Pouring It Away

1919

Prohibition is ratified by the states

Born on This Day

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

1933 - 2024

Writer, philosopher and political activist known for her influential works on literature, photography and culture. 

2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Arrivals

Lin-Manuel Miranda

1980 -

Composer, writer and actor known for creating the groundbreaking Broadway hit "Hamilton" and music for Disney's "Moana" and "Encanto."

Sade And John Legend Perform At The Staples Center

Sade

1959 -

British singer-songwriter known for her smooth voice on soul and jazz hits "Smooth Operator" and "No Ordinary Love."

2014

JAN

16

Lightning strikes the outstretched hand of Rio de Janeiro's 125-foot-tall Christ the Redeemer statue, breaking off a chunk of its thumb. Weeks earlier, the middle finger on that hand also took a hit.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on January 16th

1605

Groundbreaking novel “Don Quixote” is published

On January 16, 1605, Miguel de Cervantes‘ El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, better known as Don Quixote, is published. The book is considered by many to be the first modern novel and one of the greatest novels of all time. The protagonist is a minor noble, Alonso Quixano, whose obsessive reading of […]

HISTORY: Don Quixote

1861

Crittenden Compromise is killed in Senate

The Crittenden Compromise, the last chance to keep North and South united, dies in the U.S. Senate. Proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the compromise was a series of constitutional amendments. The amendments would continue the old Missouri Compromise provisions of 1820, which divided the West along the latitude of 36 30′. North of […]

1936

“Moon Maniac” killer is executed

Albert Fish is executed at Sing Sing prison in New York. The “Moon Maniac” was one of America’s most notorious and disturbed killers. Authorities believe that Fish killed as many as 10 children and then ate their remains. Fish went to the electric chair with great anticipation, telling guards, “It will be the supreme thrill, […]

1938

Benny Goodman brings jazz to Carnegie Hall

On January 16, 1938, swing jazz music has its high-brow coming out party at Carnegie Hall, with a concert featuring big band sensation Benny Goodman. Jazz has been called “America’s classical music,” a label that does more than just recognize its American origins. The label also makes the case that jazz is worthy of aesthetic […]

1942

Actress Carole Lombard killed in plane crash

On January 16, 1942, the actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in such screwball comedies as My Man Godfrey and To Be or Not to Be, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable, is killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she is traveling in crashes en route from Las Vegas to Los […]

1945

Hitler descends into his bunker

Adolf Hitler takes to his underground bunker, where he remains for 105 days until he died by suicide. Hitler retired to his bunker after deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war. Fifty-five feet under the chancellery (Hitler’s headquarters as chancellor), the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully […]

1970

Qaddafi becomes premier of Libya

Muammar al-Qaddafi, the young Libyan army captain who deposed King Idris in September 1969, is proclaimed premier of Libya by the so-called General People’s Congress. Born in a tent in the Libyan desert, Qaddafi was the son of a Bedouin farmer. He attended university and the Libyan military academy and steadily rose in the ranks […]

1979

Shah flees Iran

Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced to flee the country. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran. In 1941, British […]

1991

The Persian Gulf War begins

At midnight in Iraq, the United Nations deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expires, and the Pentagon prepares to commence offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its five-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor.  At 4:30 p.m. EST, the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers […]

1997

Bill Cosby’s son murdered along California interstate

On January 16, 1997, comedian and TV star Bill Cosby’s 27-year-old son Ennis Cosby is murdered after he stops to fix a flat tire along California’s Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. The 405, which runs some 70 miles from Irvine to San Fernando, is known as one of the planet’s busiest and most congested roadways. […]

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