16 May on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.

Rebel Turkish warlord Mahmud of Ghazni defeats Samanid Emir Mansur II in battle at Merv.

Patrician John II Crescentius, who has seized control of Rome, selects Pope John XVII as the new pope.

Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

Hundred Years' War: Bertrand du Guesclin and a French army defeat the Anglo-Navarrese army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel.

Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes King of Ava.

The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.

Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.

Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.

After a scuffle in which one cardinal had several bones broken, a papal conclave convened in Rome elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V.

The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.

The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, Dauphin de France, who later becomes king of France.

The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh fatally wounds Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in a duel in Savannah, Georgia.

Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom fight an inconclusive battle against the French at the Albuera. It is, in proportion to the numbers involved, the bloodiest battle of the war.

Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.

The Conference of Dresden began, an attempt by Napoleon to secure support for his planned invasion of Russia.

Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.

The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, the decisive Union victory by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Champion Hill drives the Confederate army under John C. Pemberton back towards Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The United States Congress establishes the nickel.

The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.

The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.

John Richard Clark Hall, a barrister who would go on to write a widely used Anglo-Saxon dictionary and translation of Beowulf, was admitted to Gray's Inn.

Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.

The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.

A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.

The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.

In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

Operation Chastise is undertaken by RAF Bomber Command with specially equipped Avro Lancasters to destroy the Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley.

The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.

The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world flight airspeed record of 1,404.012 mph (2,259.538 km/h).

The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.

The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

A gas explosion in Ronan Point causes a corner of the building to collapse, leading to a loss of public confidence in high-rise residential buildings.

Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.

An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.

Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.

Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, the Kingdom of Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed to become the 22nd state of India.

Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

The first Chuck E. Cheese location, the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment, and an indoor arcade, opened in San Jose, California.

A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.

In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.

STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.

A catastrophic EF3 tornado kills five people and causes over $1 billion in damages in St. Louis, MO.

A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.

Megan Fox, American actress

Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer

Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress

Henry Fonda, American actor (died 1982)

Pope Innocent XI (died 1689)

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (died 1799)

Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, 3rd President of Turkey (died 1986)

Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Georg Bednorz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

IU, Korean singer-songwriter and actress

William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (died 1872)

Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (died 1986)

Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller

Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist

Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast

Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (died 1866)

Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player

Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer and manager

Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (died 1980)

Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (died 2012)

Danny Trejo, American actor

Debra Winger, American actress

Levi P. Morton, American banker and politician, 22nd United States Vice President (died 1920)

Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013)

Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (died 1956)

Ryan Gravenberch, Dutch footballer

Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician and statistician (died 1894)

Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)

Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2010)

Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter and producer

David Boreanaz, American actor

Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer

Margaret Sullavan, American actress and singer (died 1960)

Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (died 2009)

Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (died 1829)

Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (died 1987)

Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia (died 2019)

Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor

Ivan Sutherland, American computer scientist and academic

Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norwegian biathlete

Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (died 2018)

Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (died 2014)

Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter

Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model

Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (died 1890)

Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet and academic (died 1993)

Studs Terkel, American historian and author (died 2008)

Nancy Roman, American astronomer (died 2018)

Olga Bergholz, Russian poet and author (died 1975)

Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress

David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (died 1900)

Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (died 1987)

Martine Carol, French actress (died 1967)

Joan Benoit, American runner

Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter

Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany

Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer