July 16

July 16 is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 168 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1950

622 – Start of the Islamic calendar.
1212 – The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa marks a turning point of the Spanish Reconquista over the Moors.
1377 – King Richard II of England is crowned.
1661 – The first banknotes in Europe are issued in Sweden.
1683 – Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, which becomes the city of San Diego.
1790 – The District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) is established as the capital of the US.
1809 – La Paz, Bolivia, declares independence from Spain.
1861 – American Civil War: Under orders from Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of the Bull Run.
1862 – American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral.
1931 – Haile Selassie signs the first Ethiopian Constitution.
1935 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits Taiwan, killing around 2,700 people.
1935 – The first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City.
1945 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Harry S. Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet in Potsdam to discuss the future of a defeated Germany after World War II.
1945 – First atomic bomb test occurs at Alamagordo, New Mexico.
1950 – 1950 FIFA World Cup: Uruguay wins the FIFA World Cup for the second time, with a 2–1 win over the host nation Brazil in the final, with Alcides Ghiggia scoring the winning goal. In Brazil, the event is remembered as the "Maracanazo", and the country went into mourning after the defeat.

From 1951

1951 – The famous novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is published.
1951 – King Leopold III of Belgium decides to abdicate the throne in favor of his then-20-year-old son, who becomes King Baudouin I of Belgium.
1965 – The Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy is opened.
1969 – Apollo 11 launched for the first moon landing.
1979 – Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq.
1981 – Mahathir Mohamad becomes Prime Minister of Malaysia, serving until October 31, 2003.
1983 – A Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashes near the Isles of Scilly off the Southwest coast of England, killing 20 people.
1984 – San Ysidro massacre: 21 people are killed and 19 injured in a shooting in a fast food restaurant in San Diego, California. The perpetrator is then killed by police.
1990 – A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits the Philippine island of Luzon, killing 1,621 people.
1990 – Then-West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl travels to the Soviet Union to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev and discuss German reunification.
1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with the planet Jupiter.
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard off the US State of Massachusetts. His wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are also killed.
2004 – The Millennium Park architectural project in Chicago is opened by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
2007 – A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes near Niigata, Japan, killing 8 people and injuring more than 800.
2008 – 16 young children in Gansu province, China, are diagnosed with kidney stones after being fed tainted milk.
2013 – Around 27 children die and 25 are hospitalized after eating lunch served in their school canteen in Eastern India.
2017 – Tennis: Roger Federer wins a record-breaking 8th Wimbledon men's singles title, defeating Marin Cilic in straight sets.
2017 – Jodie Whittaker is revealed as the first woman to play the role of Doctor Who in the British science fiction television series of the same name.
2018 – US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet for talks in Helsinki, Finland.
2019 – Ursula von der Leyen is chosen to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission, becoming the first woman to chosen to hold this position.