October 16

Events

456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.

690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.

1384 – Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.

1590 – Carlo Gesualdo, composer, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.

1780 – Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War.

1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

1793 – The Battle of Wattignies ends in a French victory.

1813 – The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.

1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1841 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

1843 – Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers.

1846 – William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.

1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

1869 – Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

1875 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1882 – The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

1905 – The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

1906 – The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.

1909 – William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold a summit, a first between a U.S. and a Mexican president, and they only narrowly escape assassination.

1916 – In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.

1934 – Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.

1939 – World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.

1940 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1943 – Holocaust: Raid of the Ghetto of Rome

1944 – Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker's first steady foil, debuts in the The Beach Nut, a Walter Lantz's cartoon.

1945 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.

1946 – Nuremberg trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial.

1947 – Republic of the Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.

1949 – Nikos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.

1949 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.

1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1964 – China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1964 – Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin are inaugurated as General Secretary of the CPSU and Premier, respectively and the collective leadership is established.

1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

1968 – Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

1968 – Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1970 – In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.

1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1975 – The Balibo Five, a group of Australian-based television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.

1975 – Rahima Banu, a two-year-old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.

1975 – The Australian Coalition opposition parties using their senate majority, vote to defer the decision to grant supply of funds for the Whitlam Government's annual budget, sparking the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.

1978 – Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

1978 – Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1984 – Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1986 – Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.

1991 – Luby's shooting: George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20 in Luby's Cafeteria.

1993 – Anti-Nazism riot breaks out in Welling in Kent, after police stop protesters approaching the British National Party headquarters.

1995 – The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C.

1995 – The Skye Bridge is opened.

1996 – Eighty-four people are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 football fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.

1998 – Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a warrant from Spain requesting his extradition on murder charges.

2002 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.

2012 – The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered.

2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

Births

1351 – Gian Galeazzo Visconti, first Duke of Milan (d. 1402)

1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)

1430 – James II of Scotland (d. 1460)

1483 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian cardinal and diplomat (d. 1542)

1535 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese samurai (d. 1585)

1620 – Pierre Paul Puget, French painter and sculptor (d. 1694)

1679 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech viol player and composer (d. 1745)

1710 – András Hadik, Austrian-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1790)

1714 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist and academic (d. 1795)

1726 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish-German painter and educator (d. 1801)

1729 – Pierre van Maldere, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1768)

1752 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian and academic (d. 1827)

1754 – Morgan Lewis, American general, lawyer, and politician, 3rd Governor of New York (d. 1844)

1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)

1762 – Paul Hamilton, American soldier and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1816)

1789 – William Burton, American physician and politician, 39th Governor of Delaware (d. 1866)

1795 – William Buell Sprague, American minister, historian, and author (d. 1876)

1802 – Isaac Murphy, American educator and politician, 8th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1882)

1804 – Benjamin Russell, American painter and educator (d. 1885)

1806 – William P. Fessenden, American lawyer and politician, 26th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1869)

1815 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (d. 1905)

1819 – Austin F. Pike, American lawyer and politician (d. 1886)

1831 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (d. 1910)

1832 – Vicente Riva Palacio, Mexican liberal intellectual, novelist (d. 1896)

1840 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)

1841 – Itō Hirobumi, Japanese lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1909)

1847 – Maria Pia of Savoy (d. 1911)

1852 – Carl von In der Maur, Governor of Liechtenstein (d. 1913)

1854 – Karl Kautsky, Czech-German journalist, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1938)

1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet (d. 1900)

1855 – Samad bey Mehmandarov, Azerbaijani general and politician, 3rd Azerbaijani Minister of Defense (d. 1931)

1861 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian and scholar (d. 1927)

1861 – Richard Sears, American tennis player (d. 1943)

1863 – Austen Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)

1867 – Mario Ruspoli, 2nd Prince of Poggio Suasa (d. 1963)

1869 – Claude H. Van Tyne, American historian and author (d. 1930)

1872 – Walter Buckmaster, English polo player and businessman, co-founded Buckmaster & Moore (d. 1942)

1876 – Jimmy Sinclair, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 1913)

1881 – William Orthwein, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1955)

1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)

1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli soldier and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)

1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)

1888 – Paul Popenoe, American founder of relationship counseling (d. 1979)

1890 – Michael Collins, Irish general and politician, 2nd Irish Minister for Finance (d. 1922)

1890 – Maria Goretti, Italian martyr and saint (d. 1902)

1890 – Paul Strand, American photographer and director (d. 1975)

1897 – Louis de Cazenave, French soldier (d. 2008)

1898 – William O. Douglas, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1980)

1900 – Edward Ardizzone, Vietnamese-English author and illustrator (d. 1979)

1900 – Primo Conti, Italian painter and poet (d. 1988)

1900 – Goose Goslin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1971)

1903 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French author and pianist (d. 2003)

1904 – Björn Berglund, Swedish actor (d. 1968)

1905 – Ernst Kuzorra, German footballer and manager (d. 1990)

1906 – León Klimovsky, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1996)

1907 – Richard Titmuss, English sociologist and academic (d. 1973)

1908 – Olivia Coolidge, English-American author and educator (d. 2006)

1908 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian general and politician, Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1985)

1911 – Otto von Bülow, German commander (d. 2006)

1912 – Clifford Hansen, American rancher and politician, 26th Governor of Wyoming (d. 2009)

1912 – Karl Ristikivi, Estonian author and poet (d. 1977)

1913 – Gino Bechi, Italian actor and singer (d. 1993)

1918 – Louis Althusser, Algerian-French philosopher and academic (d. 1990)

1918 – Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and academic (d. 2013)

1918 – Tony Rolt, English racing driver and engineer (d. 2008)

1919 – Kathleen Winsor, American journalist and author (d. 2003)

1921 – Matt Batts, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)

1921 – MacKenzie Miller, American horse trainer and breeder (d. 2010)

1922 – Max Bygraves, English-Australian actor and singer (d. 2012)

1922 – Leon Sullivan, American minister and activist (d. 2001)

1923 – Linda Darnell, American actress (d. 1965)

1923 – Bert Kaempfert, German conductor and composer (d. 1980)

1923 – Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2010)

1924 – Gerard Parkes, Irish-Canadian actor (d. 2014)

1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress, singer, and producer

1926 – Charles Dolan, American businessman, founded Cablevision and HBO

1927 – Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)

1928 – Mary Daly, American philosopher and theologian (d. 2010)

1928 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress (d. 2016)

1929 – Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian actress

1930 – John Polkinghorne, English physicist, theologian and priest

1930 – Carmen Sevilla, Spanish actress

1931 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012)

1931 – Valery Klimov, Ukrainian-Russian violinist and educator

1931 – Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress

1931 – P. W. Underwood, American football player and coach (d. 2013)

1932 – John Grant, English journalist and politician (d. 2000)

1932 – Henry Lewis, American bassist and conductor (d. 1996)

1932 – Lucien Paiement, Canadian physician and politician (d. 2013)

1934 – Peter Ashdown, English racing driver

1936 – Peter Bowles, English actor and screenwriter

1936 – Andrei Chikatilo, Ukrainian-Russian serial killer (d. 1994)

1936 – Mladen Koščak, Croatian footballer (d. 1997)

1936 – Akira Machida, Japanese lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of Japan

1938 – Nico, German singer-songwriter, model, and actress (d. 1988)

1938 – Carl Gunter, Jr., American politician (d. 1999)

1939 – Joe Dolan, Irish singer (d. 2007)

1940 – Barry Corbin, American actor and producer

1940 – Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player and coach (d. 2003)

1940 – Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist (d. 2009)

1941 – Tim McCarver, American baseball player, sportscaster, and singer

1941 – Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, English computer programmer and politician

1943 – Fred Turner, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player

1944 – Kaizer Motaung, South African footballer and manager

1945 – Stefan Buczacki, English horticulturalist, botanist, and television host

1945 – Roger Hawkins, American session drummer

1945 – Dave Hill, English actor

1945 – Paul Monette, American author and poet (d. 1995)

1946 – Geoff Barnett, English footballer

1946 – Suzanne Somers, American actress and producer

1947 – Nicholas Day, English actor

1947 – Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player and coach

1947 – Bob Weir, American singer-songwriter, and guitarist

1947 – David Zucker, American director, producer, and screenwriter

1948 – Alison Chitty, English production designer and costume designer

1948 – Bruce Fleisher, American golfer

1948 – Hema Malini, Indian actress, director, producer, and politician

1948 – Leo Mazzone, American baseball player and coach

1949 – Crazy Mohan, Indian actor, screenwriter, and playwright

1950 – Károly Horváth, Romanian-Hungarian cellist, flute player, and composer (d. 2015)

1952 – Christopher Cox, American lawyer and politician

1952 – Cordell Mosson, American bass player (d. 2013)

1952 – Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton, English politician

1953 – Tony Carey, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer

1953 – Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazilian footballer and manager

1953 – Martha Smith, American model and actress

1953 – Al Sobotka, American businessman

1954 – Lorenzo Carcaterra, American author and blogger

1954 – Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Scotland

1954 – Serafino Ghizzoni, Italian rugby player

1954 – Corinna Harfouch, German actress

1955 – Ellen Dolan, American actress

1956 – Marin Alsop, American violinist and conductor

1956 – John Chavis, American football player and coach

1956 – Meg Rosoff, American-English author

1956 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet, author, and playwright (d. 1992)

1957 – Priidu Beier, Estonian poet and educator

1958 – Roy McDonough, English footballer and manager

1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter

1959 – Kevin Brennan, Welsh journalist and politician

1959 – Marc Collins-Rector, American businessman, founded Digital Entertainment Network

1959 – Brian Harper, American baseball player and coach

1959 – Gary Kemp, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor

1959 – Philip Maini, mathematician at the University of Oxford

1959 – Tessa Munt, English lawyer and politician

1959 – Jamie Salmon, English-New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster

1959 – Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian flute player and composer

1959 – John Whittingdale, English politician, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

1960 – Guy LeBlanc, Canadian keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2015)

1960 – Bob Mould, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

1961 – Marc Levy, French author

1961 – Randy Vasquez, American actor, director, and producer

1962 – Flea, Australian-American bass player, songwriter, and actor

1962 – Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player and activist (d. 2010)

1962 – Ken Chinn, Canadian singer-songwriter

1962 – Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer

1962 – Nico Lazaridis, German footballer

1962 – Tamara McKinney, American skier

1963 – Brendan Kibble, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist

1963 – Timothy Leighton, English physicist and academic

1964 – Shawn Little, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2012)

1964 – James Thompson, American-Finnish author (d. 2014)

1965 – Kang Kyung-ok, South Korean illustrator

1965 – Steve Lamacq, English radio host

1965 – Tom Tolbert, American basketball player and sportscaster

1966 – Olof Lundh, Swedish journalist

1966 – Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, American voice actress, singer, and director

1967 – Jason Everman, American guitarist

1967 – Michael Laffy, Australian footballer

1967 – Davina McCall, English television host and actress

1968 – Randall Batinkoff, American actor and producer

1968 – Mark Lee, Singaporean actor and singer

1968 – Francesco Libetta, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor

1968 – Elsa Zylberstein, French actress

1969 – Roy Hargrove, American trumpet player and composer

1969 – Takao Omori, Japanese wrestler

1969 – Terri J. Vaughn, American actress and producer

1969 – Wendy Wilson, American singer-songwriter

1970 – Kazuyuki Fujita, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist

1970 – Mehmet Scholl, German footballer and manager

1971 – Chad Gray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1971 – Paul Sparks, American actor

1972 – Adrianne Frost, American comedian, actress, and author

1972 – Darius Kasparaitis, Lithuanian-Russian ice hockey player and coach

1972 – Kordell Stewart, American football player and radio host

1973 – Justin Credible, American wrestler

1973 – María Eugenia Larraín, Chilean model and actress

1973 – David Unsworth, English footballer and manager

1974 – Aurela Gaçe, Albanian singer

1974 – Paul Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player

1975 – Mahmood Al Zarooni, Emirati horse rider and trainer

1975 – Ernesto Noel Aquino, Honduran footballer

1975 – Sally Biddulph, British journalist and presenter

1975 – Brynjar Gunnarsson, Icelandic footballer

1975 – Jacques Kallis, South African cricketer

1975 – Kellie Martin, American actress, director, and producer

1977 – John Mayer, American singer-songwriter, rapper, guitarist, and producer

1977 – Laura Wade, English playwright

1978 – Ethan Luck, American guitarist and drummer

1979 – Nicola Blackwood, South African-English politician

1979 – Erin Brown, American actress, director, and screenwriter

1980 – Sue Bird, American basketball player

1980 – Timana Tahu, Australian rugby league player

1981 – Ali B, Dutch rapper

1981 – Martin Halle, Danish footballer

1981 – Boyd Melson, American boxer

1981 – Anthony Reyes, American baseball player

1982 – Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player

1982 – Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer

1982 – Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, singer, and producer

1983 – Loreen, Swedish singer and producer

1983 – Philipp Kohlschreiber, German tennis player

1983 – Kenny Omega, Canadian professional wrestler

1984 – Rachel Reilly, American talk show host and actress

1984 – Shayne Ward, English singer and actor

1985 – Verena Sailer, German sprinter

1985 – Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer

1986 – Inna, Romanian singer-songwriter and dancer

1986 – Nicky Adams, English-Welsh footballer

1986 – Derk Boerrigter, Dutch footballer

1986 – Craig Pickering, English sprinter and bobsledder

1988 – Zoltán Stieber, Hungarian footballer

1989 – Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player

1990 – Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, Danish-Icelandic singer

1990 – Anirudh Ravichander, Indian singer-songwriter and actor

1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player

1992 – Kostas Fortounis, Greek footballer

1993 – Caroline Garcia, French tennis player

1994 – Adam Elliott, Australian rugby league player

1994 – Amelia Lily, English singer-songwriter

Deaths

385 – Fú Jiān, emperor of the Chinese Di state Former Qin (b. 337)

786 – Lullus, archbishop of Mainz

1130 – Pedro González de Lara, Castilian magnate

1323 – Amadeus V, Count of Savoy (b. 1249)

1333 – Antipope Nicholas V (b. 1260)

1438 – Anne of Gloucester, English noblewoman (b. 1383)

1355 – Louis, King of Sicily (b. 1337)

1523 – Luca Signorelli, Italian painter (b. c.1450)

1553 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter and engraver (b. 1472)

1555 – Hugh Latimer, English bishop and saint (b. 1487)

1555 – Nicholas Ridley, English bishop and martyr (b. 1500)

1591 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)

1594 – William Allen, English cardinal (b. 1532)

1621 – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch organist and composer (b. 1562)

1628 – François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)

1649 – Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1621)

1655 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (b. 1591)

1660 – John Cook, English politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales (b. 1608)

1679 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, Irish-English soldier and politician (b. 1621)

1680 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian-Austrian field marshal (b. 1609)

1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French-American explorer and politician, 3rd French Governor of Louisiana (b. 1658)

1730 – Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha, Greek politician, 139th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1666)

1750 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German lute player and composer (b. 1687)

1755 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (b. 1725)

1774 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (b. 1750)

1781 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral (b. 1705)

1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and politician (b. 1739)

1793 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian wife of Louis XVI of France (b. 1755)

1793 – John Hunter, Scottish-English surgeon and philosopher (b. 1728)

1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (b. 1726)

1799 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman Indian activist (b. 1760)

1810 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian religious leader, founded the breslov hasidic group (b. 1772)

1822 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian-English dancer (b. 1724)

1877 – Théodore Barrière, French playwright (b. 1823)

1888 – John Wentworth, American journalist and politician, 19th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)

1908 – Joseph Leycester Lyne, English monk (b. 1837)

1909 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, German poet and playwright (b. 1856)

1913 – Ralph Rose, American shot putter, discus, and hammer thrower (b. 1885)

1937 – Jean de Brunhoff, French poet and playwright (b. 1899)

1946 – Nuremberg trial executions of the Main Trial:

1946 – Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician (b. 1900)

1946 – Wilhelm Frick, German lawyer and politician, German Minister of the Interior (b. 1877)

1946 – Alfred Jodl, German general (b. 1890)

1946 – Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)

1946 – Wilhelm Keitel, German field marshal (b. 1882)

1946 – Alfred Rosenberg, Estonian architect and politician (b. 1893)

1946 – Fritz Sauckel, German sailor and politician (b. 1894)

1946 – Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian lawyer and politician, 16th Federal Chancellor of Austria (b. 1892)

1946 – Julius Streicher, German journalist and politician (b. 1887)

1946 – Joachim von Ribbentrop, German lieutenant and politician, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany (b. 1893)

1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (b 1895)

1952 – Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and poet (b. 1876)

1956 – Jules Rimet, French businessman (b. 1873)

1957 – John Anthony Sydney Ritson, English rugby player, mines inspector, engineer and educator (b. 1887)

1958 – Robert Redfield, American anthropologist of Mexico (b. 1897)

1959 – Minor Hall, American drummer (b. 1897)

1959 – George Marshall, American general and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Defense, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1880)

1962 – Gaston Bachelard, French poet and philosopher (b. 1884)

1964 – Patsy Callighen, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1906)

1966 – George O'Hara, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1899)

1968 – Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (b. 1914)

1971 – Robin Boyd, Australian architect and educator, designed the Domain Park Flats (b. 1919)

1972 – Nick Begich, American lawyer and politician (b. 1932)

1972 – Hale Boggs, American lawyer and politician (b. 1914)

1972 – Leo G. Carroll, English-American actor (b. 1886)

1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer, composer, and actor (b. 1909)

1975 – Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1885)

1978 – Dan Dailey, American actor, singer, dancer, and director (b. 1913)

1979 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author and critic (b. 1903)

1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician, 5th Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel (b. 1915)

1981 – Eugene Eisenmann, Panamanian-American lawyer and ornithologist (b. 1906)

1982 – Mario Del Monaco, Italian tenor (b. 1915)

1983 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer and conductor (b. 1895)

1986 – Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist and pianist (b. 1921)

1989 – Walter Farley, American author and educator (b. 1915)

1989 – Scott O'Dell, American journalist and author (b. 1898)

1989 – Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)

1990 – Art Blakey, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1919)

1990 – Jorge Bolet, Cuban-American pianist and educator (b. 1914)

1991 – Ole Beich, Danish bass player (b. 1955)

1992 – Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (b. 1898)

1996 – Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)

1996 – Eric Malpass, English author (b. 1910)

1997 – Audra Lindley, American actress (b. 1918)

1997 – James A. Michener, American author and philanthropist (b. 1907)

1998 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1943)

1999 – Jean Shepherd, American radio host, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1921)

2000 – Mel Carnahan, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 51st Governor of Missouri (b. 1934)

2001 – Etta Jones, American singer-songwriter (b. 1928)

2003 – Avni Arbaş, Turkish painter (b. 1919)

2003 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)

2003 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)

2004 – Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)

2006 – Tommy Johnson, American tuba player and educator (b. 1935)

2006 – John Victor Murra, Ukrainian-American anthropologist and academic (b. 1916)

2006 – Valentín Paniagua, Peruvian lawyer and politician, 91st President of Peru (b. 1936)

2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)

2007 – Toše Proeski, Macedonian singer-songwriter (b. 1981)

2008 – Dagmar Normet, Estonian author and translator (b. 1921)

2010 – Eyedea, American rapper and producer (b. 1981)

2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (b. 1915)

2011 – Dan Wheldon, English racing driver (b. 1978)

2012 – Frank Moore Cross, American scholar and academic (b. 1921)

2012 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (b. 1936)

2012 – Mario Gallegos, Jr., American firefighter and politician (b. 1950)

2012 – Bódog Török, Hungarian handball player and coach (b. 1923)

2012 – Eddie Yost, American baseball player and coach (b. 1926)

2013 – Govind Purushottam Deshpande, Indian playwright and academic (b. 1938)

2013 – George Hourmouziadis, Greek archaeologist and academic (b. 1932)

2013 – Laurel Martyn, Australian ballerina and choreographer (b. 1916)

2013 – Robert B. Rheault, American colonel (b. 1925)

2013 – Saggy Tahir, Pakistani-American lawyer and politician (b. 1944)

2014 – Ioannis Charalambopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)

2014 – Allen Forte, American musicologist and theorist (b. 1926)

2014 – Seppo Kuusela, Finnish basketball player and coach (b. 1934)

2014 – John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English businessman (b. 1926)

2015 – Richard J. Cardamone, American lawyer and judge (b. 1925)

2015 – Denis Cuspert, German rapper (b. 1975)

2015 – James W. Fowler, American psychologist and academic (b. 1940)

2015 – William James, Australian general and physician (b. 1930)

2015 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (b. 1927)

2015 – Memduh Ün, Turkish film producer, director, actor and screenwriter (b. 1920)

2016 – Calvin Carl "Kelly" Gotlieb, Canadian professor and computer scientist (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

Air Force Day (Bulgaria)

Boss's Day (United States and Canada)

Christian feast day:

Blessed Thevarparampil Kunjachan (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church / Catholic Church)

Fortunatus of Casei

Gall

Gerard Majella

Hedwig of Silesia

Hugh Latimer (Anglicanism)

Marguerite Marie Alacoque

Marie-Marguerite d'Youville

Nicholas Ridley (Anglicanism)

Silvanus of Ahun

October 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Day of Pope John Paul II (Poland)

Death anniversary of Liaquat Ali Khan (Pakistan)

Teachers' Day (Chile)

World Anaesthesia Day (International)

World Food Day (International)