1916
1916 is a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar)
Years:
1913 1914 1915 - 1916(MCMXVI) - 1917 1918 1919 Decades:
1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1916 by topic: Arts Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television Science and Technology Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science Countries Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa Other Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming
Events
January-February
- January 1 -The first successful Blood transfusion using Blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints 'Water Lilies'.
- January 5 - Heavy rain - allegedly caused by rainmaker Charles Hatfield - begins; it will cause flooding around San Diego, California
- January 8 - Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli
- January 13/14 - A heavy storm sweeps through the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands, causing extensive damag. This storm helped the Dutch parliament to decide to build the Afsluitdijk and build polders in the current IJsselmeer.
- January 17 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is formed
- January 18 - A 611 Gram chondrite type Meteorite struck a house near Baxter, Stone County, Missouri.
- January 23 to 24 In Browning, Montana, the temperature drops from +6.7°C to -48.8°C (44°F to -56°F) in one day, the greatest change ever on record for a 24-hour period.
- January 24 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal Income tax void
- January 28 - Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
- January 29 - World War I: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
- February 2 - Blizzard in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- February 3 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada are burned down.
- February 9 - 6.00 PM - Tristan Tzara "founds" Dadaism (according to Hans Arp
- February 11 - Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on Birth control.
- February 11 - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert
- February 21 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
March-June
- March 1 - Liberal British Columbia Premier Harlan Carey Brewster term in office ends
- March 6 - Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia accepts first students
- March 8-9 night - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17. Garrison of US 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.
- March 15 - President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border border to pursue Pancho Villa; 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.
- March 16 - US 7th and 10th cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing crosses the border to join the hunt of Villa
- March 19 - First United States air combat mission in history as eight US planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa
- March 22 - Marriage of Edith Bratt and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. They would serve as the inspiration for the fictional characters Lúthien and Beren.
- April 24 - April 30 - Easter Rising in Ireland
- April 27 - Battle of Hulluch in World War One, 47th Brigade, 16th Irish Division decimated in one of the most heavily-concentrated gas attacks of the war
- May 5 - United States Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
- May 20 - The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage").
- May 21 - Sir Ernest Shackleton and two of his companions reach a whaling station to get help for the rest of the crew of Endurance.
- May 21 - Britain initiates Daylight saving time.
- May 31 - June 1 - Battle of Jutland
- June 5 - Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
- June 5 - HMS Hampshire sinks off the Orkneys, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard
- June 15 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.
July-August
- July 1 - November 18: More than 1 million soldiers die during The Battle of the Somme including 60,000 soldiers from the British Commonwealth on the first day. The United States is still unwilling to join in the war with Britain, Canada, Australia and the other commonwealth countries.
- July 1 through July 12, at least one shark mauled five swimmers along 80 miles of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916, resulting in four deaths and survival of one youth who required limb amputation. This event was the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.
- July 15 - In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
- July 16 - Hellenic Holocaust: The entire Greek population of Sinope and the coastal region of the county of Kastanome is either exiled or killed.
- July 22 - In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade killing 10 injuring 40. (Warren Billings and Tom Mooney are later wrongly convicted of it)
- July 29 - In Ontario, Canada, a lightning strike ignites a forest fire that destroys the towns of Cochrane and Matheson - 233 dead
- 2 August - World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
October-December
- October 27 - Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zauditu.
- November 5 - Kingdom of Poland proclaimed by joined act of emperors of Germany and Austria
- November 7 - Woodrow Wilson defeats Charles E. Hughes in the U.S. presidential election.
- November 7 - Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
- November 13 - Prime Minister of Australia William Morris Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for Conscription.
- November 18 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
- November 25 - Friedrich Adler shoots Karl Stürgh, prime minister of Austria
- November 30 - Hellenic Holocaust: According to the Austrian consul: "on 26 November Rafet Bey (Turkish Minister of the Interior) told me: "we must finish off the Greeks as we did with the Armenians … on 28 November.""
- December 12 - In the Dolomites, an avalanche buries 18,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.
- December 30 - Humberto Gómez and his mercenaries seize Arauca in Colombia and declare Republic of Arauca. He proceeds to pillage the region before fleeing to Venezuela
- December 23 - World War I: Battle of Magdhaba - In the Sinai desert, Australian and New Zealand mounted troops capture the Turkish garrison.
- December 31 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the nation at the time, burns to the ground.
Unknown dates
- Hipolito Irigoyen elected as the President of Argentina.
- Blaise Diagre, first black representative of Senegal in the French parliament
- Cours de linguistique générale by Ferdinand de Saussure is published.
- Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, are cancelled.
- Food is rationed in Germany.
- Ernst Rudin published his initial results on the Genetics of Schizophrenia.
- The Netherlands is hit by a North Sea storm that floods lowlands and kills 10.000 people.
- Woman's International Bowling Congress established in the US.
- Robert Baden-Powell founds Wolf Scouts in Britain, changed to Cub Scouts in the USA.
- Sopwith Camel aircraft is introduced to combat the German-built Fokker fighter aircraft.
- Louis Enricht claims he has a substitute for Gasoline
- Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32
Ongoing events
Births
January-March
- January 3 - Betty Furness, American actress and consumer activist (d. 1994)
- January 7 - Paul Keres, Estonian chess player
- January 9 - Peter Twinn, English mathematician and World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)
- January 12 - Pieter Willem Botha, President of South Africa
- January 22 - Henri Dutilleux, French composer
- February 9 - Tex Hughson, baseball player (d. 1993)
- February 11 - Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
- February 14 - Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese film director
- February 26 - Jackie Gleason, American comedian (d. 1987)
- February 29 - Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
- March 3 - Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born mathematician
- March 4 - Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997)
- March 11 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
- March 13 - John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1981)
- March 14 - Horton Foote, American writer
- March 15 - Harry James, American musician and band leader (d. 1983)
- March 17 - Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985)
- March 19 - Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)
- March 26 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, laureate (d. 1995)
- March 29 - Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota
April-June
- April 3 - Herb Caen, American journalist (d. 1997)
- April 5 - Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
- April 11 - Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (d. 1983)
- April 12 - Beverly Cleary, American author
- April 15 - Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American department store heir (d. 1982)
- April 22 - Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (d. 1999)
- April 25 - R.J. Rushdoony, American founder of Christian Reconstructionism (d. 2001)
- April 28 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (d. 1993)
- April 30 - Claude Elwood Shannon, American information theorist (d. 2001)
- April 30 - Robert Shaw, American conductor (d. 1999)
- May 8 - João Havelange, Brazilian industrialist and football league president
- May 10 - Milton Babbitt, American composer
- May 11 - Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- May 20 - Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete
- May 21 - Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- May 21 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch sprinter (d. 2002)
- May 26 - Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
- June 8 - Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- June 15 - Herbert Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
- June 18 - Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian politician (d. 2005)
- June 23 - Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian educator (d. 1986)
- June 23 - Len Hutton, English cricketer (d. 1990)
July-December
- July 2 - Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (d. 1982)
- July 9 - Sir Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- July 11 - Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
- July 11 - Gough Whitlam, twenty-first Prime Minister of Australia
- July 14 - Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author (d. 1991)
- July 18 - L. Patrick Gray III, director of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (d. 2005)
- July 22 - Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (d. 1949)
- July 31 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979)
- August 27 - Martha Raye, American actress (d. 1994)
- September 13 - Roald Dahl, Welsh author (d. 1990)
- October 3 - James Herriot, veterinarian and author (d. 1995)
- October 4 - Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate
- October 19 - Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994)
- October 26 - François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
- October 30 - Leon Day, baseball player (d. 1995)
- November 1 - John C. Harkness, American architect.
- November 4 - Walter Cronkite, American television journalist
- November 5 - Jim Tabor, baseball player
- November 10 - Louis le Brocquy, Irish painter
- November 16 - Daws Butler, American voice actor
- November 24 - Forrest J. Ackerman, American writer
- November 27 - Chick Hearn, American basketball announcer (d. 2002)
- November 28 - Mary Lilian Baels, queen of Léopold III of the Belgians (d. 2002)
- December 9 - Kirk Douglas, American actor
- December 11 - Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban musician (d. 1989)
- December 19 - Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German political scientist
- Jack Agazarian, English World War II spy (d. 1945)
Deaths
- February 6 - Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
- February 12 - Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (b. 1831)
- February 19 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
- February 20 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844)
- February 28 - Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
- March 4 - Franz Marc, German artist (b. 1880)
- March 24 - Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (ship sinking) (b. 1867)
- April 19 - Ephraim Shay, American inventor (b. 1839)
- May 3 - Padraig Pearse, Irish nationalist (b. 1879)
- May 11 - Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873)
- May 13 - Sholom Aleichem, Ukrainian Yiddish writer (b. 1859)
- June 6 - Yuan Shikai, Chinese military official and politician (b. 1859)
- June 29 - Georges Lacombe, French artist (b. 1868)
- July 6 - Odilon Redon, French painter (b. 1840)
- July 23 - Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- September 4 - José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
- October 7 - James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (b. 1849)
- October 28 - Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (b. 1838)
- November 13 - Lanoe Hawker, British fighter pilot (b. 1890)
- November 14 - Saki, British writer (b. 1870)
- November 15 - Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
- November 21 - Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (b. 1830)
- November 22 - Jack London, American author (b. 1876)
- November 24 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American firearms inventor (b. 1840)
- December 28 - Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer (b. 1835)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam
- Peace - not awarded