16 October

1553    Lucas Cranach the Elder (died), German painter (born 1472)

1758    Noah Webster (born), American lexicographer and author (died 1843)

1781     George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.

1793    Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

1834    Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1846    William TG Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.

1854    Oscar Wilde (born), Irish author, poet, and playwright (died 1900)

1859    John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1869    The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is “discovered”.

1875    Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1886    David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, first Prime Minister of Israel (died 1973)

1888    Eugene O’Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1953)

1916     In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1923    The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.

1944    Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker’s first steady foil, was debuted at the The Beach Nut, a Walter Lantz’s cartoon.

1947    Bob Weir (born), American singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Grateful Dead, The Other Ones, Bobby and the Midnites, Kingfish, RatDog, Furthur, and The Dead)

1959    George Marshall (died), American military officer and politician, 50th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1880)

1962    The Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins when US President John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba.

1964    China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1968    United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

1973    Gene Krupa (died), American drummer and composer (born 1909)

1973    Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1984    Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1984    The Bill debuted on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police series in British television history.

2011     Dan Wheldon (died), English race car driver (born 1978)

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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