Cousin Sam: June 16 in history

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Events

363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffered several attacks from the Persians.

632 – Yazdegerd III ascends to the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).

1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance: The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 is concluded in St Paul’s Cathederal by King Edward III of England and envoys of King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. It established a treaty of "perpetual friendships, unions [and] alliances" between the two seafaring nations, and is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.

1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.

1487 – Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.

1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.

1746 – War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.

1755 – French and Indian War: The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.

1774 – Foundation of Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.

1795 – First Battle of Groix otherwise known as "Cornwallis' Retreat".

1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.

1816 – Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and inspires his challenge that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.

1836 – The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.

1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 concludes. Pope Pius IX is elected Pope beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.

1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

1858 – The Battle of Morar takes place during the Indian Mutiny.

1871 – The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).

1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England kills 183 children.

1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway", opens in New York's Coney Island amusement park.

1891 – John Abbott becomes Canada's third Prime Minister.

1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.

1903 – Roald Amundsen commences the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage, leaving Oslo, Norway.

1904 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".

1909 – Jim Thorpe makes his first start in pro baseball with the Rocky Mount, causing him to forfeit his Olympic gold medals.

1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

1911 – A 772 gram stony meteorite strikes the earth near Kilbourn, Wisconsin damaging a barn.

1915 – Foundation of the British Women's Institute.

1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin win a large majority.

1924 – The Whampoa Military Academy is founded.

1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, Artek, is established.

1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR.

1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed.

1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français).

1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.

1944 – At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.

1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.

1955 – In a futile effort to topple President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some forces soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.

1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.

1960 – Alfred Hitchcock's ”Psycho” Opened in New York City at the DeMille Theater.

1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.

1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival begins

1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.

1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.

1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.

1978 – The film “Grease”, based on the 1971 musical, opens. The film stars actors John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.

1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.

1997 – The Daïat Labguer (M'sila) Massacre in Algeria; 50 people die.

2000 – Israel complies with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 22 years after its issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel does so, except the disputed Shebaa farms.

2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.

2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.

2012 – The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.

2015 – Donald Trump launches his campaign for the Republican nomination for President at Trump Towers.