April 16
69: Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Otho commits suicide.
556: Pelagius I starts his rule as Catholic Pope.
Painting of Robert Guiscard
1065: The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, finishing five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy.
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Painting of Queen Anne
1705: Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton.
1746: Prince Charles is crushed at the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought in Britain.
1818: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.
1854: San Salvador is annihilated by a seismic tremor.
Photo of Confederate President Jefferson Davis
1862: Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves an act for conscription of white males between 18 and 35.
1862: Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.
Photo of Vladimir Lenin
1917: Vladimir Lenin comes back to Russia to begin the Bolshevik Revolution.
Poster for Buffalo Bill's wild west show featuring Annie Oakley
1922: Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in succession, setting a lady's record.
1942: The Island of Malta is granted the George Cross in acknowledgment for courage under consistent German air
assault. It was the first such honor given to any piece of the British Commonwealth.
Photo of the USS Laffey
1945: The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrendous damage from assaults by 22 Japanese planes off Okinawa,
acquiring the title "The Ship That Would Not Die."
1945: American troops enter Nuremberg, Germany.
1947: A lens which gives zoom effects is exhibited in New York City.
1968: The Pentagon announces the "Vietnamization" of the war.
1972: Two giant pandas land in the U.S. from China.
Born on April 16
1660: Hans Sloane, doctor, naturalist, author of the British Museum.
1728: Joseph Black, Scottish scientific expert and physicist.
1786: Sir John Franklin, ice traveler.
1800: George Charles Bingham, British trooper, told the Light Brigade amid the popular charge.
1844: Anatole France, French writer.
1850: Thomas Sidney Gilchrist, British metallurgist and designer.
1864: Flora Batson, African-American soprano-baritone artist.
1867: Wilbur Wright, designer, manufacturer and flyer of the first plane.
1871: John Millington Synge, playwright and writer (Playboy of the Western World).
1889: Charlie Chaplin, film actor and executive.
1919: Merce Cunningham, American artist and choreographer.
1922: Kingsley Amis, British writer (Lucky Jim).
1924: Henry Mancini, author and conductor ("Moon River").
1947: Lew Alcinder (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), professional basketball player.
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