazz musician (d. 1973)
- 1907 - Burgess Meredith, actor (d. 1997)
- 1916 - Daws Butler, voice actor (d. 1988)
- 1922 - José Saramago, author, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1998
- 1922 - Gene Amdahl, computer scientist
- 1924 - Mel Patton, American athlete
- 1924 - James Bond, fictional character
- 1928 - Clu Gulager, American actor
- 1930 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author
- 1937 - Lothar Späth, German politician
- 1938 - Robert Nozick, philosopher
- 1943 - Michael Cimino, film director
- 1952 - Shigeru Miyamoto, video game legend
- 1958 - Marg Helgenberger, American actress
- 1964 - Diana Krall, singer
- 1967 - Lisa Bonet, actress
- 1975 - Andrew Howard, physicist/astronomer
- 1977 - Oksana Baiul, figure skating champion
Deaths
- 1272 - Henry III of England (b. 1207)
- 1328 - Prince Hisaaki, 8th Kamakura shogun of Japan (b. 1276)
- 1632 - Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden (b. 1594)
- 1724 - Jack Sheppard, notorious burglar hanged at Tyburn, London
- 1797 - Frederick William II of Prussia (b. 1744)
- 1802 - André Michaux, French botanist (b. 1746)
- 1836 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, Dutch mycologist (b. 1761)
- 1885 - Louis Riel, Canadian Metis political leader
- 1911 - Albert Alonzo Ames, mayor of Minneapolis (b. 1842)
- 1939 - Pierce Butler, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1866)
- 1960 - Clark Gable, actor
- 1961 - Sam Rayburn, U.S. Speaker of the House
- 1973 - Alan Watts, philosopher, writer, lecturer, and religious expert
- 1981 - William Holden, actor
- 1994 - Doris Speed, soap opera actress
- 2003 - Bettina Goislard, UNHCR relief worker
Holidays and observances
November 15 - November 17 - October 16 - December 16 -- listing of all days
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