History of 16 October
1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in New York City, NY.
1923 – Walt Disney contracted with M.J. Winkler to distribute the Alice Comedies. This event is recognized as the start of the Disney Company.
Disney movies, music, and books
1928 – Marvin Pipkin received a patent for the frosted electric light bulb.
1939 – “Right To Happiness” debuted on the NBC-Blue network.
1939 – “The Man Who Came to Dinner” opened on Broadway.
1941 – The Nazis advanced to within 60 miles of Moscow. Romanians entered Odesa, USSR, and began exterminating 150,000 Jews.
1942 – The ballet “Rodeo” premiered in New York City.
1943 – Chicago’s new subway system was officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
1944 – “The Robe,” by Lloyd Douglas, was published for the first time.
1945 – “His Honor the Barber” debuted on NBC Radio.
1955 – Mrs. Jules Lederer replaced Ruth Crowley in newspapers using the name Ann Landers.
1962 – U.S. President Kennedy was informed that there were missile bases in Cuba, beginning the Cuban missile crisis.
1964 – China detonated its first atomic bomb becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power.
1967 – NATO headquarters opened in Brussels.
1970 – Anwar Sadat was elected president of Egypt to succeed in Gamal Abdel Nassar.
1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Vietnamese official declined the award.
1978 – Poland’s Karol Josef Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II.
1982 – China announced that it had successfully fired a ballistic missile from a submarine.
1987 – Rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.
1989 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed the Gramm-Rudman budget reduction law that ordered federal programs to be cut by $16.1 billion.
1990 – Comedian Steve Martin and his wife Victoria Tennant visited U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia.
1993 – The U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of U.S. warships to enforce a blockade on Haiti to increase pressure on the controlling military leaders.
1994 – German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was re-elected to a fourth term.
1995 – The “Million Man March” took place in Washington, DC.
1997 – Charles M. Schulz and his wife Jeannie announced that they would give $1 million toward the construction of a D-Day memorial to be placed in Virginia.
2000 – It was announced that Chevron Corp. would be buying Texaco Inc. for $35 billion. The combined company was called Chevron Texaco Corp. and became the 4th largest oil company in the world.
2002 – It was reported that North Korea had told the U.S. that it had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement with the U.S.
2002 – The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federeal investigation of the energy company Enron.
2008 – The iTunes Music Store reached 200 billion television episodes sold.
2013 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.
2017 – Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Brea Grant, American actress, and writer
- 1981 – Martin Halle, Danish footballer
- 1981 – Boyd Melson, American boxer
- 1981 – Anthony Reyes, American baseball player
- 1982 – Frédéric Michalak, French rugby player
- 1982 – Cristian Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
- 1982 – Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indian actor, singer, and producer
- 1983 – Philipp Kohlschreiber, a German tennis player
- 1983 – Kenny Omega, Canadian wrestler
- 1984 – François Pervis, French track cyclist
- 1984 – Rachel Reilly, American talk show host, and actress
- 1985 – Jay Beagle, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Verena Sailer, German sprinter
- 1985 – Casey Stoner, Australian motorcycle racer
- 1985 – Peter Wallace, Australian rugby league player
- 1986 – Nicky Adams, English-Welsh footballer
- 1986 – Derk Boerrigter, Dutch footballer
- 1988 – Zoltán Stieber, Hungarian footballer
- 1989 – Dan Biggar, Welsh rugby player
- 1992 – Bryce Harper, American baseball player
- 1992 – Kostas Fortounis, Greek footballer
- 1992 – Stuart Lightbody, Irish badminton player
- 1993 – Caroline Garcia, a French tennis player
- 1994 – Adam Elliott, Australian rugby league player
- 1997 – Charles Leclerc, Monégasque Formula One driver
- 1997 – Naomi Osaka, Haitian-Japanese tennis player