July 16 in History

Historical Events on July 16

1683 Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.

1779 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.

1790 The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

1861 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.

1942 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.

1945 World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.

1945 Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

2004 Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

2015 Four U.S. Marines and one gunman die in a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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Famous Birthdays on July 16

1862 Ida B. Wells

1968 Barry Sanders

1982 Carli Lloyd

1989 Gareth Bale

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Famous Deaths on July 16

1915 Ellen G. White

1953 Hilaire Belloc

1960 Albert Kesselring

2008 Jo Stafford

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