Events for November 16
1989 – El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.
1797 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Frederick William III.
1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now Zambia-Zimbabwe.
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.
1988 – The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence.
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.[15]
1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It's True album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.
1997 – After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
1904 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube).
1940 – World War II: In response to the leveling of Coventry by the German Luftwaffe two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
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.
1632 – King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed at the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years' War.[1]
2002 – The first cases of the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak are traced to Foshan, Guangdong Province, China.[11]
1793 – French Revolution: Ninety dissident Roman Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes.
1272 – While travelling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon Henry III of England's death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne.
1857 – Second relief of Lucknow: Twenty-four Victoria Crosses are awarded, the most in a single day.
1532 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca.
1958 – National Airlines Flight 967 explodes in mid-air over the Gulf of Mexico, killing all 42 aboard.[6]
1992 – The Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes in Hoxne, Suffolk.
1974 – The Arecibo message is broadcast from Puerto Rico.
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.
1860 – Fisgard Lighthouse, built in the Colony of Vancouver Island, shines its first light, becoming the first permanent lighthouse in present-day British Columbia[2]
1944 – The Jussi Awards, the Finnish film award ceremony, is held for the first time at Restaurant Adlon in Helsinki.[4]
Notable Births & Deaths for November 16
1993 – Nélson Semedo, Portuguese footballer[44]
2014 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, Polish soldier, pilot, and architect (born 1920)
1994 – Brandon Larracuente, American actor[26]
2014 – Jovan Ćirilov, Serbian poet and playwright (born 1931)
2015 – Alton D. Slay, American general (born 1924)
2016 – Daniel Prodan, Romanian football player (born 1972)
2014 – Charles Champlin, American historian, author, and critic (born 1926)
2014 – Carl Sanders, American soldier, pilot, and politician, 74th Governor of Georgia (born 1925)
2014 – Ian Craig, Australian cricketer (born 1935)
2006 – Mason Ramsey, American singer[54]
1993 – Denzel Valentine, American basketball player[45]
2019 – John Campbell Brown, Scottish astronomer (born 1947)
1996 – Boulaye Dia, Senegalese footballer[48]
2020 – Sheila Nelson, English string teacher (born 1936)[66]
2016 – Jay Wright Forrester, American computer engineer (born 1918)
2018 – William Goldman, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1931)
1993 – C. J. Beathard, American football player[43]
1996 – Ivan Baran, Croatian writer[47]
1997 – Bruno Guimarães, Brazilian footballer[50]
1993 – Pete Davidson, American comedian and actor[30]
2017 – Ann Wedgeworth, American actress (born 1934)
2014 – Juan Joseph, American football player and coach (born 1987)
2019 – Terry O'Neill, British photographer (born 1938)
2022 – Robert Clary, French-American actor and author (born 1926)[68]
1994 – Yoshiki Yamamoto, Japanese footballer
2024 – Vladimir Shklyarov, Russian ballet dancer (born 1985)[71]
1992 – Shane Prince, American-Belarusian ice hockey player[42]
1992 – George Akpabio, Nigerian footballer
2000 – Josh Green, Australian basketball player[53]
1995 – Noah Gray-Cabey, American actor and pianist[30]
1991 – Tomomi Kasai, Japanese actress and singer
2015 – Bert Olmstead, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1926)
2013 – Charles Waterhouse, American painter, sculptor, and illustrator (born 1924)
2022 – Arthur Ngirakelsong, 2nd Chief Justice of Palau (born 1941)[69][70]
1992 – Marcelo Brozović, Croatian footballer[41]
2021 – Jyrki Kasvi, Finnish journalist and politician (born 1964)[67]
1990 – Dénes Dibusz, Hungarian football player
1999 – Mats Wieffer, Dutch footballer[52]
2017 – Hiromi Tsuru, Japanese actress (born 1960)
1992 – Matthew Allwood, Australian rugby league player
1996 – Trinovi Khairani, Indonesian politician[49]
1995 – André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Cameroonian footballer[46]
2015 – David Canary, American actor (born 1938)
2015 – Michael C. Gross, American graphic designer and producer (born 1945)
1991 – Nemanja Gudelj, Serbian footballer[40]
1990 – Arjo Atayde, Filipino actor
2016 – Melvin Laird, American politician and writer (born 1922)
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>