What are the important events that happened on May 16? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 16: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 16 is the 136^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 229 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 3, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 485,376 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontahexagon’ day.

Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 277 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,529 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 16 Historical Events

• 218 –
  Julia Maesa, aunt of the assassinated Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus and declares her 14-year old grandson Elagabalus, emperor of Rome.
• 1204 –
  Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
• 1532 –
  Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1843 –
  The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
• 1919 –
  A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
• 1943 –
  Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
• 1951 –
  The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
• 1961 –
  Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
• 1969 –
  Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
• 2003 –
  In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

Who were born on May 16?

• 1578 –
  Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
• 1718 –
  Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
• 1918 –
  Wilf Mannion, English former footballer (d. 2000)
• 1947 –
  Bob Edwards, American newscaster
• 1959 –
  Mare Winningham, American actress
• 1967 –
  Doug Brocail, American baseball player
• 1968 –
  Ralph Tresvant, American singer (New Edition)
• 1972 –
  Khary Payton, American actor
• 1977 –
  Dolcenera, Italian singer
• 1985 –
  Café, Brazilian footballer

Who died on May 16?

• 1667 –
  Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
• 1891 –
  Ion Brătianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
• 1944 –
  George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
• 1956 –
  H. B. Reese, American confectioner, founder of Reese’s (b. 1876)
• 1957 –
  Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
• 1961 –
  George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (b. 1881)
• 1979 –
  A. Philip Randolph, American civil rights activist and labor union leader (b. 1889)
• 1984 –
  Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
• 1984 –
  Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
• 2010 –
  Hank Jones, American jazz pianist (b. 1918)