History of Today 16 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 16 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 16 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 16 August 2026, 01:03 AM

Important Events on 16 August in History

16 Aug 2020: The August Complex fire in California burns more than one million acres of land. Read more
16 Aug 2015: More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. Read more
16 Aug 2015: Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibil, Bintang Mountains Regency, killing all 54 people on board. Read more
16 Aug 2013: The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. Read more
16 Aug 2012: South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. Read more
16 Aug 2010: AIRES Flight 8250 crashes at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport in San Andrés, San Andrés y Providencia, Colombia, killing two people. Read more
16 Aug 2008: The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. Read more
16 Aug 2005: West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. Read more
16 Aug 1991: Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board. Read more
16 Aug 1989: A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading. Read more
16 Aug 1987: Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. Read more
16 Aug 1986: A Sudan Airways Fokker F27 Friendship is shot down near Malakal in present day South Sudan, killing 60. Read more
16 Aug 1975: Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically hands over land to the Gurindji people after the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration. Read more
16 Aug 1972: In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat. Read more
16 Aug 1966: Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. Read more
16 Aug 1964: Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. Read more
16 Aug 1960: Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. Read more
16 Aug 1960: Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico, United States, at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. Read more
16 Aug 1954: The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. Read more
16 Aug 1946: Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. Read more
16 Aug 1946: The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. Read more
16 Aug 1945: The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. Read more
16 Aug 1944: First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. Read more
16 Aug 1943: World War II: 317 Greek civilians are murdered by soldiers of the German 1st Mountain Division in the village of Kommeno, Greece. Read more
16 Aug 1942: World War II: US Navy L-class blimp L-8 drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. Read more
16 Aug 1933: Christie Pits riot takes place in Toronto, Ontario. Read more
16 Aug 1930: The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks. Read more
16 Aug 1930: The first British Empire Games are opened in Hamilton, Ontario, by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. Read more
16 Aug 1929: The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. Read more
16 Aug 1927: The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. Read more
16 Aug 1923: The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. Read more
16 Aug 1920: Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. Next day, Chapman will become the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game. Read more
16 Aug 1920: The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. Read more
16 Aug 1920: Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. Read more
16 Aug 1918: The Battle of Lake Baikal is fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. Read more
16 Aug 1916: The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. Read more
16 Aug 1916: German admiral Wilhelm Souchon hands over the two warships under his command to the Ottomans and becomes commander of the Turkish navy, leading later to the entry of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Read more
16 Aug 1913: Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. Read more
16 Aug 1913: Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. Read more
16 Aug 1906: The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. Read more
16 Aug 1900: The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. Read more
16 Aug 1896: Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. Read more
16 Aug 1891: The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. Read more
16 Aug 1876: Richard Wagner's Siegfried, the penultimate opera in his Ring cycle, is premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Read more
16 Aug 1870: Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. Read more
16 Aug 1869: Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion largely made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. Read more
16 Aug 1863: The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. Read more
16 Aug 1859: The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. Read more
16 Aug 1858: U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. Read more
16 Aug 1844: Governor-general of the Philippines Narciso Claveria signs a decree to reform the country's calendar by skipping Tuesday, December 31, as a solution to anomalies that had existed since Ferdinand Magellan's arrival in 1521. Read more
16 Aug 1841: U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. Read more
16 Aug 1837: Three African soldiers in the 1st West India Regiment – Daaga, Edward Coffin and Maurice Ogston – are executed for their role in the St. Joseph Mutiny in the British colony of Trinidad. Read more
16 Aug 1819: Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. Read more
16 Aug 1812: War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. Read more

Famous Births on 16 August

16 Aug 2001: Jannik Sinner, Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner is an Italian professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No.1 by Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and was the year-end No. 1 in 2024. Sinner has won 30 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including five majors, ten Masters and two ATP Finals titles. He led Italy to back-to-back Davis Cup crowns in 2023 and 2024. Read more
16 Aug 1999: Karen Chen, American figure skater Karen Chen is an American figure skater. She is a 2022 Olympic Games team event gold medalist, two-time CS U.S. Classic bronze medalist, the 2015 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb bronze medalist, the 2017 U.S. national champion, 2022 U.S. national silver medalist, and a three-time U.S. national bronze medalist. She graduated from Cornell University in 2025. Read more
16 Aug 1997: Greyson Chance, American musician Greyson Michael Chance is an American singer-songwriter. He rose to national attention in 2010 as a child singer after his performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" went viral on YouTube and gained over 72 million views. Two of his original songs, "Stars" and "Broken Hearts", gained over six and eight million views, respectively, on his channel the following year. He signed a joint-venture recording contract with Ellen DeGeneres' eleveneleven – an imprint of Maverick, Streamline, and Geffen Records – to release his debut commercial single, "Waiting Outside the Lines", in October 2010. His debut studio album, Hold On 'til the Night (2011) was released the following year and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200, remaining his only charting release. Read more
16 Aug 1996: Sophie Cunningham, American basketball player Sophie Elizabeth Cunningham is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the Missouri Tigers. Read more
16 Aug 1996: Caeleb Dressel, American swimmer Caeleb Remel Dressel is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He won a record seven gold medals at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, nine medals, six of which were gold, at the 2018 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, and eight medals, including six gold, at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju. Dressel is a nine-time Olympic gold medalist and holds world records in the 100 meter butterfly, and 100 meter individual medley. Read more
16 Aug 1993: Cameron Monaghan, American actor and model Cameron Riley Monaghan is an American actor and model. The accolades he has received include nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award. Read more
16 Aug 1992: Diego Schwartzman, Argentinian tennis player Diego Sebastián Schwartzman is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He won four ATP Tour singles titles and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in October 2020. As a clay court specialist, his best results were on this surface. He was noted for his high-quality return game. Read more
16 Aug 1991: José Eduardo de Araújo, Brazilian footballer José Eduardo de Araújo, or simply Zé Eduardo, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder. He can also play at full-back or on either wing, but sees central midfield as his strongest position. Read more
16 Aug 1991: Evanna Lynch, Irish actress Evanna Lynch is an Irish actress and activist. Lynch made her film debut as Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), reprising her role in successive sequels to critical praise, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011) and series parody A Very Potter Senior Year (2012). Read more
16 Aug 1991: Young Thug, American rapper, singer and songwriter Jeffery Lamar Williams II, known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Known for his eccentric vocal style and fashion, he is considered an influential figure in modern hip-hop and trap music, and a popularizer of the mumble rap microgenre. Williams began his musical career in 2011, releasing a series of mixtapes beginning with I Came from Nothing. In 2013, he signed with fellow Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane's 1017 Records and gained further attention and praise for his debut mixtape with the label, 1017 Thug, released in February of that year. Read more
16 Aug 1990: Godfrey Oboabona, Nigerian footballer Godfrey Itama Oboabona is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
16 Aug 1989: Cedric Alexander, American wrestler Cedric Alexander Johnson is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he is a member of The System and is the reigning TNA X Division Champion in his first reign. He also performs on the independent circuit. He is also known for his tenures in WWE, House of Glory, and Ring of Honor (ROH). Read more
16 Aug 1989: Wang Hao, Chinese race walker Wang Hao is a Chinese race walker. Read more
16 Aug 1989: Moussa Sissoko, French footballer Moussa Sissoko is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Greek Super League club Panathinaikos. He is a box-to-box midfielder in the centre of the pitch, and is capable of playing as a defensive midfielder, or even as an attacking midfielder, right winger or right-back. Read more
16 Aug 1988: Ismaïl Aissati, Moroccan footballer Ismaïl Aissati is a Moroccan former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
16 Aug 1988: Ryan Kerrigan, American football player Patrick Ryan Kerrigan is an American professional football coach and former player. He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers, earning unanimous All-American honors as a senior before being selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft. Read more
16 Aug 1988: Rumer Willis, American actress Rumer Glenn Willis is an American actress. The eldest daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, she made her acting debut opposite her mother in the coming-of-age drama Now and Then (1995). She subsequently appeared in films such as Striptease (1996), Hostage (2005), The House Bunny (2008), Sorority Row (2009), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). She portrayed Gia Mannetti on The CW teen drama series 90210 (2009–2010) and Tory Ash on the FOX musical drama series Empire (2017–2018). Willis won season 20 of the ABC dance competition television series Dancing with the Stars, and she made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago on September 21, 2015. Read more
16 Aug 1987: Carey Price, Canadian ice hockey player Carey Price is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played as a goaltender for 15 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). Considered one of the best goaltenders in the world during his career, Price is the goaltender with the most wins in Canadiens franchise history with 361 career wins. Read more
16 Aug 1987: Eri Kitamura, Japanese voice actress and singer. Eri Kitamura , born August 16, 1987, is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She was previously affiliated with Early Wing, but is now a freelancer. She is known for voicing prominent roles in anime and games such as Sayaka Miki in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Saya Otonashi in Blood+, Keqing in Genshin Impact, Shizuku in New Game!, Darjeeling in Girls und Panzer, Uni/Black Sister in Hyperdimension Neptunia, Ranko Honjō in My First Girlfriend Is a Gal, Yuka Mochida in Corpse Party, Bea in Pokémon: Twilight Wings, and Miki Aono/Cure Berry in Fresh Pretty Cure!. In addition, she provided the voice for the Vocaloid voicebank CUL. She is known to be an amateur manga artist in Japan in her spare time. Read more
16 Aug 1986: Yu Darvish, Japanese baseball player Farid Yu Darvish Sefat , more commonly known as Yu Darvish, is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He also pitched for Japan in several international tournaments, including the 2008 Olympics, 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC), and 2023 WBC. Read more
16 Aug 1986: Martín Maldonado, Puerto Rican baseball player Martín Benjamín Maldonado is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons. During those 15 seasons, he played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and San Diego Padres. Read more
16 Aug 1986: Shawn Pyfrom, American actor Shawn Caminiti Pyfrom is an American actor and singer who has appeared in several television series and films. He is best known for his portrayal of Andrew Van de Kamp on ABC's Desperate Housewives and as Lionel Griff in Playhouse Disney's Stanley. Read more
16 Aug 1985: Cristin Milioti, American actress Cristin Milioti is an American actress and musician. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades including a Grammy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Actor Award and a Tony Award. Read more
16 Aug 1984: Matteo Anesi, Italian speed skater Matteo Anesi is an Italian speed skater who won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics. He placed 29th in the 1500 m event. After his active career he became one of the coaches of the Italian speed skating team. Read more
16 Aug 1984: Candice Dupree, American basketball player Candice Dupree is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the women's basketball team at Tennessee State University. She was selected sixth in the 2006 WNBA draft by the Chicago Sky. In 2014, Dupree won the WNBA Championship with the Phoenix Mercury. She has also played basketball professionally in Europe and Asia. She has won two FIBA World Cups with Team USA. Read more
16 Aug 1984: Konstantin Vassiljev, Estonian footballer Konstantin Vassiljev is an Estonian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Estonian Meistriliiga club Flora. Read more
16 Aug 1983: Nikolaos Zisis, Greek basketball player Nikolaos "Nikos" Zisis is a Greek basketball executive and former professional basketball player. During his pro club playing career, at a height of 1.97 m tall, he played at both the point guard and shooting guard positions. He was inducted into the Greek Basketball League Hall of Fame in 2022. He is currently the general manager of the senior Greek men's national basketball team and of the pro club Aris Thessaloniki of the GBL and the EuroCup. Read more
16 Aug 1982: Cam Gigandet, American actor Cameron Joslin Gigandet is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on The O.C. and appearances in feature films Twilight, Pandorum, Never Back Down, Burlesque, Easy A, Priest, and The Magnificent Seven. He also starred in the CBS legal drama series Reckless. From 2016 to 2018, Gigandet starred in the Audience Network drama series Ice. Read more
16 Aug 1982: Joleon Lescott, English footballer Joleon Patrick Lescott is an English former professional footballer, coach and sports pundit. He works as an interim coach with the England senior team and plays in the Baller League for Deportrio. Read more
16 Aug 1981: Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguayan footballer Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a striker for Paraguayan Primera División club Nacional. He is the record goal scorer and has earned over 100 caps for the Paraguay national team, thus he is regarded as one of the best players in the nation's history. Santa Cruz has scored goals at a professional level in each of the last four decades. He is also one of the few footballers to have made over 1,000 competitive appearances, and only the second Paraguayan to achieve this feat, after Paulo da Silva. Read more
16 Aug 1980: Vanessa Carlton, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Lee Carlton is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Her 2002 debut single "A Thousand Miles" spent 41 weeks on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and earned three Grammy Award nominations, becoming her signature song. It preceded her debut studio album, Be Not Nobody, released by A&M Records that same year and reaching No. 5 on the Billboard 200. It further produced the singles "Ordinary Day" and "Pretty Baby". Her next studio album, Harmonium (2004), experienced similar success; its troubled production led Carlton to depart A&M in 2005. Read more
16 Aug 1980: Bob Hardy, English bass player Robert Byron Hardy is an English musician and the bassist in the band Franz Ferdinand. Read more
16 Aug 1980: Emerson Ramos Borges, Brazilian footballer Emerson Ramos Borges, known as just Emerson, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a defender for Italian Promozione Sardinia club Nuorese. Read more
16 Aug 1980: Piet Rooijakkers, Dutch cyclist Piet Rooijakkers is a road bicycle racer from the Netherlands. He retired after the 2010 season after his previous team Skil–Shimano did not offer him a contract extension. Read more
16 Aug 1979: Paul Gallacher, Scottish footballer Paul James Gallacher is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. Gallacher made eight appearances for the Scotland national team between 2002 and 2004. He started his career at Dundee United and made 127 appearances for them over a seven-year period, and has also played for Airdrieonians, Norwich City, Gillingham, Sheffield Wednesday, Dunfermline Athletic, St Mirren, Ross County and Partick Thistle. Read more
16 Aug 1979: Ian Moran, Australian cricketer Ian Anthony Moran is an Australian cricketer who has played List A cricket for Scotland and Twenty20 cricket for New South Wales, the Sydney Sixers and the Sydney Thunder. Read more
16 Aug 1975: Didier Agathe, French footballer Didier Fernand Agathe is a French football manager and former professional footballer who most recently managed Chester-le-Street United. He is most known for his playing time at Celtic. Read more
16 Aug 1975: Jonatan Johansson, Finnish footballer, coach, and manager Jonatan Lillebror Johansson is a Finnish football coach and former player. He is working as an academy coach for Rangers. Read more
16 Aug 1975: George Stults, American actor George Stults is an American actor. Stults is best known for his role as Kevin Kinkirk on the long-running family drama series 7th Heaven. Read more
16 Aug 1975: Taika Waititi, New Zealand director, screenwriter and actor Taika David Cohen, known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, writer, actor, and comedian. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and six Emmy Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. Read more
16 Aug 1974: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Guyanese cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul CCH is a Guyanese cricket coach and former captain of the West Indies cricket team. Considered one of the greatest batsmen of his era, Chanderpaul is the 10th highest run scorer of all time in International cricket and the 9th highest in Test cricket. Chanderpaul was a member of the West Indies team that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, and in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy Final, he had the highest contribution for West Indies with the bat, scoring 47 runs. Read more
16 Aug 1974: Didier Cuche, Swiss skier Didier Cuche is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Read more
16 Aug 1974: Krisztina Egerszegi, Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian and five-time Olympic champion; and one of four individuals to have ever won the same swimming event at three consecutive Summer Olympics. She is the first female swimmer to win five individual Olympic gold medals. Read more
16 Aug 1974: Iván Hurtado, Ecuadorian footballer and politician Iván Jacinto Hurtado Angulo is an Ecuadorian politician and former professional footballer who played as a centre back. Read more
16 Aug 1974: Ryan Longwell, American football player Ryan Walker Longwell is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). After playing college football for the California Golden Bears, he started his professional career with the San Francisco 49ers, but never played a game for the franchise. He then played for the Green Bay Packers from 1997 to 2005. He played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2006 to 2011. He also played briefly for the Seattle Seahawks during the 2012 playoffs. Read more
16 Aug 1972: Stan Lazaridis, Australian footballer Stan Lazaridis is an Australian former professional soccer player. He was predominantly a left winger though he was known to perform at left-back. He notably played for Birmingham City and West Ham United and made 58 official appearances for Australia and was in the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup squad. Read more
16 Aug 1972: Emily Strayer, American singer and musician Emily Burns Strayer is an American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and a founding member of the country band the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. Strayer plays banjo, dobro, guitar, lap steel, bass, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, piano, and sitar. Initially in her career with the Chicks, she limited her singing to harmony with backing vocals, but within her role in the Court Yard Hounds, she took on the role of lead vocalist. Read more
16 Aug 1971: Stefan Klos, German footballer Stefan Klos is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
16 Aug 1970: Bonnie Bernstein, American journalist and sportscaster Bonnie Lynn Bernstein is an American sports journalist and media executive. She has been named one of the most accomplished female sportscasters in history by the American Sportscasters Association, spending nearly 20 years as a reporter and studio host at ESPN, ABC and CBS Sports, covering the NFL, NBA, MLB and college football and basketball. Bernstein is currently the founder and CEO of Walk Swiftly Productions, a multimedia production company specializing in non-scripted sports and entertainment content. Read more
16 Aug 1970: Manisha Koirala, Nepalese actress in Indian films Manisha Koirala is a Nepalese actress who works in Indian cinema, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil films. Born into the politically prominent Koirala family, she is the daughter of Prakash Koirala and the granddaughter of B. P. Koirala. One of the most popular and highest-paid actresses of her time, she is the recipient several accolades, including three Filmfare Awards, one Filmfare Awards South and one Filmfare OTT Award. In 2001, the Government of Nepal awarded her with the Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu. Read more
16 Aug 1970: Seth Peterson, American actor Seth Peterson is an American actor, best known for his roles as Robbie Hansen from 1999 until 2002 on the television series Providence and Nate Westen on Burn Notice from 2007 through 2012. Read more
16 Aug 1968: Arvind Kejriwal, Indian civil servant and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian politician, activist and former bureaucrat, who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi. He was the chief minister from 2013 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2024. He is also the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) since 2012. He represented the New Delhi constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2025, and previously from 2013 to 2014. Read more
16 Aug 1968: Andy Milder, American actor Andy Milder is an American actor. Read more
16 Aug 1968: Mateja Svet, Slovenian skier Mateja Svet ; born 16 August 1968) is a Slovenian former alpine skier, who competed for Yugoslavia from 1984 to 1990. Read more
16 Aug 1968: Wolfgang Tillmans, German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans is a German fine-art photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium's foundations. Read more
16 Aug 1967: Mark Coyne, Australian rugby league player Mark Coyne is an Australian former rugby league footballer, a state and international representative player and an Insurance Executive. His football club career was with the St George Dragons and the joint-venture of the St George Illawarra Dragons – he captained both sides. He played principally at centre but sometimes as a wing in his notable representative career. He was also the brother of another first grade footballer, Peter Coyne. Read more
16 Aug 1967: Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish journalist, actress, and author Eva Ulrika Jonsson is a Swedish-British television presenter and model. She became known as a TV-am weather presenter, and moved on to present the ITV show Gladiators, and later featured as a team captain on the BBC Two show Shooting Stars. Read more
16 Aug 1966: Eddie Olczyk, American ice hockey player, coach, and commentator Edward Walter Olczyk Jr. is an American sportscaster and former professional ice hockey player and coach. He spent 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing as a center for the Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He won the Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1994. Olczyk was also the head coach of the Penguins from June 2003 to December 2005. Read more
16 Aug 1964: Jimmy Arias, American tennis player and sportscaster James Arias is a retired tennis touring professional player from the United States. Read more
16 Aug 1963: Aloísio Pires Alves, Brazilian footballer and manager Aloísio Pires Alves, known simply as Aloísio, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He is currently the head coach of Juticalpa F.C. in the Honduran Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras. Read more
16 Aug 1963: Christine Cavanaugh, American voice artist (died 2014) Christine Josephine Cavanaugh was an American actress, who had a distinctive speaking style and provided the voice for a large range of mostly cartoon characters. She was the original voices of Chuckie Finster in Nickelodeon's Rugrats and the titular protagonists of both Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory and Universal Pictures' live-action film Babe, respectively, as well as the voices of Gosalyn Mallard in Disney's Darkwing Duck, Bunnie Rabbot from DIC Entertainment's Sonic the Hedgehog television series, Marty Sherman in The Critic and Oblina in Nickelodeon's Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. Read more
16 Aug 1962: Steve Carell, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Steven John Carell is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom The Office, and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as "America's Funniest Man" by Life. Read more
16 Aug 1961: Christian Okoye, American football player Christian Emeka Okoye is a Nigerian–American former professional football fullback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL) from 1987 to 1992. Nicknamed "the Nigerian Nightmare", he was known for his powerful running style and ability to break tackles. His six-season NFL career produced an NFL rushing champion title in 1989, first-team All-Pro honors in 1989, second-team All-Pro honors in 1991, two Pro Bowl appearances in 1989 and 1991, and three playoff appearances. He ended his NFL career due to multiple injuries. Read more
16 Aug 1960: Rosita Baltazar, Belizean choreographer, dancer, and dance instructor (died 2015) Rosita Baltazar was a Belizean choreographer, dancer, dance instructor and founding assistant director of the Belize National Dance Company. In 2004, she was awarded the Lord Rhaburn Music Award as a dance ambassador and in 2009 she received the Chatoyer Recognition Award from the National Garifuna Council of Belize for her efforts at preserving Garifuna culture. Read more
16 Aug 1960: Timothy Hutton, American actor, producer and director Timothy Hutton is an American actor and film director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for Ordinary People (1980). Hutton has since appeared regularly in feature films and on television, with notable roles including the drama Taps (1981), the spy film The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), and the horror film The Dark Half (1993), among others. Read more
16 Aug 1960: Franz Welser-Möst, Austrian-American conductor and director Franz Leopold Maria Möst, known professionally as Franz Welser-Möst, is an Austrian conductor. He is currently music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Read more
16 Aug 1959: Marc Sergeant, Belgian cyclist and manager Marc Sergeant is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer. He competed in the team time trial event at the 1980 Summer Olympics. After Sergeant stopped his cycling career, he became team manager at Lotto–Soudal. He left his management role at the end of the 2021 season.
Sergeant finished a total of 6 times in the top 10 of Tour of Flanders. Read more
16 Aug 1958: Madonna, American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and director Madonna Louise Ciccone is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Queen of Pop", she is known for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation. Her works, which concern social, political, sexual, and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of all time, Madonna broke gender barriers in popular music and has had a significant socio-cultural impact across her career. Read more
16 Aug 1958: Angela Bassett, American actress Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television since the 1980s, she has received various accolades, including an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and she received an Academy Honorary Award. Read more
16 Aug 1958: Anne L'Huillier, French physicist Anne Geneviève L'Huillier is a French physicist. She is a professor of atomic physics at Lund University in Sweden. Read more
16 Aug 1958: José Luis Clerc, Argentinian tennis player and coach José Luis Clerc, also known by the nickname Batata, is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 3 August 1981, following a run of 25 consecutive match wins after Wimbledon. Read more
16 Aug 1957: Laura Innes, American actress and director Laura Innes is an American actress and television director. She played Kerry Weaver in the medical drama ER (1995–2009), which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2001, she received her third Primetime Emmy Award nomination for directing the episode "Shibboleth" of the political drama The West Wing. She also appeared in the thriller drama The Event (2010–2011) and How to Get Away with Murder (2018–2020). Read more
16 Aug 1957: R. R. Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (died 2015) Raosaheb Ramrao Patil, better known as R. R. Patil, was an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was an MLA for Tasgaon vidhan sabha constituency from 1991 to 2015. He was an important leader of modern Maharashtra. He was a member of the Nationalist Congress Party. He became Home Minister of Maharashtra for the second time after the 2009 Maharashtra assembly election victory of the Congress-NCP alliance. He was also the former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Read more
16 Aug 1956: Vahan Hovhannisyan, Armenian soldier and politician (died 2014) Vahan Hovhannisyan was an Armenian politician of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). He was Vice-President of the National Assembly of Armenia from 2007 to 2008 and was a candidate in the February 2008 presidential election. Read more
16 Aug 1955: Jeff Perry, American actor Jeffrey Perry is an American actor of stage, television, and film. He is known for his role as Richard Katimski on the teen drama My So-Called Life, Terrance Steadman on Prison Break, Thatcher Grey on the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy, Cyrus Beene on the political drama series Scandal, all for ABC, and as Inspector Harvey Leek on the CBS crime drama Nash Bridges. He most recently starred on the ABC drama Alaska Daily, alongside Hilary Swank. Read more
16 Aug 1955: James Reilly, Irish surgeon and politician, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly is an Irish former Fine Gael politician, businessman and medical doctor who served as a Senator from May 2016 to March 2020. He previously served as Acting Minister for Children and Youth Affairs from February to May 2016, Minister for Health from March 2011 to July 2014 and deputy leader of Fine Gael from 2010 to 2017. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency from 2007 to 2016. He subsequently announced his retirement from politics after he lost his bid for election for his old seat at the 2020 general election. Read more
16 Aug 1954: James Cameron, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter James Francis Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker and explorer. His films combine cutting-edge film technology with classical filmmaking techniques and have grossed over $10 billion worldwide, making him the second highest-grossing film director of all time. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, Cameron has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for six British Academy Film Awards. Read more
16 Aug 1954: George Galloway, Scottish-English politician and broadcaster George Galloway is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. He has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member of the Labour Party. From 1987 to 2010, from 2012 to 2015, and briefly in 2024, Galloway served as Member of Parliament (MP) for five different constituencies. As of 2026, he is living in "self-imposed exile" in Russia. Read more
16 Aug 1953: Kathie Lee Gifford, American talk show host, singer, and actress Kathryn Lee Gifford is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress, and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. Gifford is also known for her 11-year run with Hoda Kotb, on the fourth hour of NBC's Today show (2008–2019). She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of the Today team. Read more
16 Aug 1953: James "J.T." Taylor, American R&B singer-songwriter James "JT" Warren Taylor is an American singer who achieved fame as the lead singer of Kool & the Gang between 1979 and 1988. Read more
16 Aug 1952: Reginald VelJohnson, American actor Reginald VelJohnson is an American actor. He is best known for portraying police officers on screen, such as Sergeant Al Powell in the Die Hard franchise and Carl Winslow in the television sitcom Family Matters (1989–1998). Read more
16 Aug 1951: Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian businessman and politician, 13th President of Nigeria (died 2010) Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007. Read more
16 Aug 1950: Hasely Crawford, Trinidadian runner Hasely Joachim Crawford TC, OLY is a former track and field athlete from Trinidad and Tobago. In 1976, he became his country's first Olympic champion. Hasely Crawford Stadium, in Port of Spain, was renamed in his honour in 2001. Read more
16 Aug 1950: Marshall Manesh, Iranian-American actor Marshall Manesh was an Iranian-American actor. Read more
16 Aug 1950: Jeff Thomson, Australian cricketer Jeffrey Robert Thomson is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth in 1975, which was the fastest recorded delivery at the time and the fourth-fastest recorded delivery of all time. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Read more
16 Aug 1949: Scott Asheton, American drummer (died 2014) Scott Randolph Asheton was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band the Stooges. Read more
16 Aug 1949: Paul Pasqualoni, American football player and coach Paul Lucian Pasqualoni is an American football coach who recently served as the linebackers coach for the Memphis Showboats of the United Football League (UFL). He most recently was the defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers. Read more
16 Aug 1949: Bill Spooner, American guitarist and songwriter William "Sputnik" Spooner is an American musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter, and the founder of The Tubes, a theatrical rock band. His songwriting is known for its use of humor and satire. He has released three solo albums: First Chud (1985), Mall to Mars (1997), and Demo-licious. He previously played in the San Francisco Bay area with the band The Folk Ups, and now plays as a solo artiste or in sessions with his son Boone. He is still recording. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Earl Blumenauer, American politician, U.S. Representative from Oregon Earl Francis Blumenauer is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district from 1996 to 2025. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Barry Hay, Indian-born Dutch rock musician Barry Andrew Hay is a Dutch musician; he was the lead vocalist and frontman of Dutch rock band Golden Earring from 1967 until their disbandment in 2021. He has also released three solo albums. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Mike Jorgensen, American baseball player and manager Michael Jorgensen is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder who currently works in the St. Louis Cardinals' front office. The New York Mets drafted him in the fourth round of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft. In a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career spanning from 1968 to 1985, he played primarily with the Mets and Montreal Expos and had brief stints with the Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics. He also has served as a manager for the Cardinals. Jorgensen is the only major league baseball player to have been born the day Babe Ruth died. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Pierre Reid, Canadian educator and politician (died 2021) Pierre Reid was a Canadian politician and educator in the province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 2003 to 2018, representing Orford as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. Reid was a former cabinet minister in Jean Charest's government. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Joey Spampinato, American singer-songwriter and bass player Joseph Nicholas Spampinato is a multi-instrumentalist and was a founding member and bass player of NRBQ. He was also one of the band's lead singers and chief songwriters. Before NRBQ he played in several bands, including The Seven of Us, which in 1967 while in Miami, Florida, met another band, The Mersey-Beats USA. The bands merged to form NRBQ. On the group's first two albums, NRBQ and Boppin' the Blues Spampinato is credited as "Jody St. Nicholas". Read more
16 Aug 1947: Carol Moseley Braun, American lawyer and politician, United States Ambassador to New Zealand Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimes Moseley-Braun, is an American diplomat, politician, and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first African-American U.S. senator from the Democratic Party and the first female U.S. senator from Illinois. Read more
16 Aug 1947: Katharine Hamnett, English fashion designer Katharine Eleanor Hamnett is an English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts. Read more
16 Aug 1946: Masoud Barzani, Iranian-Kurdish politician, President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017. Read more
16 Aug 1946: Lesley Ann Warren, American actress Lesley Ann Warren is an American actress and singer. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Bob Balaban, American actor, director, and producer Robert Elmer Balaban is an American actor and filmmaker. Aside from his acting career, Balaban has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films, and was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park (2001), in which he also appeared. He is also an author of children's novels. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Russell Brookes, English race car driver (died 2019) Russell Brookes was a British rally driver. He won the British Rally Championship with a Ford Escort RS1800 in 1977 and with an Opel Manta 400 in 1985. In 1978, he won the Rally New Zealand, a round of the FIA Cup for Drivers, the predecessor to the World Championship for Drivers. In the World Rally Championship, he finished on the podium of his home event, the RAC Rally, three times in a row from 1977 to 1979. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Suzanne Farrell, American ballerina and educator Suzanne Farrell is a prominent American ballet dancer, teacher and coach, and the founder of Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Gary Loizzo, American guitarist, singer, recording engineer, and record producer (died 2016) Gary Alexander Loizzo was an American guitarist, singer, recording engineer, and record producer. He is best known for being the lead singer with the American Breed. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Nigel Terry, British stage and film actor (died 2015) Peter Nigel Terry was an English stage, film, and television actor, typically in historical and period roles. He played Prince John in Anthony Harvey's film The Lion in Winter (1968) and King Arthur in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). Read more
16 Aug 1944: Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013) Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them." Read more
16 Aug 1943: Woody Peoples, American football player (died 2010) Woodrow Peoples Jr. was an American professional football player who was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL). Undrafted after playing college football for the Grambling Tigers, he was a two-time Pro Bowler with the San Francisco 49ers, and a member of the 1980 National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles during his 13-year NFL career. Read more
16 Aug 1942: Lesley Turner Bowrey, Australian tennis player Lesley Rosemary Turner Bowrey, AM is a retired professional tennis player from Australia. Her career spanned two decades from the late 1950s until the late 1970s. Turner Bowrey won the singles title at the French Championships, one of the four Grand Slam events, in 1963 and 1965. In addition she won 11 Grand Slam events in doubles and mixed doubles. Turner Bowrey achieved her highest singles ranking of No. 2 in 1964. Read more
16 Aug 1942: Barbara George, American R&B singer-songwriter (died 2006) Barbara George was an American R&B singer and songwriter. Read more
16 Aug 1942: Robert Squirrel Lester, American soul singer (died 2010) Robert Earl "Squirrel" Lester was the second tenor in the Chicago-based singing group The Chi-Lites. Read more
16 Aug 1940: Bruce Beresford, Australian director and producer Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee, and a four-time AACTA/AFI Awards winner out of 10 total nominations Read more
16 Aug 1939: Seán Brady, Irish cardinal Seán Brady is an Irish prelate who is a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland from 1996 until 2014. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in the consistory on 24 November 2007. He left office in 2014 and was succeeded by Eamon Martin, who had served as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh since 2013. Read more
16 Aug 1939: Trevor McDonald, Trinidadian-English journalist and academic Sir Trevor Lawson McDonald is a Trinidadian–British newsreader and journalist, best known for his career as a news presenter with Independent Television News (ITN). Read more
16 Aug 1939: Billy Joe Shaver, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2020) Billy Joe Shaver was an American singer and songwriter. Read more
16 Aug 1939: Eric Weissberg, American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist (died 2020) Eric Weissberg was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist, whose most commercially successful recording was his banjo solo in "Dueling Banjos", featured as the theme of the film Deliverance (1972) and released as a single that reached number 2 in the United States and Canada in 1973. Read more
16 Aug 1937: David Anderson, Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician David A. Anderson, is a silver medal rower, academic, politician and former Canadian cabinet minister. Read more
16 Aug 1937: David Behrman, American composer and producer David Behrman is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In 1966, Behrman co-founded Sonic Arts Union with fellow composers Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma. He was also the producer of Columbia Records' late 1960s Music of Our Time series, which introduced recordings by Terry Riley, John Cage, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros to a wider audience. Read more
16 Aug 1937: Ian Deans, Canadian politician (died 2016) Ian Deans was a Scottish-Canadian politician. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1979 and was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1986. Read more
16 Aug 1937: Boris Rõtov, Estonian chess player (died 1987) Boris Rõtov was a Russian-Estonian chess player who won the Estonian Chess Championship (1978). Read more
16 Aug 1936: Anita Gillette, American actress and singer Anita Gillette is an American actress and singer. She has performed numerous roles on Broadway and American television, and in feature films. Read more
16 Aug 1936: Alan Hodgkinson, English footballer and coach (died 2015) Alan Hodgkinson MBE was an English professional football goalkeeper and goalkeeping coach. Read more
16 Aug 1935: Cliff Fletcher, Canadian businessman George Clifford Fletcher, professionally known as Cliff Fletcher, was a Canadian National Hockey League executive. During an eight-decade long career which began as a scout in 1956, he served several roles including as general manager of the Atlanta Flames/Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Phoenix Coyotes in the 1970s–2000s. During his time as general manager of the Calgary Flames, he led the club to its only Stanley Cup championship. He last served as a senior advisor to the Maple Leafs, holding the role at the time of his death. A notable figure in the hockey community, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004. Read more
16 Aug 1935: Andreas Stamatiadis, Greek footballer and coach Andreas Stamatiadis was a Greek professional footballer who played as a forward for AEK Athens and later a manager. He was the longest serving captain of the club from 1960 to 1969. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Angela Buxton, British tennis player (died 2020) Angela Buxton was a British tennis player. She won the women's doubles title at both the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1956 with her playing partner, Althea Gibson. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Diana Wynne Jones, English author (died 2011) Diana Wynne Jones was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, her work also incorporates science fiction themes like time travel and parallel universes, and elements of realism. Some of her best-known works are the Chrestomanci heptalogy, the Dalemark Quartet, the Moving Castle trilogy, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Douglas Kirkland, Canadian-American photographer (died 2022) Douglas Morley Kirkland was a Canadian-born American photographer. He was noted for his photographs of celebrities, especially the ones he took of Marilyn Monroe several months before her death. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Ketty Lester, American singer and actress Ketty Lester is an American singer and actress known for her 1961 hit single "Love Letters", which reached the top 5 of the charts in the US and the UK. She is also known for her role as Hester-Sue Terhune on the American television series Little House on the Prairie. In 2022, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Pierre Richard, French actor, director, and screenwriter Pierre Richard is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Richard is considered by some, such as Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest French comedians of the last 50 years. He is also a film director and occasional singer. Read more
16 Aug 1934: John Standing, English actor Sir John Ronald Leon, 4th Baronet, known professionally as John Standing, is an English actor. Read more
16 Aug 1934: Sam Trimble, Australian cricketer (died 2019) Samuel Christy Trimble, was an Australian first-class cricketer who played for Queensland between 1959–60 and 1975–76. Read more
16 Aug 1933: Reiner Kunze, German poet and translator Reiner Kunze is a German writer and GDR dissident. He studied media and journalism at the University of Leipzig. In 1968, he left the GDR state party SED following the communist Warsaw Pact countries invasion of Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring. He had to publish his work under various pseudonyms. In 1976, his most famous book The Lovely Years, which contained critical insights into the life, and the policies behind the Iron Curtain, was published in West Germany to great acclaim. In 1977, the GDR regime expatriated him, and he moved to West Germany (FRG). He now lives near Passau in Bavaria. Read more
16 Aug 1933: Tom Maschler, English author and publisher (died 2020) Thomas Michael Maschler was a British publisher and writer. From 1960, he was influential as the head of publishing company Jonathan Cape over a period of more than three decades. Maschler was noted for instituting the Booker Prize for British, Irish and Commonwealth literature in 1969. He was involved in publishing the works of many notable authors, including Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Heller, Gabriel García Márquez, John Lennon, Ian McEwan, Bruce Chatwin and Salman Rushdie. Read more
16 Aug 1933: Julie Newmar, American actress Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer, and singer known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She is also a writer, lingerie designer, and real estate mogul. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Katrin Sveg in the 1958 Broadway production of The Marriage-Go-Round, and reprised the role in the 1961 film version, earning Newmar a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Actress. In the 1960s, she starred for two seasons as Catwoman in the television series Batman (1966–1967). Her other stage credits include Ziegfeld Follies in 1956, Lola in Damn Yankees in 1961, and in 1965, as Irma in regional productions of Irma la Douce. Read more
16 Aug 1933: Stuart Roosa, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (died 1994) Stuart Allen Roosa was an American aeronautical engineer, smokejumper, United States Air Force pilot, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, who was the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 14 mission. The mission lasted from January 31 to February 9, 1971, and was the third mission to land astronauts on the Moon. While Shepard and Mitchell spent two days on the lunar surface, Roosa conducted experiments from orbit in the Command Module Kitty Hawk. He was one of the 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the Moon, which he orbited 34 times. Read more
16 Aug 1930: Robert Culp, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2010) Robert Martin Culp was an American actor and screenwriter widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond, and was a voice actor for various video games, including Half-Life 2. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years. Read more
16 Aug 1930: Frank Gifford, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (died 2015) Francis Newton Gifford was an American professional football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback, flanker and safety for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL), he was a play-by-play announcer and commentator for 27 years on ABC's Monday Night Football. Read more
16 Aug 1930: Leslie Manigat, Haitian educator and politician, 43rd President of Haiti (died 2014) Leslie François Saint Roc Manigat was a Haitian politician who was elected as President of Haiti in a tightly controlled military held election in January 1988. He served as President for only a few months, from February 1988 to June 1988, before being ousted by the military in a coup d'état. Read more
16 Aug 1930: Flor Silvestre, Mexican singer and actress (died 2020) Guillermina Jiménez Chabolla known professionally as Flor Silvestre, was a Mexican singer and actress, specialized in the musical genres of ranchera, bolero, huapango and bolero ranchero. Read more
16 Aug 1929: Bill Evans, American pianist and composer (died 1980) William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His extensive use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark rhythmically independent "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today. Read more
16 Aug 1929: Helmut Rahn, German footballer (died 2003) Helmut Rahn, known as Der Boss, was a German footballer who played as a forward. He became a legend for having scored the winning goal in the final of the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Rahn, along with the German team, were decorated by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972. Read more
16 Aug 1929: Fritz Von Erich, American wrestler and trainer (died 1997) Jack Barton Adkisson Sr., better known by his ring name Fritz Von Erich, was an American professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and the patriarch of the Von Erich family. He was a 3-time world champion and a 20-time NWA United States Champion. He was the owner of World Class Championship Wrestling. Read more
16 Aug 1928: Eydie Gormé, American singer (died 2013) Eydie Gormé was an American singer who achieved notable success in pop, Latin, and jazz genres. She sang solo and in the duo Steve and Eydie with her husband, Steve Lawrence, on albums and television. She also performed on Broadway and in Las Vegas and was an occasional actress. Read more
16 Aug 1928: Ara Güler, Turkish photographer and journalist (died 2018) Ara Güler was a Turkish photojournalist of Armenian descent, nicknamed "the Eye of Istanbul". He is known for his black-and-white photographs of Istanbul, as well as photographic portraits of many politicians and artists, including Indira Gandhi, Maria Callas, Willy Brandt, Alfred Hitchcock, and Salvador Dalí. Read more
16 Aug 1928: Eddie Kirkland, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2011) Eddie Kirkland was an American electric blues guitarist, harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. Read more
16 Aug 1928: Wyatt Tee Walker, American pastor, theologian, and activist (died 2018) Wyatt Tee Walker was an African-American pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was a chief of staff for Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1958 became an early board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He helped found a Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) chapter in 1958. As executive director of the SCLC from 1960 to 1964, Walker helped to bring the group to national prominence. Walker sat at the feet of his mentor, BG Crawley, who was a Baptist Minister in Brooklyn, NY and New York State Judge. Read more
16 Aug 1927: Lois Nettleton, American actress (died 2008) Lois June Nettleton was an American film, stage, radio and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards. Read more
16 Aug 1927: Ann Blyth, American actress and singer (died 2026) 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1928th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 928th year of the 2nd millennium, the 28th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1920s decade. Read more
16 Aug 1925: Willie Jones, American baseball player (died 1983) Willie Edward Jones, nicknamed "Puddin' Head", was an American professional baseball third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (1947–1959), Cleveland Indians (1959), and Cincinnati Reds (1959–1961). He batted and threw right-handed. Read more
16 Aug 1925: Mal Waldron, American pianist and composer (died 2002) Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others. During Waldron's period as house pianist for Prestige Records in the late 1950s, he appeared on dozens of albums and composed for many of them, including writing his most famous song, "Soul Eyes", for Coltrane. Waldron was often an accompanist for vocalists, and was Billie Holiday's regular accompanist from April 1957 until her death in July 1959. Read more
16 Aug 1924: Fess Parker, American actor (died 2010) Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was an American film and television actor best known for his portrayals of the title characters in Walt Disney Productions' television miniseries Davy Crockett and the television series Daniel Boone. Read more
16 Aug 1924: Inez Voyce, American baseball player (died 2022) Inez Ferne Voyce, nicknamed Lefty, was a first basewoman who played from 1946 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 6", 148 lb., she batted and threw left-handed. Read more
16 Aug 1923: Millôr Fernandes, Brazilian journalist and playwright (died 2012) Millôr Fernandes was a Brazilian writer, journalist, cartoonist, humorist and playwright. Born Milton Viola Fernandes, his birth was registered on May 27, 1924; the handwriting on his birth certificate rendered the name "Millôr", which he adopted as his official name. Read more
16 Aug 1922: James Casey, English comedian, radio scriptwriter and producer (died 2011) James Casey, known professionally as Jim Casey, was at various times during his long career a Variety comedian on the English music-halls, a scriptwriter for BBC Radio's variety shows and situation comedies, and a senior BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer. Read more
16 Aug 1922: Ernie Freeman, American pianist and bandleader (died 2001) Ernest Aaron Freeman was an American pianist, organist, bandleader, and arranger. He was responsible for arranging many successful rhythm and blues and pop records from the 1950s to the 1970s. Read more
16 Aug 1920: Charles Bukowski, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer (died 1994) Henry Charles Bukowski was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski's work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Read more
16 Aug 1919: Karl-Heinz Euling, German captain (died 2014) The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of extreme gallantry. A total of 7,321 awards were made between its first presentation on 30 September 1939 and its last bestowal on 17 June 1945. This number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht—the Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe —as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the Volkssturm. There were also 43 recipients in the military forces of allies of the Third Reich. Read more
16 Aug 1917: Matt Christopher, American author (died 1997) Matthew Frederick Christopher was an American writer of children's books. He wrote more than 100 novels and 300 short stories, mainly featuring sports. After Christopher's death, his family oversaw production of books under Christopher's name created by various writers and illustrators, treating his name as a trademark. Read more
16 Aug 1917: Roque Cordero, Panamanian composer and educator (died 2008) Roque Cordero was a Panamanian composer. Read more
16 Aug 1916: Iggy Katona, American race car driver (died 2003) Egnatius "Iggy" Katona was an American stock car racing driver from Willis, Michigan. He is most famous for his performance in the ARCA series in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, where he won six championships and 79 races, both of which stood as series records until Frank Kimmel surpassed both; first in 2005 for championships and then in 2013 for wins. Other ARCA records held by Katona include most starts (630), oldest race winner and most consecutive seasons with a win Read more
16 Aug 1915: Al Hibbler, American baritone singer (died 2001) Albert George Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of Hibbler's singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best seen as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time." Read more
16 Aug 1913: Menachem Begin, Belarusian-Israeli politician, Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1992) Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician who founded the political parties Herut and Likud and served as prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983. Read more
16 Aug 1912: Ted Drake, English footballer and manager (died 1995) Edward Joseph Drake was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as well as five caps for England. Drake is Arsenal's joint fifth highest goalscorer of all time. He also holds the record for the most goals scored in a top flight game in English football, with seven against Aston Villa in December 1935. A former centre forward, Drake has been described as a "classic number 9" and as a "strong, powerful, brave and almost entirely unthinking" player who "typified the English view." Read more
16 Aug 1911: E. F. Schumacher, German economist and statistician (died 1977) Ernst Friedrich Schumacher was a German-born British statistician and economist who is best known for his proposals for human-scale, decentralised and appropriate technologies. He served as Chief Economic Advisor to the British National Coal Board from 1950 to 1970, and founded the Intermediate Technology Development Group in 1966. Read more
16 Aug 1910: Gloria Blondell, American actress (died 1986) Gloria Blondell was an American actress who was the younger sister of actress Joan Blondell. Read more
16 Aug 1910: Mae Clarke, American actress (died 1992) Mae Clarke was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in The Public Enemy. Both films were released in 1931. Read more
16 Aug 1909: Paul Callaway, American organist and conductor (died 1995) Paul Smith Callaway, was a prominent American organist and choral conductor, particularly well known for his thirty-eight years at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., between 1939–1977. A friend of Leonard Bernstein and Ned Rorem, he was also active in opera and a frequent guest conductor of the Lake George Opera Company and was the founding musical director of the Opera Society of Washington in 1956, now the renowned Washington National Opera. By the time of his death in 1995, he was acclaimed for his great influence on the musical life of the nation's capital. In 1977, Callaway was appointed an Honorary Officer of The Order of the British Empire (OBE) and invested by Ambassador Peter Jay on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. Read more
16 Aug 1908: Orlando Cole, American cellist and educator (died 2010) Orlando Cole was an American cello teacher who taught two generations of soloists, chamber musicians, and first cellists in a dozen leading orchestras, including David Cole, Lynn Harrell, Jonah Kim, Ronald Leonard, Lorne Munroe, Peter Stumpf and Marcy Rosen. Read more
16 Aug 1908: William Keepers Maxwell, Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 2000) William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American editor, novelist, short story writer, essayist, children's author, and memoirist. He served as a fiction editor at The New Yorker from 1936 to 1975. An editor devoted to his writers, Maxwell became a mentor and confidant to many authors. Read more
16 Aug 1904: Minoru Genda, Japanese general, pilot, and politician (died 1989) General Minoru Genda was an Imperial Japanese Navy flight officer, JASDF general and politician. He is best known for helping to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war he became the third Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Read more
16 Aug 1904: Wendell Meredith Stanley, American biochemist and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1971) Wendell Meredith Stanley was an American biochemist, virologist and Nobel laureate. Stanley's work contributed to lepracidal compounds, diphenyl stereochemistry, and the chemistry of the sterols. His research on the virus causing the mosaic disease in tobacco plants led to the isolation of a nucleoprotein which displayed tobacco mosaic virus activity. Read more
16 Aug 1902: Georgette Heyer, English author (died 1974) Georgette Heyer was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story conceived for her ailing younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. The couple spent several years living in Tanganyika Territory and Macedonia before returning to England in 1929. After her novel These Old Shades became popular despite its release during the General Strike, Heyer determined that publicity was not necessary for good sales. For the rest of her life she refused to grant interviews, telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family." Read more
16 Aug 1902: Wallace Thurman, American author and playwright (died 1934) Wallace Henry Thurman was an American novelist and screenwriter active during the Harlem Renaissance. He also wrote essays, worked as an editor, and was a publisher of short-lived newspapers and literary journals. He is best known for his first novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life (1929), which explores discrimination based on skin tone within the black community, with lighter skin being more highly valued. Read more
16 Aug 1900: Ida Browne, Australian geologist and palaeontologist (died 1976) Ida Alison Browne was an Australian geologist, petrologist and paleontologist at the University of Sydney. Read more
16 Aug 1895: Albert Cohen, Greek-Swiss author and playwright (died 1981) Abraham Albert Cohen was a Greek-born Romaniote Jewish Swiss novelist who wrote in French. He worked as a civil servant for various international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization. He became a Swiss citizen in 1919. Read more
16 Aug 1895: Liane Haid, Austrian-Swiss actress and singer (died 2000) Juliane "Liane" Haid was an Austrian actress and singer. She has often been referred to as Austria's first movie star. Read more
16 Aug 1895: Arthur Rose Eldred, First Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (died 1951) Arthur Rose Eldred was an American agricultural and railroad industry executive, civic leader, and the first Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). As a 16-year-old candidate for the highest rank bestowed by the BSA, he was personally interviewed by a panel composed of the youth organization's founders, including Ernest Thompson Seton and Daniel Carter Beard. Eldred was presented the coveted distinction of Eagle Scout on September 2, 1912, becoming the first of more than two million scouts in the U.S. since then to earn Scouting's most vaunted rank. Eldred also received the Bronze Honor Medal for lifesaving, and was the first of four generations of Eagle Scouts in his family. Read more
16 Aug 1894: George Meany, American plumber and labor leader (died 1980) William George Meany was an American labor union administrator for 57 years. He was a vital figure in the creation of the AFL–CIO and served as its first president, from 1955 to 1979. Read more
16 Aug 1892: Hal Foster, Canadian-American author and illustrator (died 1982) Harold Rudolf Foster was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip Prince Valiant. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship and attention to detail. Read more
16 Aug 1892: Otto Messmer, American cartoonist and animator, co-created Felix the Cat (died 1983) Otto James Messmer was an American animator known for his work on the Felix the Cat cartoons and comic strip produced by the Pat Sullivan studio. Read more
16 Aug 1888: T. E. Lawrence, British colonel, diplomat, writer and archaeologist (died 1935) Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and Lawrence's ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities. Read more
16 Aug 1888: Armand J. Piron, American violinist, composer, and bandleader (died 1943) Armand John "A.J." Piron was an American jazz violinist who led dance bands during the 1910s thru the 1930s. Read more
16 Aug 1884: Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourger-American author and publisher (died 1967) Hugo Gernsback was a Luxembourgish American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. For his significant contributions to the science fiction genre as publisher, he is often referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction", along with the novelists Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the "Hugos". Read more
16 Aug 1882: Désiré Mérchez, French swimmer and water polo player (died 1968) Désiré Alfred Mérchez was a male French swimmer and water polo player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was born in Lille and died in Nice. Read more
16 Aug 1877: Roque Ruaño, Spanish priest and engineer (died 1935) Roque Ruaño Garrido, O.P. was a Spanish priest and civil engineer. He was known after he drew up plans for University of Santo Tomas (UST) Main Building, the first earthquake-shock resistant building in Asia, which was constructed at the Sulucan property of the Dominican order in city of Manila. Read more
16 Aug 1876: Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator and stage designer (died 1942) Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the Mir iskusstva, contributed to the Ballets Russes, co-founded the Union of Russian Artists, and from 1937 was a member of the Artists' Union of the USSR. Ivan Bilibin gained popularity with his illustrations of Russian folk tales and Slavic folklore. Throughout his career he was inspired by the art and culture of medieval Russia. Read more
16 Aug 1868: Bernarr Macfadden, American bodybuilder and publisher, founded Macfadden Publications (died 1955) Bernarr Macfadden was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications. Read more
16 Aug 1865: Mary Gilmore, Australian socialist, poet and journalist (died 1962) Dame Mary Jean Gilmore was an Australian writer and journalist known for her prolific contributions to Australian literature and the broader national discourse. She wrote both prose and poetry. Read more
16 Aug 1864: Elsie Inglis, Scottish surgeon and suffragette (died 1917) Eliza Maud "Elsie" Inglis was a Scottish medical doctor, surgeon, teacher, suffragist, and founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She was the first woman to hold the Serbian Order of the White Eagle. Read more
16 Aug 1862: Amos Alonzo Stagg, American baseball player and coach (died 1965) Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He introduced many innovations to American football. Stagg served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946), compiling a career college football record of 314–199–35 (.605). His undefeated Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 were recognized as national champions. He was also the head basketball coach for one season at Chicago (1920–1921), and the Maroons' head baseball coach for twenty seasons. Read more
16 Aug 1860: Martin Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke, English-Scottish cricketer (died 1938) Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke, generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer active from 1881 to 1911 who played for Yorkshire and England. He was born in Willingham by Stow, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and died in Edinburgh. He appeared in 633 first-class matches, including five Test matches, as a righthanded batsman, scoring 16,749 runs with a highest score of 166 and held 209 catches. He scored 13 centuries and 69 half-centuries. Read more
16 Aug 1860: Jules Laforgue, Uruguayan-French poet and author (died 1887) Jules Laforgue was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbolist, part-impressionist". Laforgue was a model for Pierre-Auguste Renoir, including for Renoir's 1881 painting Luncheon of the Boating Party. Read more
16 Aug 1858: Arthur Achleitner, German author (died 1927) Arthur Achleitner was a German writer. His works are noteworthy because he describes local customs and peculiarities of the people in the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, and the Mediterranean regions of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Read more
16 Aug 1856: Aparicio Saravia, Uruguayan general and politician (died 1904) Aparicio Saravia da Rosa was a Uruguayan politician and military leader. He was a member of the Uruguayan National Party and was a revolutionary leader against the Uruguayan government. Read more
16 Aug 1855: James McGowen, Australian politician, 18th Premier of New South Wales (died 1922) James Sinclair Taylor McGowen was an Australian politician. He served as premier of New South Wales from 1910 to 1913, the first member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to hold the position, and was a key figure in the party's early history in New South Wales. Read more
16 Aug 1848: Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (died 1926) Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov was a Russian general in the Imperial Russian Army who served as the Chief of the General Staff from 1908 to 1909 and the Minister of War from 1909 to 1915. Read more
16 Aug 1845: Gabriel Lippmann, Luxembourger-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1921) Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann was a French applied physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 for his invention of the Lippmann plate, a method of photographically reproducing colours based on the interference phenomenon. Read more
16 Aug 1842: Jakob Rosanes, Ukrainian-German mathematician, chess player, and academic (died 1922) Jakob Rosanes was a German mathematician who worked on algebraic geometry and invariant theory. He was also a chess master. Read more
16 Aug 1832: Wilhelm Wundt, German physician, psychologist, and physiologist (died 1920) Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physiologist, philosopher, professor, and one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was the first person to call himself a psychologist. Read more
16 Aug 1831: John Jones Ross, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Premier of Quebec (died 1901) John Jones Ross was a Canadian politician. Ross served as the seventh premier of Quebec and later as a member of the Senate of Canada. Read more
16 Aug 1824: John Chisum, American cattle baron (died 1884) John Simpson Chisum was a wealthy cattle baron on the frontier in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. As a rancher, he established large herds throughout the New Mexico territory, becoming known as the "Cattle King of the Pecos"; though his business ventures embroiled him in various conflicts, such as the Pecos War and the Lincoln County War. He is remembered as one of the most influential American cattlemen, and his name and life were remembered through memorials, books, films and shows. Read more
16 Aug 1821: Arthur Cayley, English mathematician and academic (died 1895) Arthur Cayley was an English mathematician who worked mostly on algebra. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics, and was a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge for 35 years. Read more
16 Aug 1820: Andrew Rainsford Wetmore, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of New Brunswick (died 1892) Andrew Rainsford Wetmore was a New Brunswick politician, jurist, and a member of a prominent United Empire Loyalist family. Read more
16 Aug 1816: Octavia Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor (died 1820) Zachary Taylor was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general and becoming a national hero for his victories in the Mexican–American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was to preserve the Union. He died 16 months into his term from a stomach disease. Taylor had the third-shortest presidential term in U.S. history. Read more
16 Aug 1816: Sara Prinsep, British salon organiser (died 1887) Sara Monckton Prinsep born Sara Monckton Pattle was the leader of the Little Holland House salon in Kensington. She was a patron of George Frederick Watts. Read more
16 Aug 1815: John Bosco, Italian priest and educator (died 1888) John Melchior Bosco, SDB, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, and writer. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System. Read more

Notable Deaths on 16 August

16 Aug 2023: Howard S. Becker, American sociologist (born 1928) Howard Saul Becker was an American sociologist who taught at Northwestern University. Becker made contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociological writing styles and methodologies. Becker's 1963 book Outsiders provided the foundations for labeling theory. Becker was often called a symbolic interactionist or social constructionist, although he did not align himself with either method. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Becker was considered part of the second Chicago School of Sociology, which also includes Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss. Read more
16 Aug 2021: Sean Lock, English comedian and actor (born 1963) Sean Lock was an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. In 2000, Lock won the British Comedy Award, in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He was a team captain on the Channel 4 comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats from 2005 to 2015, and on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown from 2012 until his death in 2021. Read more
16 Aug 2019: Peter Fonda, American actor, director, and screenwriter. (born 1940) Peter Henry Fonda was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He was twice an Academy Award nominee, both for acting and screenwriting, and a two-time Golden Globe Award winner for his acting. He was a member of the Fonda acting family, as the son of actor Henry Fonda, the brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda, and the father of actress Bridget Fonda. Read more
16 Aug 2019: Richard Williams, Canadian-British animator (born 1933) Richard Edmund Williams was a Canadian and British animator, voice actor, and painter. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)—for which he won two Academy Awards—and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). Read more
16 Aug 2018: Aretha Franklin, American singer-songwriter (born 1942) Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Regarded as the "Queen of Soul", she was twice named by Rolling Stone magazine as the greatest singer of all time. Read more
16 Aug 2018: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian poet and 12th Prime Minister of India (born 1924) Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian writer, poet and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, from 1998 to 2004, and previously for two weeks in 1996. He was the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full term in the office. Vajpayee was one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was a volunteer and full-time functionary (pracharak) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. Vajpayee combined cultural nationalism with political moderation, shaping a distinctive strand of post-Independence Indian conservatism rooted in civilisational identity. Vajpayee represented a current in Hindu nationalism that sought to harmonise cultural identity with democratic pluralism. Read more
16 Aug 2018: Wakako Yamauchi, American-Japanese writer (born 1924) Wakako Yamauchi was a Japanese American playwright and short story writer. Her plays are considered pioneering works in Asian-American theater. Read more
16 Aug 2016: João Havelange, Brazilian water polo player, lawyer, and businessman (born 1916) Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA's history, behind that of Jules Rimet. He received the title of honorary president when leaving office, but resigned in April 2013. He was preceded by Stanley Rous and succeeded by Sepp Blatter. Havelange served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1963 to 2011. He was the longest-serving active member upon his resignation. In July 2012, a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took more than 41 million Swiss francs (£37M) in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights. Read more
16 Aug 2016: John McLaughlin, American television personality (born 1927) John Joseph McLaughlin was an American television personality and political commentator. He created, produced, and hosted the political commentary series The McLaughlin Group from 1982 to 2016, and hosted and produced John McLaughlin's One on One, which ran from 1984 to 2013. Read more
16 Aug 2015: Jacob Bekenstein, Mexican-American physicist, astronomer, and academic (born 1947) Jacob David Bekenstein was a Mexican-born American-Israeli theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation. Read more
16 Aug 2015: Anna Kashfi, British actress (born 1934) Anna Kashfi was an Anglo-Indian actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s but was better known for her tumultuous marriage to film star Marlon Brando and the controversies surrounding their son. Read more
16 Aug 2015: Shuja Khanzada, Pakistani colonel and politician (born 1943) Shuja Khanzada was a Pakistani politician and retired army colonel, who was serving as the Home Minister of Punjab from 2014 until his assassination on 16 August 2015. Read more
16 Aug 2015: Mile Mrkšić, Serb general (born 1947) Mile Mrkšić was a colonel of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in charge of the unit involved in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. He was convicted for not preventing the mass killing of 264 Croats that followed the fall of Vukovar, and sentenced to 20 years. Read more
16 Aug 2014: Patrick Aziza, Nigerian general and politician, Governor of Kebbi State (born 1947) Patrick Aziza was a Nigerian military officer who served as the first military Governor of Kebbi State, Nigeria after it was split off from Sokoto State on 27 August 1991 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. Read more
16 Aug 2014: Vsevolod Nestayko, Ukrainian author (born 1930) Vsevolod Zinoviiovych Nestaiko or Nestayko was a modern Ukrainian children's writer. In Ukraine he is considered the country's best-known and best loved Ukrainian children’s literature writer. Read more
16 Aug 2014: Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, Italian-South African lawyer and politician (born 1960) Mario Gaspare R. Oriani-Ambrosini was an Italian constitutional lawyer and politician who was a Member of Parliament in South Africa with the Inkatha Freedom Party. Read more
16 Aug 2014: Peter Scholl-Latour, German journalist, author, and academic (born 1924) Peter Roman Scholl-Latour was a French-German journalist, author and reporter. Scholl-Latour was regarded as one of Europe's most important journalists, akin to what Walter Cronkite was in the US. For over six decades, he was one of the continent's most influential voices. During the Vietnam War, he was captured by the Viet Cong and managed to secure unique film footage during his captivity. Read more
16 Aug 2013: David Rees, Welsh mathematician and academic (born 1918) David Rees FRS was a British professor of pure mathematics at the University of Exeter, having been head of the Mathematics / Mathematical Sciences Department at Exeter from 1958 to 1983. During the Second World War, Rees was active on Enigma research in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park. Read more
16 Aug 2012: Princess Lalla Amina of Morocco (born 1954) Princess Lalla Amina was a member of the Moroccan royal family and former President of the Royal Moroccan Federation of Equestrian Sports. Read more
16 Aug 2012: Martine Franck, Belgian photographer and director (born 1938) Martine Franck was a British-Belgian documentary and portrait photographer. She was a member of Magnum Photos for more than 32 years. Franck was the second wife of Henri Cartier-Bresson and co-founder and president of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation. Read more
16 Aug 2012: Abune Paulos, Ethiopian patriarch (born 1935) Abune Paulos was the fifth Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church from 1992 to his death in 2012. His full title was "His Holiness Abuna Paulos, Fifth Patriarch of the Orthodox Tewahido Church of Ethiopia, Ichege of the see of Saint Tekle Haymanot, Archbishop of Axum and one of the seven serving Presidents of the World Council of Churches." Read more
16 Aug 2012: William Windom, American actor (born 1923) William Windom was an American actor. Known as a character actor of the stage and screen, he is famous for his recurring role as Dr. Seth Hazlitt alongside Angela Lansbury in the CBS mystery series Murder, She Wrote and his memorable guest role as Commodore Matt Decker in Star Trek. Read more
16 Aug 2011: Mihri Belli, Turkish activist and politician (born 1916) Mihri Belli was a prominent leader of the socialist movement in Turkey. He fought for the communist side in the Greek Civil War. Read more
16 Aug 2010: Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek general (born 1923) Dimitrios Ioannidis, also known as Dimitris Ioannidis and as The Invisible Dictator, was a Greek military officer and one of the leading figures in the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974. Ioannidis was considered a "purist and a moralist, a type of Greek Gaddafi". Read more
16 Aug 2008: Dorival Caymmi, Brazilian singer-songwriter and actor (born 1914) Dorival Caymmi was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, actor, and painter active for more than 70 years, beginning in 1933. He contributed to the birth of Brazil's bossa nova movement, and several of his samba pieces, such as "Samba da Minha Terra", "Doralice" and "Saudade da Bahia", have become staples of música popular brasileira (MPB). Equally notable are his ballads celebrating the fishermen and women of Bahia, including "Promessa de Pescador", "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?", and "Milagre". Caymmi composed about 100 songs in his lifetime, and many of his works are now considered to be Brazilian classics. Both Brazilian and non-Brazilian musicians have covered his songs. Read more
16 Aug 2008: Ronnie Drew, Irish musician, folk singer and actor (born 1934) Joseph Ronald Drew was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor who had a fifty-year career recording with The Dubliners. Read more
16 Aug 2008: Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese farmer and author (born 1913) Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide-free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agriculture, commonly referred to as "natural farming" or "do-nothing farming". Read more
16 Aug 2007: Bahaedin Adab, Iranian engineer and politician (born 1945) Bahaedin Adab, also spelled Bahaeddin or Bahaoddin Adab, Kurdish "Baha Adab" was an Iranian Kurdish politician, engineer and philanthropist. A reformist, he served as an independent deputy in the Islamic Consultative Assembly for two terms from 1996 to 2004. He co-founded the Karafarin Bank in 2001 and the Kurdish United Front in 2005. Read more
16 Aug 2006: Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguayan general and dictator; 46th President of Paraguay (born 1912) Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was a Paraguayan politician, army general, and military dictator who ruled as the 42nd president of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 until his overthrow in 1989. Known as El Stronato or El Stronismo, his dictatorship was marked by political violence. Before his accession to the presidency, he was the country's de facto leader from May to August 1954. Read more
16 Aug 2005: Vassar Clements, American fiddler (born 1928) Vassar Carlton Clements was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions. He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018. Read more
16 Aug 2005: Tonino Delli Colli, Italian cinematographer (born 1922) Antonio "Tonino" Delli Colli was an Italian cinematographer. Read more
16 Aug 2005: William Corlett, English novelist and playwright (born 1938) William Corlett, was an English author, best known for his quartet of children's novels, The Magician's House, published between 1990 and 1992. Read more
16 Aug 2005: Frère Roger, Swiss monk and mystic (born 1915) Roger Schutz, popularly known as Brother Roger, was a Swiss Christian leader and monastic brother. In 1940 Schutz founded the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France, serving as its first prior until his murder in 2005. Towards the end of his life, the Taizé Community was attracting international attention, welcoming thousands of young pilgrims every week, which it has continued to do after his death. Read more
16 Aug 2004: Ivan Hlinka, Czech ice hockey player and coach (born 1950) Ivan Hlinka was a Czech professional ice hockey player and coach. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in Czech ice hockey history. A big centre, his playing style was comparable to Phil Esposito, often scoring with shots from the slot. He played most of his career with HC Litvínov and spent two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks. Internationally, Hlinka played for the Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2002. After retiring as a player, he turned to coaching, leading the Czech national team to gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and spending two seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. His legacy includes the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament for national under-18 hockey teams, and the Ivan Hlinka Stadion. Read more
16 Aug 2004: Balanadarajah Iyer, Sri Lankan journalist and poet (born 1957) Kandasamy Iyer Balanadarajah Iyer (Balanadarasan), also known as Sinna Bala, (6 June 1957 – 16 August 2004) was a Sri Lankan Tamil activist, writer and poet who was a media secretary and a senior member of the Eelam People's Democratic Party. Read more
16 Aug 2004: Carl Mydans, American photographer and journalist (born 1907) Carl Mydans was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine. Read more
16 Aug 2004: Robert Quiroga, American boxer (born 1969) Robert Quiroga was the International Boxing Federation Super flyweight champion from 1990 to 1993. Quiroga successfully defended his title five times and retired in 1995. He finished with 20–2 with 11 KOs. Quiroga was the first world champion from San Antonio, Texas. Read more
16 Aug 2003: Idi Amin, Ugandan field marshal and politician, 3rd President of Uganda (born 1928) Awon'go Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer and dictator who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until his overthrow in 1979. He gained power after the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime. Read more
16 Aug 2002: Abu Nidal, Palestinian terrorist leader (born 1937) Sabri Khalil al-Banna, known by his nom de guerre Abu Nidal, was a Palestinian militant. He was the founder of Fatah: The Revolutionary Council, a militant Palestinian splinter group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). Abu Nidal formed the ANO in October 1974 after splitting from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Read more
16 Aug 2002: Jeff Corey, American actor (born 1914) Jeff Corey was an American actor, television director, and teacher. After being blacklisted in the 1950s, he became one of the most prominent and influential acting coaches in Hollywood, whose students included the likes of Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, James Coburn, Leonard Nimoy, Cher, Barbra Streisand and Rob Reiner. He returned to film and television work in the 1960s, playing many character roles. Read more
16 Aug 2002: John Roseboro, American baseball player and coach (born 1933) John Junior Roseboro was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1957 until 1970, most prominently as a member of the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. A four-time All-Star player, Roseboro is considered one of the best defensive catchers of the 1960s, winning two Gold Glove Awards. He was the Dodgers' starting catcher in four World Series with the Dodgers winning three of those. Read more
16 Aug 1998: Phil Leeds, American actor (born 1916) Phil Leeds was an American character actor. He appeared in many movies and television series, including guest appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Maude, The Monkees, Friends, Barney Miller, The Golden Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, Boy Meets World and more. Read more
16 Aug 1998: Dorothy West, American journalist and author (born 1907) Dorothy West was an American novelist, short-story writer, and magazine editor associated with the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in the 1920s and 1930s that celebrated black art, literature, and music. She was one of the few Black women writers to be published in major literary magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. Read more
16 Aug 1997: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani musician and Qawwali singer (born 1948) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, also known as NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music director, primarily associated with qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music from Pakistan and India. He ranks as one of the most influential South Asian singers of all time. Widely recognised as the "Shahanshah-e-Qawwali", he has been recognised as one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR and 200 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. The New York Times named Khan the greatest qawwali singer of his generation. Credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences, he was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Read more
16 Aug 1997: Sultan Ahmad Nanupuri, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar and teacher (born 1914) Shah Sultan Ahmad Nanupuri, also known by his daak naam Badshah, was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, teacher and author. He established numerous madrasas in Bangladesh and was the founding principal of Al-Jamiah Al-Islamiah Obaidia Nanupur for seventeen years. Read more
16 Aug 1993: Stewart Granger, English-American actor (born 1913) Stewart Granger was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas. Read more
16 Aug 1992: Mark Heard, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1951) John Mark Heard III was an American record producer, folk rock singer and songwriter from Macon, Georgia. Read more
16 Aug 1991: Luigi Zampa, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1905) Luigi Zampa was an Italian film director. Read more
16 Aug 1990: Pat O'Connor, New Zealand wrestler and trainer (born 1925) Patrick John O'Connor was a New Zealand-American amateur wrestler and professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the premier workers of his era, O'Connor held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Heavyweight Championship simultaneously, the latter of which he held for approximately two years. He was also the inaugural AWA World Heavyweight Champion. He is an overall two-time world champion. Read more
16 Aug 1989: Amanda Blake, American actress (born 1929) Amanda Blake was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the Western television series Gunsmoke. Along with her fourth husband, Frank Gilbert, she ran one of the first successful programs for breeding cheetahs in captivity. Read more
16 Aug 1986: Ronnie Aird, English cricketer and administrator (born 1902) Ronald Aird was an English first-class cricketer, cricket administrator and British Army officer. Aird began his first-class cricket career with Hampshire County Cricket Club in 1920, making over 100 appearances for the county in which he scored over 3,600 runs. After also playing first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club while studying at Clare College, Aird was appointed assistant secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1926, which restricted his appearances in first-class cricket thereafter. He served as assistant secretary under William Findlay and Rowan Rait Kerr, and was himself elected secretary following Kerr's retirement in 1952. Aird remained in the post until 1962 and became MCC president in 1968, the year in which he chaired the special general meeting of the MCC over relations with South Africa during the D'Oliveira affair. He was president of Hampshire County Cricket Club from 1971 to 1983. Outside of cricket, Aird served in the Second World War with the Royal Armoured Corps and was decorated with the Military Cross. Read more
16 Aug 1986: Jaime Sáenz, Bolivian author and poet (born 1921) Jaime Saenz Guzmán was a Bolivian writer, poet, novelist, journalist, essayist, illustrator, dramaturge, and professor, known best for his narrative and poetic works. His poetry, though individual to the point of being difficult to classify, bears some similarities with surrealist literature. Read more
16 Aug 1984: Duško Radović, Serbian children's writer, poet, journalist, aphorist and TV editor (born 1922) Dušan "Duško" Radović was a Serbian writer, journalist, aphorist and a poet. Read more
16 Aug 1983: Earl Averill, American baseball player (born 1902) Howard Earl Averill, nicknamed "the Rock", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a center fielder from 1929 to 1941, including 11 seasons for the Cleveland Indians. He was a six-time All-Star (1933–1938) and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. Read more
16 Aug 1979: John Diefenbaker, Canadian lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1895) John George Diefenbaker was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1935 and 1979 to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. Read more
16 Aug 1978: Alidius Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer, Dutch soldier and politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (born 1888) Jonkheer Alidius Warmoldus Lambertus Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer was a Dutch nobleman and statesman, primarily noted for being the last colonial Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. He was taken captive after accepting Japan's demands for an unconditional surrender of the islands on 9 March 1942. Read more
16 Aug 1977: Elvis Presley, American singer and actor (born 1935) Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Presley's energetic and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a mixture of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy. Read more
16 Aug 1973: Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-American biochemist and microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888) Selman Abraham Waksman was a Russian-born American inventor, biochemist and microbiologist, whose research into the decomposition of organisms that live in soil enabled the discovery of streptomycin and several other antibiotics. For his work he won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Read more
16 Aug 1972: Pierre Brasseur, French actor and screenwriter (born 1905) Pierre Brasseur, born Pierre-Albert Espinasse, was a French actor. Read more
16 Aug 1971: Spyros Skouras, Greek-American businessman (born 1893) Spyros Panagiotis Skouras was a Greek-American motion picture pioneer and film executive who was the president of 20th Century-Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 1962, but was chairman of the company for several more years. He also had numerous ships, owning Prudential Lines. Read more
16 Aug 1963: Joan Eardley, British artist (born 1921) Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley was a British artist noted for her portraiture of street children in Glasgow and for her landscapes of the fishing village of Catterline and surroundings on the North-East coast of Scotland. One of Scotland's most enduringly popular artists, her career was cut short by breast cancer. Her artistic career had three distinct phases. The first was from 1940 when she enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art through to 1949 when she had a successful exhibition of paintings created while travelling in Italy. From 1950 to 1957, Eardley's work focused on the city of Glasgow and in particular the slum area of Townhead. In the late 1950s, while still living in Glasgow, she spent much time in Catterline before moving there permanently in 1961. During the last years of her life, seascapes and landscapes painted in and around Catterline dominated her output. Read more
16 Aug 1961: Abdul Haq, Pakistani linguist and scholar (born 1870) Abdul Haq was a Pakistani Urdu linguist and scholar. Often known as Baba-e-Urdu, he is credited for the development and promotion of Urdu language in 20th century. He is known for demanding Urdu to be made the national language of Pakistan. Read more
16 Aug 1959: William Halsey, Jr., American admiral (born 1882) William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr. was an American Navy admiral during World War II. He is one of four officers to have attained the rank of five-star fleet admiral of the United States Navy. Read more
16 Aug 1959: Wanda Landowska, Polish-French harpsichord player (born 1879) Wanda Aleksandra Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century. She was the first person to record Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord in 1933. She became a naturalized French citizen in 1938. Read more
16 Aug 1958: Jacob M. Lomakin, Soviet Consul General in New York City, journalist and economist (born 1904) Jacob Mironovich Lomakin was a Soviet diplomat, journalist and economist. Read more
16 Aug 1957: Irving Langmuir, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881) Irving Langmuir was an American chemist, physicist, and metallurgical engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry. Read more
16 Aug 1956: Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (born 1882) Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, better known by his stage name Bela Lugosi was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931), Ygor in both Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Read more
16 Aug 1952: Lydia Field Emmet, American painter and academic (born 1866) Lydia Field Emmet was an American artist best known for her work as a portraitist. She studied with, among others, prominent artists such as William Merritt Chase, Harry Siddons Mowbray, Kenyon Cox and Tony Robert-Fleury. Emmet exhibited widely during her career, and her paintings can now be found hanging in the White House, and many prestigious art galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read more
16 Aug 1949: Margaret Mitchell, American journalist and author (born 1900) Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel Gone with the Wind, for which she won the National Book Award for Fiction for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Long after her death, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, titled Lost Laysen, were published. A collection of newspaper articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was republished in book form. Read more
16 Aug 1948: Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (born 1895) George Herman "Babe" Ruth was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" members. Read more
16 Aug 1945: Takijirō Ōnishi, Japanese admiral (born 1891) Takijirō Ōnishi was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II who came to be known as the father of the kamikaze. Read more
16 Aug 1938: Andrej Hlinka, Slovak priest, journalist, and politician (born 1864) Andrej Hlinka was a Slovak Roman Catholic priest and politician who was one of the most important Slovak public activists in Czechoslovakia before World War II. He was the leader of the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, a papal chamberlain, inducted papal protonotary, member of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia, and chairman of the St. Vojtech Fellowship. Read more
16 Aug 1938: Robert Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1911) Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as perhaps "the first ever rock star". Read more
16 Aug 1921: Peter I of Serbia (born 1844) Peter I was King of Serbia from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918. On 1 December 1918, he became King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and he held that title until his death three years later. Since he was the king of Serbia during a period of great Serbian military success, he was remembered by Serbians as King Peter the Liberator and also as the Old King. Read more
16 Aug 1920: Henry Daglish, Australian politician, Premier of Western Australia (born 1866) Henry Daglish was an Australian politician who was the sixth premier of Western Australia and the first from the Labor Party, serving from 10 August 1904 to 25 August 1905. Daglish was born in Ballarat, Victoria, and studied at the University of Melbourne. In 1882, he worked as a mechanical engineer but soon switched to working in the Victorian public service. He first stood for election in 1896 but failed to win the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Melbourne South. He then moved to Subiaco, Western Australia, where he found work as a chief clerk in the Western Australian Police Department. In 1900, Daglish was elected to the Subiaco Municipal Council and in April the following year, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly as the member for the newly created seat of Subiaco, becoming one of six Labor members in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. The party elected him as its whip, and he resigned from the Subiaco council on 1 May 1901. On 1 December 1902, Daglish was sworn in as mayor of Subiaco, having been elected the previous month. Read more
16 Aug 1916: George Scott, English footballer (born 1885) George Scott was an English footballer. Read more
16 Aug 1914: Carl Theodor Schulz, German-Norwegian gardener (born 1835) Carl Theodor Schulz was a Norwegian gardener. Read more
16 Aug 1911: Patrick Francis Moran, Irish-Australian cardinal (born 1830) Patrick Francis Moran was a prelate of the Catholic Church and the third Archbishop of Sydney and the first cardinal appointed from Australia. Read more
16 Aug 1904: Prentiss Ingraham, American soldier and author (born 1843) Colonel Prentiss Ingraham was a colonel in the Confederate Army, a mercenary throughout the 1860s, and a fiction writer. Read more
16 Aug 1900: José Maria de Eça de Queirós, Portuguese journalist and author (born 1845) José Maria de Eça de Queiroz or Queirós is generally considered to have been the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style. Zola considered him to be far greater than Flaubert. In the London Observer, Jonathan Keates ranked him alongside Dickens, Balzac and Tolstoy. Read more
16 Aug 1899: Robert Bunsen, German chemist and academic (born 1811) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861 with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after Bunsen and Kirchhoff. Read more
16 Aug 1893: Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist and academic (born 1825) Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes. Charcot is known as "the founder of modern neurology", and his name has been associated with at least 15 medical eponyms, including various conditions sometimes referred to as Charcot diseases. Read more
16 Aug 1888: John Pemberton, American pharmacist and chemist, invented Coca-Cola (born 1831) John Stith Pemberton was an American pharmacist, chemist, and Confederate States Army officer who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola, but sold the rights to Asa Griggs Candler for roughly $300 dollars shortly before his death in 1888. Read more
16 Aug 1887: Webster Paulson, English civil engineer (born 1837) Webster Paulson was an English civil engineer who is known for his work in Malta in the late 19th century. Read more
16 Aug 1886: Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and philosopher (born 1836) Ramakrishna, also called Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Ramakrishna Chattopadhyay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. He was a devotee of the goddess Kali, but adhered to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as Christianity and Sufi Islam. His parable-based teachings advocated the essential unity of religions and proclaimed that world religions are "so many paths to reach one and the same goal". He is regarded by his followers as an avatar. Read more
16 Aug 1878: Richard Upjohn, English-American architect (born 1802) Richard Upjohn was a British-American architect who immigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to popularity in the United States. Upjohn also did extensive work in and helped to popularize the Italianate style. He was a founder and the first president of the American Institute of Architects. His son, Richard Michell Upjohn, (1828-1903), was also a well-known architect and served as a partner in his continued architectural firm in New York. Read more
16 Aug 1861: Ranavalona I, Queen consort of Kingdom of Madagascar and then sovereign (born 1778) Ranavalona I, also known as Ramavo or Ranavalo-Manjaka I or Ranavalona reniny, was the sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband Radama I, she pursued a policy of isolationism and self-sufficiency. She sought reduced economic and political ties with European powers and took vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society. Read more
16 Aug 1855: Henry Colburn, English publisher (born 1785) Henry Colburn was a British publisher. Read more
16 Aug 1836: Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (born 1755) Marc-Antoine Parseval des Chênes was a French mathematician, most famous for what is now known as Parseval's theorem, which showed that the Fourier transform is unitary. Read more

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