May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.
Events:
- 1527 - Florence becomes a republic
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England
- 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England
- 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope
- 1763 - Samuel Johnson meets James Boswell in London
- 1861 - American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ends
- 1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bermuda Hundred, Virginia
- 1866 - The United States Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel
- 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
- 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote
- 1888 - Inventor Emile Berliner demonstrates the first flat disk phonograph record
- 1891 - George Hormel introduces SPAM
- 1920 - Joan of Arc is canonized as a saint
- 1929 - The first Academy Awards are presented
- 1943 - World War II: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising ends
- 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn on German dams
- 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel
- 1975 - India annexes Sikkim
Births:
- 1678 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (+ 1734)
- 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician (+ 1799)
- 1882 - Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (+ 1954
- 1891 - Richard Tauber, tenor (+ 1948)
- 1905 - Henry Fonda, actor (+ 1982)
- 1912 - Studs Terkel, writer
- 1913 - Woody Herman, musician, band leader (+ 1987)
- 1919 - Liberace, pianist (+ 1987)
- 1919 - Gisela Uhlen, actress
- 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player, coach (+ 1989)
- 1929 - Friedrich Nowottny, journalist
- 1936 - Karl Lehmann, theologian
- 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987
- 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, actor
- 1955 - Debra Winger, actress
- 1955 - Olga Korbut, gymnast
- 1958 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)
- 1966 - Janet Jackson, singer
- 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player
- 1973 - Tori Spelling, actress
Deaths:
- 1703 - Charles Perrault, author
- 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan
- 1944 - George Ade, author
- 1957 - Eliot Ness, federal agent
- 1984 (alleged) - Andy Kaufman, comedian
- 1984 - Irwin Shaw, author
- 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress
- 1990 - Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets
- 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor, comedian
Holidays and Observances:
See Also:
May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December