# What happened on January 16 in history?

**Date:** January 16  
**Events recorded:** 56  
**Years spanned:** 1458 BC – 2020  
**Full page:** https://thisday.info/events/january/16/

---

## Featured Event

**2020** — The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA.

[Read more on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Mexico%E2%80%93Canada_Agreement)

---

## Events on this date

- **1458 BC** — Hatshepsut dies at the age of 50 and is buried in the Valley of the Kings. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut))
- **27 BC** — Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus))
- **378** — General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siyaj_K%CA%BCak%CA%BC))
- **550** — The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrogoths))
- **929** — Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III establishes the Caliphate of Córdoba. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emir))
- **1120** — Crusades: The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades))
- **1275** — Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_I))
- **1349** — Basel Massacre: Dozens to hundreds of Jews were burned to death by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Massacre))
- **1362** — Saint Marcellus's flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Marcellus's_flood))
- **1537** — Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection attempting to resist the English Reformation, begins. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigod's_rebellion))
- **1547** — Grand Prince Ivan IV of Russia is crowned as Tsar of all Russia. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible))
- **1556** — Philip II becomes King of Spain. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Spain))
- **1572** — Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried and found guilty of treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Howard%2C_4th_Duke_of_Norfolk))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote))
- **1641** — Reapers' War: The Junta de Braços (parliamentary assembly) of the Principality of Catalonia accepts the proposal of establishment of the Catalan Republic, under French protection. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapers'_War))
- **1707** — The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Scotland))
- **1716** — King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_V_of_Spain))
- **1757** — Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire))
- **1780** — American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War))
- **1786** — Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia))
- **1809** — Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_War))
- **1847** — Westward expansion of the United States: John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_United_States))
- **1862** — Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Colliery_disaster))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1877%E2%80%931878)))
- **1883** — The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendleton_Civil_Service_Reform_Act))
- **1900** — The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate))
- **1909** — Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton))
- **1913** — Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan))
- **1919** — Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska))
- **1920** — The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations))
- **1921** — The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_Left_in_Slovakia_and_the_Transcarpathian_Ukraine))
- **1942** — The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Chełmno extermination camp. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust))
- **1942** — Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_3))
- **1945** — World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II))
- **1959** — Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral_L%C3%ADneas_A%C3%A9reas_Flight_205))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechs))
- **1969** — Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race))
- **1979** — Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution))
- **1983** — Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_158))
- **1984** — A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_detector))
- **1991** — Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador))
- **1995** — An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_S%C3%BA%C3%B0av%C3%ADk_avalanche))
- **1998** — In Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala, thirteen American students on a school trip are attacked and robbed at gunpoint; five were raped. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Luc%C3%ADa_Cotzumalguapa))
- **2001** — Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War))
- **2001** — US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton))
- **2002** — War in Afghanistan: 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932021)))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia))
- **2006** — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf))
- **2011** — Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war))
- **2012** — The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_War))
- **2016** — Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ouagadougou_attacks))
- **2017** — Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 crashes into a residential area near Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_6491))
- **2018** — Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar))
- **2020** — The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_impeachment_of_Donald_Trump))
- **2020** — The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Mexico%E2%80%93Canada_Agreement))

---

## Notable births on January 16

- **2000** — **Andrew Nembhard** — Canadian basketball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Nembhard))
- **1998** — **Boo Seung-kwan** — South Korean singer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seungkwan))
- **1996** — **Jennie** — South Korean singer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennie_(singer)))
- **1996** — **Zhou Qi** — Chinese basketball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Qi))
- **1995** — **Jonathan Allen** — American football player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Allen))
- **1995** — **Mikaela Turik** — Australian-Canadian cricketer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikaela_Turik))
- **1995** — **Tre'Davious White** — American football player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre'Davious_White))
- **1994** — **Mikko Lehtonen** — Finnish ice hockey player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikko_Lehtonen_(ice_hockey%2C_born_1994)))
- **1993** — **Hannes Anier** — Estonian footballer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Anier))
- **1993** — **Amandine Hesse** — French tennis player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandine_Hesse))

---

## Notable deaths on January 16

- **2025** — **David Lynch** — American filmmaker and actor (born 1946) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch))
- **2025** — **Dame Joan Plowright** — English actress (born 1929) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Plowright))
- **2025** — **Bob Uecker** — American professional baseball catcher and sportscaster (born 1934) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Uecker))
- **2022** — **Ibrahim Boubacar Keita** — Former Malian President (born 1945) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Boubacar_Ke%C3%AFta))
- **2021** — **Pedro Trebbau** — German-born Venezuelan zoologist (born 1929) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Trebbau))
- **2021** — **Chris Cramer** — British journalist (born 1948) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cramer))
- **2021** — **Phil Spector** — American record producer, songwriter (born 1939) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector))
- **2020** — **Christopher Tolkien** — British academic and editor (born 1924) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Tolkien))
- **2019** — **John C. Bogle** — American businessman, investor, and philanthropist (born 1929) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Bogle))
- **2019** — **Lorna Doom** — American musician (born 1958) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Doom))

---

## About this page

This is a machine-readable Markdown summary of [thisday.info/events/january/16/](https://thisday.info/events/january/16/).  
Historical data is sourced from [Wikipedia/Wikimedia](https://www.wikipedia.org) under [CC BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).  
Editorial framing and site content © thisday.info.