January 16 in History

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

January 16 spans 56 recorded events across recorded history, from 1458 BC to 2020. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

By thisDay.info Editorial Team · January 16 — Wikipedia

Historical Events 56 events 1458 BC – 2020

More major events on January 16

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

2006 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. Source
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. Source
2012 The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence. Source

Did you know

In 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. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

The Nueva Planta decrees were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain, during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession by the Treaty of Utrecht. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

In 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 had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Did you know

In 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 had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Did you know

In 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 had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Hatshepsut dies at the age of 50 and is buried in the Valley of the Kings.

Pharaoh of Egypt from 1479 to 1458 BC

Hatshepsut was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from c. 1479 BC until c. 1458 BC and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second confirmed woman who ruled in her own right, the first being Sobekneferu/Neferusobek in the Twelfth Dynasty.

Wikipedia source

-1458

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

Roman emperor from 27 BC to AD 14

Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace when the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The principate, a style of government in which the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate, was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

Wikipedia source

-27

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

Mayan political figure of the Classic Period (250–800)

Siyaj Kʼakʼ, also known as Fire is Born, was a prominent political figure mentioned in the glyphs of Classic Period (250–800 CE) Maya civilization monuments, principally Tikal, as well as Uaxactun and the city of Copan. Epigraphers originally identified him by the nickname "Smoking Frog", a description of his name glyph, but later deciphered it as Siyaj Kʼakʼ, meaning "Fire is born". He is believed by some to have been the general of the Teotihuacano ruler Spearthrower Owl.

Wikipedia source

378

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

5th–6th-century Germanic ethnic group

The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people who, in the 5th and 6th centuries, established one of the two major Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire. They drew on large Gothic populations settled in the Balkans since the 4th century and rose to prominence under Theodoric the Great, who in 493 founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy after defeating Odoacer.

Wikipedia source

550

Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III establishes the Caliphate of Córdoba.

Title of high office in the Muslim world

Emir, also transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial authority. The title has a history of use in West Asia, East Africa, North Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. In the modern era, when used as a formal monarchical title, it is roughly synonymous with "prince", applicable both to a son of a hereditary monarch, and to a reigning monarch of a sovereign principality, namely an emirate. The feminine form is emira, with the same meaning as "princess".

Wikipedia source

929

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

Religious wars of the High Middle Ages

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns launched by the papacy between 1095 and 1291 against Muslim rulers for the recovery and defence of the Holy Land, as part of a wider crusading movement. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in November 1095—a call to arms for Christians to reconquer Jerusalem from the Muslims, with promises of spiritual reward. By this time, the papacy's position as head of the Catholic Church had strengthened, and earlier conflicts with secular rulers and wars on the frontiers of Western Christendom had prepared it for the direction of armed force in religious causes. The successes of the First Crusade led to the establishment of four Crusader states in the Levant, where their defence required further expeditions from Catholic Europe. The organisation of such large-scale campaigns demanded complex religious, social, and economic institutions, including crusade indulgences, military orders, and the taxation of clerical income. Over time, the crusading movement expanded to include campaigns against pagans, Christian dissidents, and other enemies of the papacy, promoted with similar spiritual rewards and continuing into the 18th century.

Wikipedia source

1120

Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester.

King of England from 1272 to 1307

Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as the Lord Edward.

Wikipedia source

1275

Basel Massacre: Dozens to hundreds of Jews were burned to death by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death.

Swiss 14th-century pogrom

The Basel Massacre was an anti-Semitic massacre in Basel, which occurred in 1349 in connection with alleged well poisoning as part of the Black Death persecutions, carried out against the Jews in Europe at the time of the Black Death. A number of Jews, variously given as between 300 and 600 or 50 to 70 were burned alive, after being locked in a wooden structure built on a nearby island in the Rhine. Jewish children were apparently spared, but forcibly baptized and sent to monasteries. The event occurred on January 9.

Wikipedia source

1349

Saint Marcellus's flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.

Storm surge in the North Sea in 1362

Saint Marcellus's flood or Grote Mandrenke was an intense extratropical cyclone, coinciding with a new moon, which swept across the British Isles, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark around 16 January 1362, causing at least 25,000 deaths. The storm tide is also called the "Second St. Marcellus flood" because it peaked on 16 January, the feast day of St. Marcellus. A previous "First St. Marcellus flood" had drowned 36,000 people along the coasts of West Friesland and Groningen on 16 January 1219.

Wikipedia source

1362

Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection attempting to resist the English Reformation, begins.

1537 Catholic uprising in England

Bigod's rebellion of January 1537 was an armed rebellion by English Catholics in Cumberland and Westmorland against King Henry VIII and the English Reformation Parliament. It was led by Sir Francis Bigod, of Settrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Wikipedia source

1537

Grand Prince Ivan IV is crowned as Tsar of all Russia.

Tsar of Russia from 1547 to 1584

Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy.

Wikipedia source

1547

Philip II becomes King of Spain.

King of Spain (1556–1598) and Portugal (1580–1598)

Philip II, sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent, was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. Further, he was Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.

Wikipedia source

1556

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.

English politician and nobleman (1536 or 1538–1572)

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk,, was an English nobleman and politician. He was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I and held many high offices during the earlier part of her reign.

Wikipedia source

1572

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.

1605–1615 novel by Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote, the full title being The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best novel of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time. The novel is a satire of chivalric romances and literary conventions of the time.

Wikipedia source

1605

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.

1640–1659 rebellion to restore an independent Catalonia

The Reapers' War, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–1659. Incited by an unrest among the Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, the war resulted in the establishment of the short-lived Catalan Republic and the subsequent clash of Spanish and French armies on Catalan soil for over a decade.

Wikipedia source

1641

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

Legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland (1235–1707)

The Parliament of Scotland, also known as the Estates of Scotland, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council of bishops and earls, with the first identifiable parliament being held in 1235 during the reign of Alexander II, when it already possessed a political and judicial role.

Wikipedia source

1707

Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.

1674–1818 empire in the Indian subcontinent

The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. For most of its existence, it comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former and nominal loyalty to the Chhatrapatis who were successors of Shivaji.

Wikipedia source

1757

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St.

Vincent.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

Wikipedia source

1780

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

U.S. state

Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. It borders Kentucky to the west, Tennessee to the south-west, North Carolina to the south, West Virginia to the north-west, and Maryland to the north. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. With a population of 8.8 million, it is the 12th-most populous and 15th-most densely populated state. More than one-third of Virginia's population lives in Northern Virginia, which includes the most populous jurisdiction in the state, Fairfax County.

Wikipedia source

1786

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

1807–1814 war against Napoleon in Iberia

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).

Wikipedia source

1809

Westward expansion of the United States: John C.

Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

The United States of America was formed after thirteen British colonies in North America declared independence from the British Empire on July 4, 1776. In the Lee Resolution, passed by the Second Continental Congress two days prior, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent states. The union was formalized in the Articles of Confederation, which came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states. Their independence was recognized by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which concluded the American Revolutionary War. This extended the borders of the new nation westward past the Proclamation Line to the Mississippi River. This land was organized into territories and then states, though there remained some conflict with the sea-to-sea grants claimed by some of the original colonies. In time, these grants were ceded to the federal government.

Wikipedia source

1847

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.

1862 mining disaster in England

The Hartley Colliery disaster was a coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, that occurred on 16 January 1862 and resulted in the deaths of 204 men and children. The beam of the pit's pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below. The disaster prompted a change in British law that required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

Wikipedia source

1862

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

Eleventh and penultimate conflict of the Russo-Turkish wars

The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition led by the Russian Empire which included Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Precipitating factors included the Russian goals of recovering territorial losses endured during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, re-establishing itself in the Black Sea and supporting the political movement attempting to free Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire.

Wikipedia source

1878

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress.

1883 United States federal law

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage.

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1883

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

Upper house of the US Congress

The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.

Wikipedia source

1900

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer (1874–1922)

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Wikipedia source

1909

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.

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar was an Indian mathematician who worked during the early 20th century. He made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable.

Wikipedia source

1913

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.

Nebraska is a triple-landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Wyoming to the west; Colorado to the southwest; Kansas to the south; and Missouri to the southeast and Iowa to the east, both across the Missouri River. Nebraska is the 16th-largest state by land area, with just over 77,347 square miles (200,330 km2). As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,961,504, and was estimated to be 2,018,006 in 2025, it is the 38th-most populous state and the eighth-least densely populated. Nebraska's capital is Lincoln, and its most populous city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River.

Wikipedia source

1919

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

Intergovernmental organisation (1920–1946)

The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. The main organisation ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations (UN) which was created in the aftermath of the Second World War. The League of Nations was the precursor organisation to the United Nations.

Wikipedia source

1920

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

Early Czechoslovak far-left political party

The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine was a political organisation in eastern parts of the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was one of the forerunners of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Wikipedia source

1921

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Chełmno extermination camp.

Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were committed primarily through mass shootings across Eastern Europe and poison gas chambers in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno and Majdanek death camps in occupied Poland. Concurrent Nazi persecutions killed millions of other non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to include the murder and persecution of non-Jewish groups, such as the Romani and Soviet POWs.

Wikipedia source

1942

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

1942 DC-3 crash in SW Nevada

TWA Flight 3 was a twin-engine Douglas DC-3 propliner, registration NC1946, operated by Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York, New York, to Burbank, California, in the United States, via several stopovers including Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 16, 1942, at 19:20 PST, fifteen minutes after takeoff from Las Vegas Airport bound for Burbank, the aircraft was destroyed when it crashed into a sheer cliff on Potosi Mountain, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of the airport, at an elevation of 7,770 ft (2,370 m) above sea level. All 22 people on board, including movie star Carole Lombard and her mother, Clark Gable's press agent Otto Winkler, three crew members, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers died in the crash. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and determined that the cause was a navigation error by the captain.

Wikipedia source

1942

World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

Global conflict (1939–1945)

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Wikipedia source

1945

Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51.

1959 aviation accident

Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 was a regularly scheduled domestic Austral Líneas Aéreas flight operating a route between Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata in Argentina that crashed after encountering poor weather conditions during landing on 16 January 1959, killing 51 of the 52 passengers and crew on board. At the time, the crash was the second-worst accident in Argentine aviation history and is currently the sixth-worst involving a Curtiss C-46 Commando.

Wikipedia source

1959

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.

West Slavic ethnic group

The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe. They share a common culture, ancestry, history, and speak the Czech language.

Wikipedia source

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.

US–USSR spaceflight capability rivalry

The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard to intercontinental ballistic missile and satellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic landers to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.

Wikipedia source

1969

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

Revolution in Iran from 1978 to 1979

The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamist cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.

Wikipedia source

1979

Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20.

Aircraft involved in 1983 landing accident

Turkish Airlines Flight 158 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport to Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Turkey. On 16 January 1983, the aircraft operating the flight, a Boeing 727-200, landed about 50 metres (160 ft) short of the runway at its destination airport in driving snow, broke up, and caught fire. Of the 67 occupants on board, 47 died.

Wikipedia source

1983

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.

Device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionising particles

In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a particle accelerator. Detectors can measure the particle energy and other attributes such as momentum, spin, charge, particle type, in addition to merely registering the presence of the particle.

Wikipedia source

1984

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

Country in West Asia

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. Located within the Middle East, it is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Jordan to the southwest, and Syria to the west. The country covers an area of 438,317 square kilometres (169,235 sq mi) and has a population of over 46 million, making it the 58th largest country by area and the 31st most populous in the world. Baghdad, home to over 8 million people, is the capital city and the largest in the country.

Wikipedia source

1991

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.

Country in Central America

El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. El Salvador's population in 2024 was 6 million.

Wikipedia source

1992

An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died.

Avalanche in Iceland

The 1995 Súðavík avalanche was an avalanche that struck the small fishing village of Súðavík in Iceland’s Westfjords on 16 January 1995, killing 14 people, including eight children, and injuring twelve. The disaster, along with the avalanche that killed 20 in Flateyri later in the year, had a profound effect on the nation and sparked a massive buildup of avalanche dams to protect towns in danger zones.

Wikipedia source

1995

In Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala, thirteen American students on a school trip are attacked and robbed at gunpoint; five were raped.

Municipality and town in Escuintla Department, Guatemala

Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa is a city and a municipality in the Escuintla department of Guatemala. It covers an area of approximately 529.8 km2 (204.6 sq mi). As per 2023 estimates, it has a population of about 129,473 inhabitants.

Wikipedia source

1998

Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa.

1998–2003 war in central Africa

The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted when Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda, who had helped him seize power. The conflict expanded as Kabila rallied a coalition of other countries to his defense. The war drew in nine African nations and approximately 25 armed groups, making it one of the largest wars in African history.

Wikipedia source

2001

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

President of the United States from 1993 to 2001

William Jefferson Clinton is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party history.

Wikipedia source

2001

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.

U.S Armed conflict in South Asia

The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with an invasion by a United States–led coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11 attacks (9/11) carried out by the Taliban-allied and Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda. The Taliban were expelled from major population centers by American-led forces supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, thus toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate. In 2004, the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic was established, but by then, the Taliban, led by founder Mullah Omar, had reorganized and begun an insurgency against the Afghan government and coalition forces. The conflict ended as the 2021 Taliban offensive reestablished the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in United States military history, surpassing the Vietnam War by six months.

Wikipedia source

2002

The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one.

Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Enterprise, Columbia retained unique external and internal features compared with later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black chines. In addition to a heavier aft fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made Columbia the heaviest of the five spacefaring orbiters: around 1,000 kilograms heavier than Challenger and 3,600 kilograms heavier than Endeavour when originally constructed. Columbia also carried ejection seats based on those from the SR-71 during its first six flights until 1983, and from 1986 onwards carried an imaging pod on its vertical stabilizer.

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2003

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president.

She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

Ellen Eugenia Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.

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2006

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.

2011–2024 armed conflict in Syria

The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, which led to a series of defections, the emergence of armed opposition groups, and the civilian uprising descending into a civil war. The war lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the civil war even though clashes have continued into 2026.

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2011

The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence.

Ongoing conflict in West Africa since 2012

The Mali War is an ongoing conflict that began on 16 January 2012 with a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali. The rebels included the secular-oriented National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a group fighting for independence or greater autonomy of a region they called Azawad. The MNLA was initially allied with the jihadist Ansar Dine, which, in turn, was allied to other Salafi jihadist organizations such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its splinter, Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA).

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2012

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.

Islamic terrorist attack in Burkina Faso

On 15 January 2016, gunmen armed with heavy weapons attacked the Cappuccino restaurant and the Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. At least 30 people were killed, and 56 wounded; a total of 176 hostages were released after a government counter-attack into the next morning as the siege ended. Three perpetrators were also killed. The nearby YIBI hotel was then under siege, where another attacker was killed. Notably, former Swiss MPs Jean-Noël Rey and Georgie Lamon were killed at a restaurant during the attack. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Mourabitoun.

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2016

Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 crashes into a residential area near Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people.

2017 aviation accident in Kyrgyzstan

Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 was a scheduled international cargo flight operated by ACT Airlines on behalf of Turkish Cargo, from Hong Kong to Istanbul via Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. On 16 January 2017, the Boeing 747-400 flying the route crashed in a residential area while attempting to land in thick fog at Manas International Airport, Bishkek. A total of 39 people – all four crew members on board and 35 residents on the ground – were killed. It was Kyrgyzstan's deadliest plane crash since the crash of Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 in 2008.

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2017

Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve.

Country in Southeast Asia

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also referred to as Burma, is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to the northwest, China to the northeast, Laos and Thailand to the east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, while its largest city is Yangon.

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2018

The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate.

2019 US presidential impeachment

Donald Trump, serving as the 45th president of the United States, was impeached for the first time on December 18, 2019; however, he was not removed from office. On that date, the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.

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2020

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

Free trade agreement

The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) is a free trade agreement among the United States, Mexico, and Canada, in effect from July 1, 2020. It replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) implemented in 1994. It is sometimes characterized as "NAFTA 2.0", or "New NAFTA", since it largely maintains or updates the provisions of its predecessor. The USMCA encompasses one of the world's largest free trade zones, with a total population of more than 510 million and an economy of US$30.997 trillion in nominal GDP—nearly 30 percent of the global economy, and the largest of any trade bloc in the world.

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2020

January 16 in History

More major events on January 16

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