November 16 - Events

Events

• 534 – A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
• 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.
• 1491 – An auto-da-fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.
• 1532 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units capture Fort Washington from the Patriots.
• 1776 – American Revolution: the United Provinces (Low Countries) recognize the independence of the United States.
• 1793 – French Revolution: Ninety anti-republican Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes.
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Schöngrabern – Russian forces under Pyotr Bagration delay the pursuit by French troops under Murat.
• 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.
• 1849 – A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor.
• 1852 – The English astronomer John Russell Hind discovers the asteroid 22 Kalliope.
• 1857 – Second relief of Lucknow – twenty-four Victoria Crosses are awarded, the most in a single day.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Campbell's Station near Knoxville, Tennessee – Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces.
• 1885 – Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel is executed for treason.
• 1904 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube).
• 1907 – Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory join to form Oklahoma, that is admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
• 1907 – Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania, sister ship of RMS Lusitania, sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
• 1914 – The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
• 1920 – Qantas, Australia's national airline, is founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited.
• 1938 – LSD is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
• 1940 – World War II: in response to the leveling of Coventry, England by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
• 1940 – Holocaust: in occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.
• 1940 – New York City's "Mad Bomber" George Metesky places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
• 1943 – World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
• 1944 – Operation Queen, the costly Allied thrust to the Rur, is launched.
• 1944 – Dueren, Germany is destroyed by Allied bombers.
• 1945 – UNESCO is founded.
• 1965 – Venera program: the Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, that will be the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
• 1973 – Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
• 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
• 1979 – The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semănătoarea in Bucharest, Romania.
• 1988 – The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence.
• 1988 – In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1989 – A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops kills six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.
• 1992 – The Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes in Hoxne, Suffolk.
• 1997 – After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.