History of 16 September
1908 – General Motors was founded by William Crapo “Billy” Durant. The company was formed by merging the Buick and Olds car companies.
1924 – Jim Bottomley knocked in 12 runs in a single game setting a major league baseball record.
1940 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
1940 – Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for 17 years.
1941 – “The Arkansas Traveler” debuted on CBS Radio. The show was later renamed “The Bob Burns Show.”
1953 – “The Robe” premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was the first movie filmed in the widescreen CinemaScope process.
1953 – The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.
1963 – “The Outer Limits” premiered on ABC-TV.
1965 – “The Dean Martin Show” debuted on NBC-TV.
1968 – “The Andy Griffith Show” was seen for the final time on CBS.
1972 – “The Bob Newhart Show” premiered on CBS-TV.
1974 – U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.
1976 – The Episcopal Church formally approved women to be ordained as priests and bishops.
1982 – In west Beirut, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women, and children began in refugee camps of the Lebanese Christian militiamen.
1985 – The Communist Party in China announced changes in leadership that were designed to bring younger officials into power.
1987 – The Montreal Protocol was signed by 24 countries in an effort to save the Earth’s ozone layer by reducing emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.
1988 – Tom Browning pitched the 12th perfect game in major league baseball.
1990 – An eight-minute videotape of an address by U.S. President George H.W. Bush was shown on Iraqi television. The message warned that action of Saddam Hussein could plunge them into a war “against the world.”
1994 – Exxon Corporation was ordered by a federal jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to the people harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
1994 – Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.
1998 – Universal paid $9 million for the rights to the Dr. Seuss classics “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”
1998 – Meryl Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2004 – Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane.
2005 – The Camorra organized crime boss Paolo Di Lauro is arrested in Naples, Italy.
2007 – One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people.
2007 – Security guards working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad.
2013 – A gunman kills twelve people at the Washington Navy Yard.
2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Fan Bingbing, Chinese actress, singer, and producer
- 1981 – Alexis Bledel, American actress
- 1981 – LaVerne Jones-Ferrette, Virgin Islander sprinter
- 1982 – Leon Knight, English footballer
- 1982 – Michele Rizzo, Italian rugby player
- 1982 – Fiete Sykora, German footballer
- 1982 – Ryan Thomson, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – John Afoa, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Katerine Avgoustakis, Belgian singer and pianist
- 1983 – Jennifer Blake, Canadian wrestler
- 1983 – Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwean swimmer
- 1983 – Brandon Moss, American baseball player
- 1983 – Legedu Naanee, American football player
- 1984 – Sabrina Bryan, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1984 – Serginho Catarinense, Brazilian footballer
- 1984 – Katie Melua, Georgian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1985 – Max Minghella, English actor
- 1986 – Gordon Beckham, American baseball player
- 1986 – Kyla Pratt, American actress, and singer
- 1987 – Merve Boluğur, Turkish actress
- 1987 – Kyle Lafferty, Irish footballer
- 1987 – Louis Ngwat-Mahop, Cameroonian footballer
- 1987 – Burry Stander, South African cyclist (d. 2013)
- 1987 – Travis Wall, American dancer, and choreographer
- 1988 – Teddy Geiger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
- 1989 – Lancelot Bravado, American wrestler
- 1989 – Braden Holtby, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Jose Salomon Rondon, Venezuelan footballer
- 1989 – Dustin Tokarski, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1991 – Diāna Bukājeva, a Latvian tennis player
- 1991 – Alexandra Paul, Canadian figure skater
- 1991 – Kyle Smith, English motorcycle racer
- 1992 – Vytenis Cizauskas, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1992 – Nick Jonas, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1992 – Jake Roche, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1993 – Sam Byram, English footballer
- 1994 – Mitchell Moses, Australian rugby league player