Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 16
This is a list of selected July 16 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Comet Shoemaker-Levy after breaking up under the influence of Jupiter's tidal forces -
"Trinity", the first nuclear test explosion -
"Trinity", the first nuclear test explosion -
John F. Kennedy Jr. -
Mission San Diego de Alcalá -
Portrait of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, by Pierre-Joseph Lion
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1979 – Saddam Hussein replaced the resigning Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as President of Iraq, after having gradually usurped power from his cousin. | neutrality issues, expansion, refimprove section |
| 1983 – A British Airways Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashed in the Celtic Sea when en route from Penzance in England to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly in thick fog, killing 20 of the 26 on board, and sparking a review of helicopter safety in the United Kingdom. | needs more footnotes |
| 1990 – A 7.8 MS earthquake struck the densely populated Philippine island of Luzon, killing an estimated 1,621 people. | empty section |
| 1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. | refimprove section |
| 2001 – Russia and the People's Republic of China signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, a twenty-year strategic treaty. | no footnotes |
Eligible
- 622 – The epoch of the Islamic calendar occurred, marking the year that Muhammad began his Hijra from Mecca to Medina.
- 1769 – Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: A select force of Continental Army infantry made a surprise night attack and captured a fortified position of the British Army on the Hudson River south of West Point, New York.
- 1931 – Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first constitution, the first time in history that an absolute ruler voluntarily sought to share sovereignty with his subjects.
- 1950 – Korean War: A Korean People's Army unit massacred twenty-one U.S. Army prisoners of war.
- 1965 – South Vietnamese Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao—an undetected communist spy—was hunted down and killed after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyen Khanh.
- 2004 – Chicago's Millennium Park, currently the world's largest rooftop garden, opened.
- 1782 – Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail made its premiere, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the comment that it had "too many notes".
- 1790 – U.S. President George Washington signed the Residence Act, selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
- 1945 – Manhattan Project: "Trinity", the first nuclear test explosion, was carried out near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
- 1951 – The Catcher in the Rye, an American coming-of-age novel by J. D. Salinger, was first published.
- 1994 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began hitting the planet Jupiter (impact site pictured), with the first one causing a fireball which reached a peak temperature of about 24,000 K.
- 2007 – A magnitude 6.6 MW earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.