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Events on October 16 in history

Cardiff Giant
1869Oct, 16

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. It was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m), 3,000 pound purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. He covered the giant with a tent and it soon became an attraction site. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P. T. Barnum are still being displayed. The original is currently on display at The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

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Events on 1869

  • 6Mar

    Periodic table

    Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
  • 28Apr

    First Transcontinental Railroad

    Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
  • 15May

    Susan B. Anthony

    Women's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
  • 17Nov

    Suez Canal

    In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
  • 22Nov

    Clipper

    In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched and is one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.