General events on July 16th

In 622, A.D. - This date is generally considered as the start of the Islamic Era, when Mohammed began his flight from Mecca to Medina.
In 1934, the first general strike in U.S. history takes place in San Francisco, California, as an expression of support for the striking 12,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association.
In 1935, the world's first automatic parking meters were installed in Oklahoma City, the first U.S. city to have them.
In 1963, Amazon carries 190,000 m3/sec (record).
In 1981, after 23 years of familiarity with the name "Datsun", executives of Nissan, the Japanese automaker, played with our minds and changed the name of their cars to "Nissan". Nissan didn't begin to show up on nameplates in the U.S. until the 1985 models were released.
In 1989, Leaders of the seven major industrial democracies wrapped up their economic summit in Paris with a call for "decisive action" to fight global pollution.
In 1992, 10 years ago, a train carrying 2,200 tons of New York garbage that spent three weeks wending its way through the Midwest headed home for burial in a Staten Island landfill.
In 1996, the Dow bottoms out at 5,182.31, down 167.20 points during trading, then recovers to close up 9.25 points at 5,376.88 with a record number of shares changing hands in one day.
In 1997, 5 years ago, is 8,000 enough for the Dow Jones Industrial Average? That's the mark it closed above for the first time as it blew past the mark as it rose 63.17 to close at 8,038.88.
In 1997, 5 years ago, Jerold Mackenzie awarded $266M for being fired from Miller Brewing for sexual harrassment for relaying a Seinfeld episode to a co worker.

Government and Politics on July 16th

In 1439, Kissing was banned in England in an attempt to stop the spread of pestilence and disease.
In 1548, La Paz, Bolivia is founded.
In 1769, Father Junipero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first mission in California; if nobody founded San Diego, where else would David Tanny be born?
In 1787, the Constitutional Convention accepts the Great Compromise - the approving of a bicameral legislation.
In 1790, The District of Columbia or, Washington, D.C., was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government
In 1849, The first territorial legislature of Oregon met
In 1904, Islands of the Manu'a group (Samoa) ceded to US by their chiefs.
In 1942, 60 years ago, French police pull Jewish men, women and children from their homes in Paris. (They are held for 3 days, then deported to Auschwitz.).
In 1942, 60 years ago, Nearly 14,000 Jewish people were arrested in Paris as part of a German roundup of the Jewish community.
In 1956, COVER OF TIME Democratic presidential candidate ADLAI STEVENSON
In 1962, 40 years ago, COVER OF "NEWSWEEK" President KENNEDY
In 1963, Congressman Carl Vinson of Georgia broke House Speaker Sam Rayburn's record of service in the U.S. Congress this day, as he celebrated serving 48 years, 8 months and 13 days.
In 1964, in accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Sen. Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
In 1972, 30 years ago, MEET THE PRESS Guest: Senator Robert Dole of Kansas
In 1973, during the Senate Watergate hearings, former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield publicly revealed the existence of President Richard M. Nixon's secret taping system.
In 1979, Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq. Insane Hussein would later take over Kuwait in 1990, declare the United States of America "the Great Satan" (ha!), and become the butt of many late-night talk show monologues.
In 1980, the former governor of California, Ronald Reagan, won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit; Reagan then appeared in the hall to announce that his running-mate would be George Bush.
In 1982, 20 years ago, Sun Myung Moon sentenced to 18 months for tax fraud.
In 1988, the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived in Atlanta for the Democratic National Convention, telling cheering supporters he was seeking "shared responsibility" with nominee-apparent Michael Dukakis.
In 1990, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced that Moscow had agreed to drop its objection to a united Germany's membership in NATO.
In 1991, leaders of the Group of Seven nations holding their economic summit in London issued a communique calling for a "new spirit of cooperation" in the international community.
In 1992, 10 years ago, Governor William Clinton of Arkansas, launching what he calls the "New Covenant", accepts the democratic nomination for president. Following the 54-minute speech, the convention cheers and rocks to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)"
In 1992, 10 years ago, to the dismay and anger of supporters, Ross Perot announced he would not be running for president (however, he later changed his mind.).
In 1995, Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., met in Baghdad with Saddam Hussein to discuss two American businessmen jailed in Iraq after accidentally crossing the border from Kuwait. Following the meeting, Hussein announced he had pardoned and ordered the men's release.
In 1996, President Clinton told the National Governors Association he was granting states new powers to deny benefits to recipients who refuse to move from welfare to work.
In 1998, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to block Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr from calling President Clinton's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury.

War, Crime and Disaster events on July 16th

In 1429, Joan of Arc leads French army in Battle of Orleans.
In 1798, US Public Health Service established & US Marine Hospital authorized.
In 1861, Battle of Bull Run, the 1st major battle of the Civil War, is fought. No bull.
In 1861, the first major battle of the Civil War - Bull Run - took place.
In 1862, David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.
In 1864, Sherman began his march through Georgia. The Union general led his men all the way through Georgia to the ocean... setting fire to everything he found in his path, including the city of Atlanta.
In 1912, Naval torpedo launched from an airplane patented by B.A. Fiske.
In 1941, 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) highest temperature ever recorded in Seattle Wash.
In 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb, in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
In 1971, the first female Air Force General is Brigadier General Jeanne Marjorie Holm of Portland, Oregon.
In 1983, twenty people were killed when a British Airways Sikorsky S-61, shuttling passengers to the Scilly Isles vacation resort, crashed and sank in the English Channel.
In 1990, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale devastated the Philippines, killing over 1600 people. A thousand more were missing. Damage was reported in Manila, Cabanatuan, Baguio and Luzon. It was the worst earthquake in that part of the world since 1976.
In 1990, Luzon Island, The Philippines: an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale claimed the lives of over 1,600 people and injured nearly 3,000 others.
In 1990, NYC's Empire State Building catches fire-No fatalities.
In 1993, The surging Mississippi River charged through a levee at West Quincy, Missouri, closing the Bayview Bridge, the only bridge across the river to Illinois for more than 200 miles.
In 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the former president, was killed -- along with his wife and her sister -- when their single-engine plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard. The trio had been en route to the Massachusetts island to drop off the sister and then bound for Hyannisport, Mass., to attend a cousin's wedding. A massive search located the plane's wreckage on the ocean floor four days later. All three had died instantly. In a private ceremony, their ashes were buried at sea July 22.
In 2000, 2 years ago, Families and friends of the victims of the TWA Flight 800 explosion broke ground for a new memorial on the Long Island shore not far from where the plane went down, killing all 230 people on board.

Royalty and Religious events on July 16th

In 1054, Excommunication of Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople
In 1054, The 'Great Schism' between the Western and Eastern churches began over rival claims of universal pre-eminence. (In 1965, 911 years later, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met to declare an end to the schism.)
In 1212, the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa establishes the rule of Christian kings on the throne of Spain.
In 1557, Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII, died. Her marriage to the king was annulled after six months.
In 1918, Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his empress and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks.

Human Achievement and Science events on July 16th

In 463, A.D., Start of Lunar Cycle of Hilarius. Sounded rather demented, doesn't it?
In 1867, Reinforced Concrete patented by Joseph Monier.
In 1867, a patent for ready-mixed paint was granted to D.R. Averill, of Newberg, Ohio. The next day, taggers spray-painted their initials on walls and signs.
In 1926, National Geographic takes first natural-color undersea photos.
In 1948, The world's first turbine-propellor aircraft, the Vickers Viscount, made its maiden flight.
In 1953, F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1152 kph (716 mph).
In 1957, Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds.
In 1962, 40 years ago, NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m.
In 1969, the Crew of Apollo XI, Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.
In 1982, 20 years ago, NASA launches Landsat 4 to thematic map the Earth.
In 1994, the first of 21 asteroids, major fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broken-up 2 years earlier, hit Jupiter, creating a 1200-mile wide fireball 600 miles high to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks.
In 1995, the Indians beat the A's 5-4 in the 12th (with 2 out and 2 strikes, Manny Ramirez hits a HR), taking a 4-game sweep from Oakland for the first time, and extending their club record to 14 1/2 games (over K.C. and Milwaukee). Indians go 50-21, the best showing in the history of the club.
In 1998, Researchers map genetic pattern of syphilis bacterium; may lead to vaccine, eradication.

Arts and Prose events on July 16th

In 1951, J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" was first published.
In 1953, Hillaire Belloc, French-born British writer, died. He was best known for his nonsensical verse for children.
In 1983, The New York Times finally publishes its first front page story on AIDS