January 16 in History

Historical Events on January 16

27 BC

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.
378

General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.
550

Gothic War: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
929

Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III established the Caliphate of Córdoba.
1120

The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1362

A storm tide in the North Sea ravages the East coast of England and destroys the German city of Rungholt on the island of Strand.
1412

The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1492

The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.
1547

Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia.
1556

Philip II becomes King of Spain.
1572

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
1605

The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.
1707

The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1780

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1786

Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
1809

Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
1847

John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
1862

Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompted a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.
1878

Russo-Turkish War (1877-78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
1883

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.
1900

The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
1909

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1919

Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
1920

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
1920

The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.
1921

The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.
1924

Eleftherios Venizelos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for the fourth time.
1938

Benny Goodman and his band performed in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City
1942

Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.
1945

Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
1964

Hello, Dolly! opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
1969

Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
1969

Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
1970

Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
1979

The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
1991

Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
1992

El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.
2001

Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2001

US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.
2002

The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
2003

The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
2006

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
2016

33 out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.

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