On this day: April 16

Events on April 16

• 69 After defeat by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Roman emperor Otho killed himself. Wikipedia
• 73 Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the First Jewish–Roman War. Wikipedia
• 556 Emperor Justinian I approved and consecrated Pope Pelagius I. Wikipedia
• 682 Pope Leo II is elected head of the Catholic Church, although he will not be consecrated until 17 August. Wikipedia
• 1520 A revolt of citizens in Toledo, Castile, opposed to the rule of the foreign-born Charles I began when the royal government attempted to unseat radical city councilors. Wikipedia
• 1746 The Battle of Culloden is fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Hanoverian forces commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in Scotland. Wikipedia
• 1799 French Revolutionary Wars: Severely outnumbered French forces repulsed an Ottoman attack at the Battle of Mount Tabor in present-day Israel. Wikipedia
• 1862 Slavery in Washington, D.C., ended when the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act became law. Wikipedia
• 1912 American pilot Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Several French army corps began a massive assault against the German-occupied Chemin des Dames ridge, south of Laon, France. Wikipedia
• 1917 Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland. Wikipedia
• 1919 Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army launched the Vilna offensive to capture Vilnius (now in Lithuania) from the Red Army. Wikipedia
• 1919 Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops three days earlier. Wikipedia
• 1922 The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Nazi-affiliated Ustaše is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis powers after Operation 25 is effected. Wikipedia
• 1943 Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD. He intentionally takes the drug three days later on April 19. Wikipedia
• 1945 Second World War: British and Canadian forces concluded the Liberation of Arnhem in the Netherlands from German occupation. Wikipedia
• 1947 American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch first described the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "cold war". Wikipedia
• 1948 The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, headquartered in Paris, was founded. Wikipedia
• 1961 In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism. Wikipedia
• 1963 In response to an open letter written by white clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail in defence of the strategy of nonviolent resistance against racism. Wikipedia
• 2001 India and Bangladesh began a six-day conflict over their disputed border, which ended in a stalemate. Wikipedia
• 2007 In one of the deadliest shooting incidents in United States history, a gunman killed 32 people and wounded over 20 more before committing suicide at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Wikipedia
• 2012 The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo, Norway. Wikipedia
• 2014 The ferry MV Sewol capsized and sank off Donggeochado, South Korea, killing 306 people, mainly students from Danwon High School. Wikipedia
• 2016 Ecuador's worst earthquake in nearly 40 years kills 676 and injures more than 230,000. Wikipedia

Born on April 16

• 1728 Joseph Black, French-Scottish physician and chemist (died 1799) Wikipedia
• 1755 Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, French painter (died 1842) Wikipedia
• 1844 Anatole France, French journalist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1924) Wikipedia
• 1867 Wilbur Wright, American inventor (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1871 John Millington Synge, Irish author, poet, and playwright (died 1909) Wikipedia
• 1886 Ernst Thälmann, German politician (died 1944) Wikipedia
• 1889 Charlie Chaplin, English actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and composer (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1921 Peter Ustinov, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1922 Kingsley Amis, English novelist, poet, and critic (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1924 Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1927 Pope Benedict XVI (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1940 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark Wikipedia
• 1947 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player and coach Wikipedia
• 1955 Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg Wikipedia
• 1960 Rafael Benítez, Spanish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1965 Martin Lawrence, German-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1971 Selena, American singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1973 Akon, Senegalese-American singer, rapper and songwriter Wikipedia
• 1977 Freddie Ljungberg, Swedish footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Shinji Okazaki, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1996 Anya Taylor-Joy, Argentine-British actress Wikipedia
• 2002 Sadie Sink, American actress Wikipedia

Died on April 16

• 69 Otho, Roman emperor (born AD 32) Wikipedia
• 1689 Aphra Behn, English author and playwright (born 1640) Wikipedia
• 1788 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French mathematician, cosmologist, and author (born 1707) Wikipedia
• 1828 Francisco Goya, Spanish-French painter and illustrator (born 1746) Wikipedia
• 1850 Marie Tussaud, French-English sculptor, founded the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (born 1761) Wikipedia
• 1859 Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1805) Wikipedia
• 1879 Bernadette Soubirous, French nun and saint (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1904 Samuel Smiles, Scottish-English author (born 1812) Wikipedia
• 1947 Rudolf Höss, German SS officer, commandant of Auschwitz, convicted war criminal (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1958 Rosalind Franklin, English biophysicist and academic (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 1972 Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1991 David Lean, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1994 Ralph Ellison, American novelist and critic (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2021 Helen McCrory, British actress (born 1968) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Benedict Joseph Labre Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernadette Soubirous Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Drogo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Engratia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fructuosus of Braga Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Isabella Gilmore (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Martyrs of Zaragoza Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Molly Brant (Konwatsijayenni) (Anglican Church of Canada, Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Turibius of Astorga Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: April 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Birthday of José de Diego (Puerto Rico, United States) Wikipedia
• Birthday of Queen Margrethe II (Denmark) Wikipedia
• Flag Day (Jordan) Wikipedia
• Emancipation Day (Washington, D.C., United States) Wikipedia
• Memorial Day for the Victims of the Holocaust (Hungary) Wikipedia
• National Healthcare Decisions Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Remembrance of Chemical Attack on Balisan and Sheikh Wasan (Iraqi Kurdistan) Wikipedia
• World Voice Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “April 16” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/April 16” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “April 16” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for April 16 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.