52ºc, New York
History Events on July 16
American Revolutionary War: Light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.
#American_Revolutionary_War
The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
#Parking_meter
Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.
#Augusto_César_Sandino
Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
#Millennium_Park
King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.
#Leopold_III_of_Belgium
Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
#Apollo_program
Battle of Spercheios: Bulgarian forces of Tsar Samuel are defeated by a Byzantine army under general Nikephoros Ouranos at the Spercheios River in Greece.
#Battle_of_Spercheios
Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
#Qing_dynasty
Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
#President_of_Iraq
John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.
#John_Robertson_Duigan
Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as an MLB record.
#Joe_DiMaggio
The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.
#La_Paz
The beginning of the Islamic calendar.
#Islamic_calendar
Four U.S. Marines and one gunman die in a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
#United_States_Marine_Corps
An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.
#2007_Ch?etsu_offshore_earthquake
Chaplain-Medic massacre: American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
#Chaplain-Medic_massacre
The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence and names its native Muhammad ibn Yusuf as ruler. This marks the Muhammad's first rise to prominence; he would later establish the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in Spain.
#Arjona,_Spain
The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.
#Miss_Macao
Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.
#Henry_James
South Vietnamese Colonel Ph?m Ng?c Th?o, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, is hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguy?n Khánh.
#Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam
100 years old building in Mumbai, India, collapsed, killing at least 10 people and many remaining trapped.
#Mumbai
Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.
#Persian_Constitutional_Revolution
Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv): The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.
#The_Holocaust
Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
#Emperor_of_Ethiopia
Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
#Manhattan_Project
World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.
#World_War_II
American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.
#David_Farragut
The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
#Mont_Blanc_Tunnel
Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
#1983_British_Airways_Sikorsky_S-61_crash
As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.
#Bihar_school_meal_poisoning_incident
The Luzon earthquake strikes the Philippines with an intensity of 7.7, affecting Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac.
#1990_Luzon_earthquake
Father Junípero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, California.
#Junípero_Serra
At Treasure Island on the Delaware River in the United States, the First Order of the Arrow ceremony takes place and the Order of the Arrow is founded to honor American Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.
#Delaware_River
John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when the Piper Saratoga PA-32R aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
#John_F._Kennedy_Jr.
King Richard II of England is crowned.
#Richard_II_of_England
The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
#Banknote
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: After Pope Innocent III calls European knights to a crusade, forces of Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Peter II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeat those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain.
#Battle_of_Las_Navas_de_Tolosa
The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.
#Washington,_D.C.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; due to changing economics all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas.
#Ringling_Bros._and_Barnum_&_Bailey_Circus
Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
#Nazareth
Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East-West Schism.
#Legatus
The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
#Verkhovna_Rada
American Civil War: At the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.
#American_Civil_War
