On this day: November 16

Events on November 16

• 1793 French Revolution: Ninety dissident Roman Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes. Wikipedia
• 1822 American Old West: Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail. 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
• 1860 Fisgard Lighthouse, built in the Colony of Vancouver Island, shines its first light, becoming the first permanent lighthouse in present-day British Columbia Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: In the Battle of Campbell's Station, Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces which allows General Ambrose Burnside to secure Knoxville, Tennessee. 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
• 1907 Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory join to form Oklahoma, which is admitted as the 46th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1914 The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens. 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
• 1933 The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: In response to the leveling of Coventry by the German Luftwaffe two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg. Wikipedia
• 1940 The Holocaust: In occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world. Wikipedia
• 1944 The Jussi Awards, the Finnish film award ceremony, is held for the first time at Restaurant Adlon in Helsinki. 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
• 1965 Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, which will be the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. 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
• 1973 U.S. president Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. Wikipedia
• 1973 Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission. Wikipedia
• 1979 The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semănătoarea in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 1988 In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. Wikipedia
• 1988 The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence. Wikipedia
• 1992 In Suffolk, England, a local man found the largest hoard of Roman silver and gold in Britain (sample pictured), including the largest collection of 4th- and 5th-century gold and silver coins ever discovered within the former Roman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1997 After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons. 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
• 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
• 1986 Omar Mateen, Islamic terrorist, perpetrator of the Orlando nightclub shooting (died 2016) 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

• 1005 Ælfric of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury Wikipedia
• 1240 Ibn Arabi, Andalusian Arab philosopher (born 1165) Wikipedia
• 1264 Emperor Lizong of Song China (born 1205) Wikipedia
• 1272 Henry III of England (born 1207) Wikipedia
• 1322 Nasr, Sultan of Granada (born 1287) Wikipedia
• 1625 Sofonisba Anguissola, Italian painter (born c. 1532) Wikipedia
• 1797 Frederick William II of Prussia (born 1744) Wikipedia
• 1806 Moses Cleaveland, American general, lawyer, and politician, founded Cleveland, Ohio (born 1754) Wikipedia
• 1808 Mustafa IV, Ottoman sultan (born 1779) Wikipedia
• 1947 Giuseppe Volpi, Italian businessman and politician, founded the Venice Film Festival (born 1877) Wikipedia
• 1960 Clark Gable, American actor (born 1901) 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

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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.