On this day: November 16

Events on November 16

• 534 The second edition of the Code of Justinian, a codification of Roman law by Byzantine emperor Justinian I, was published. Wikipedia
• 1476 With the help of Stephen III and Stephen Báthory, Vlad the Impaler ousted Basarab the Old and became the ruler of Wallachia for the third time. Wikipedia
• 1532 Spanish conquest of Peru: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro orchestrated a surprise attack in Cajamarca, capturing the Inca emperor, Atahualpa. Wikipedia
• 1632 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed at the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years' War. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: Fort Washington on Manhattan was captured from the Patriots by British and Hessian units. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: A Dutch fort on Sint Eustatius fired The First Salute to an American brig, marking the first international recognition of the American flag. Wikipedia
• 1849 A Russian court sentences writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor. Wikipedia
• 1855 David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now Zambia-Zimbabwe. Wikipedia
• 1885 After a five-day trial following the North-West Rebellion, Louis Riel, a Canadian Métis leader and "Father of Manitoba", was hanged for high treason. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: Austro-Hungarian forces launched an assault against Serbian defensive positions at the Kolubara river, beginning the Battle of Kolubara. Wikipedia
• 1920 Qantas, Australia's national airline, is founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. Wikipedia
• 1938 Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized the psychedelic drug LSD in Basel, Switzerland. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: Operation Queen commenced with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war, attacking German targets in the Rur valley. Wikipedia
• 1945 UNESCO is founded. Wikipedia
• 1959 The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Wikipedia
• 1967 Aeroflot Flight 2230 crashed after takeoff from Koltsovo Airport, Russia, killing all 107 people aboard. Wikipedia
• 1973 U.S. president Richard Nixon signed an act authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to transport oil from the Beaufort Sea to the Gulf of Alaska. Wikipedia
• 1974 The Arecibo message is broadcast from Puerto Rico. Wikipedia
• 1981 About 30 million people watched the fictional couple Luke Spencer and Laura Webber wed on the television show General Hospital in the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history. Wikipedia
• 1992 In Suffolk, England, a local man found the largest hoard of Roman silver and gold in Britain, including the largest collection of 4th- and 5th-century gold and silver coins ever discovered within the former Roman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1997 Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, released on ostensibly medical grounds after spending eighteen years in prison, was deported to the United States. Wikipedia
• 2002 The first case of SARS, a zoonotic respiratory coronavirus disease, was recorded in Guangdong, China. Wikipedia
• 2004 Half-Life 2 is released, a game winning 39 Game of the Year awards and being cited as one of the best games ever made. Wikipedia
• 2009 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-129 to the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2020 The El Dorado Fire in California, United States, was extinguished after 71 days, having destroyed 20 structures and killed one firefighter. Wikipedia
• 2022 Artemis Program: NASA launches Artemis 1 on the first flight of the Space Launch System, the start of the program's future missions to the moon. Wikipedia

Born on November 16

• 42 BC Tiberius, Roman emperor (died 37 AD) Wikipedia
• 1528 Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (died 1572) Wikipedia
• 1717 Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (died 1793) Wikipedia
• 1836 Kalākaua of Hawaii (died 1891) Wikipedia
• 1874 Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1890 Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1894 Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian philosopher and politician (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1895 Paul Hindemith, German composer, violist and conductor (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1896 Oswald Mosley, English fascist leader and politician (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1904 Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigerian statesman, 1st President of Nigeria (died 1996) Wikipedia
• 1907 Burgess Meredith, American actor, singer, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1922 José Saramago, Portuguese novelist and Nobel laureate in Literature (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1930 Salvatore Riina, Italian mob boss (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1938 Robert Nozick, American philosopher, author, and academic (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1955 Guillermo Lasso, Ecuadoran businessman, 47th President of Ecuador Wikipedia
• 1964 Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Italian-French actress, director, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1974 Paul Scholes, English footballer and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1985 Sanna Marin, Finnish politician, former Prime Minister of Finland Wikipedia
• 1992 Marcelo Brozović, Croatian footballer Wikipedia
• 1993 Nélson Semedo, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Cameroonian footballer Wikipedia
• 1997 Bruno Guimarães, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 16

• 1093 Saint Margaret of Scotland (born 1045) Wikipedia
• 1240 Ibn Arabi, Andalusian Arab philosopher (born 1165) Wikipedia
• 1272 Henry III of England (born 1207) Wikipedia
• 1625 Sofonisba Anguissola, Italian painter (born c. 1532) Wikipedia
• 1797 Frederick William II of Prussia (born 1744) Wikipedia
• 1808 Mustafa IV, Ottoman sultan (born 1779) Wikipedia
• 1836 Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, South African-French mycologist and academic (born 1761) Wikipedia
• 1885 Louis Riel, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1960 Clark Gable, American actor (born 1901) Wikipedia
• 1973 Alan Watts, English-American philosopher, author, and educator (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1999 Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2005 Henry Taube, Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2006 Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 2018 William Goldman, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1931) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Africus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Agnes of Assisi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Edmund of Abingdon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Elfric of Abingdon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eucherius of Lyon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gertrude the Great (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Giuseppe Moscati Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gobrain Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hugh of Lincoln Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Margaret of Scotland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Matthew the Evangelist (Eastern Christianity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Othmar Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Roch Gonzalez, Juan de Castillo, and Alonso Rodriguez, SJ Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Declaration of Sovereignty (Estonia) Wikipedia
• Earliest day on which Day of Repentance and Prayer can fall, while November 22 is the latest; celebrated 11 days before Advent Sunday (Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United Protestant churches, Saxony, Bavaria), and its related observance: Volkstrauertag (Germany) Wikipedia
• Icelandic Language Day or Dagur íslenskrar tungu (Iceland) Wikipedia
• International Day for Tolerance (United Nations) Wikipedia
• Statia Day in Sint Eustatius (Caribbean Netherlands) Wikipedia
• Intergenerational Fairness Day (International day of action for rights of younger and future generations) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “November 16” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/November 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 “November 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 November 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.