Date·Lore

On This Day · The 197th day of the year

July 16

July 16 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 1377 and 2019. King Richard II of England is crowned.

♋ZodiacCancer ◈BirthstoneRuby ❀Birth flowerLarkspur

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed July 13, 2026

What happened on July 16?

July 16 is the 197th day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1377 and 2019. Famous people born on July 16 include Larry Sanger, Roald Amundsen and Trygve Lie.

The shape of the day

From 1377 to 2019, July 16 gathers 642 years of history. Most of the weight falls in the 20th century, where politics and nation-building recur.

Cancer is the sign for July 16 — read more on the Cancer page, or see July's birthstone & birth flower.

Released on July 16

Movies, games, albums & shows

2024

  • Game Gestalt: Steam & Cinder
  • Game Flock

2022

  • Game FPS Chess

2021

  • Game F1 2021

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1377

    Richard II of England

    King Richard II of England is crowned.

  2. 1790

    Washington, D.C.

    The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

  3. 1809

    La Paz

    The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

  4. 1916

    Max Reger

    Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.

  5. 1950

    Uruguay national football team

    Uruguay beats hosts Brazil 2–1 to win the World Cup in a match dubbed as the Maracanazo.

  6. 1965

    Army of the Republic of Vietnam

    South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, is hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.

  7. 1994

    Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

    The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.

  8. 2004

    Millennium Park

    Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

  9. 2007

    2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake

    An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

  10. 2019

    Mumbai

    A 100-year-old building in Mumbai, India, collapses, killing at least 10 people and leaving many others trapped.

Famous birthday twins

Born on July 16

Larry Sanger

b. 1968

American philosopher and businessman, co-founded Wikipedia and Citizendium

Roald Amundsen

b. 1872

Norwegian pilot and explorer

Trygve Lie

b. 1896

Norwegian trade union leader and politician, 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations

Andrea del Sarto

b. 1486

Italian painter

Katrina Kaif

b. 1983

British Indian actress and model

Phoebe Cates

b. 1963

American actress

James Maslow

b. 1990

American actor, singer and dancer

Sergio Busquets

b. 1988

Spanish footballer

Deaths

  • 2023Kevin Mitnick
  • 2019John Paul Stevens
  • 2017George A. Romero
  • 2014Karl Albrecht
  • 2014Heinz Zemanek
  • 1985Heinrich Böll

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Gondulphus of Tongeren
  • —Christian feast day: Helier
  • —Christian feast day: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Fiesta de La Tirana (Tarapacá Region, Chile)
  • —Christian feast day: Reineldis
  • —Christian feast day: July 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • —Engineer's Day (Honduras)
  • —Holocaust Memorial Day (France)

Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

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