✦ DateLore

On This Day · The 167th day of the year

June 16

A look at June 16 through the almanac — historic events, famous birthdays including Tupac Shakur and Adam Smith, and the day's notable deaths and observances.

♊ZodiacGemini ◈BirthstonePearl ❀Birth flowerRose
Advertisement 728 × 90 leaderboard

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 2010

    Bhutan

    Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.

    Country in South Asia
  2. 1963

    Vostok 6

    Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

    1963 Soviet crewed spaceflight
  3. 1940

    World War II

    World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français).

    1939–1945 global conflict
  4. 1911

    IBM

    IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

    American multinational technology company
  5. 1904

    James Joyce

    Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".

    Irish novelist and poet
  6. 1903

    Roald Amundsen

    Roald Amundsen leaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east–west navigation of the Northwest Passage.

    Norwegian polar explorer (1872–1928)
  7. 1883

    Victoria Hall disaster

    The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England, kills 183 children.

    Crowd crush that occurred
  8. 1858

    Abraham Lincoln

    Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

    President of the United
  9. 1819

    1819 Rann of Kutch earthquake

    A major earthquake strikes the Kutch district of western India, killing over 1,543 people and raising a 6-metre-high (20 ft), 6-kilometre-wide (3.7 mi), ridge, extending for at least 80 kilometres (50 mi), that was known as the Allah Bund ("Dam of God").

    Earthquake and tsunami in
  10. 1632

    Plymouth Company

    The Plymouth Company granted a land patent to Thomas Purchase, the first settler of Pejepscot, Maine, settling at the site of Fort Andross.

    Division of the Virginia
Advertisement Responsive in-content unit

Famous birthday twins

Born on June 16

Tupac Shakur

b. 1971

American rapper and producer

Adam Smith

b. 1723

Scottish philosopher and economist

Gustaf V

b. 1858

King of Sweden

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

b. 1929

Emir of Kuwait

Julius Plücker

b. 1801

German mathematician and physicist

Daniel Brühl

b. 1978

Spanish-German actor

Ernst Laas

b. 1837

German philosopher and academic

Otto Jahn

b. 1813

German archaeologist and philologist

Deaths

  • 2017Helmut Kohl, German politician, Chancellor of Germany
  • 2016Jo Cox, English political activist and MP
  • 1977Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer
  • 1969Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada
  • 1626Christian the Younger of Brunswick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader
  • 1361Johannes Tauler, German mystic theologian

Holidays & observances

  • —Birthday of Leonard P. Howell (Rastafari)
  • —Bloomsday (Dublin, Ireland)
  • —Christian feast days: Aurelianus of Arles
  • —Christian feast days: Aureus of Mainz (and his sister Justina)
  • —Christian feast days: Benno
  • —Christian feast days: Cettin of Oran
  • —Christian feast days: Curig of Llanbadarn
  • —Christian feast days: Cyricus and Julitta

Born on this day?

Make your birthday card.

Drop in your birth year and we'll work out your exact age, the day of the week you were born, your Chinese zodiac, your generation, and the countdown to your next candle.