Events on June 16 48
Year 363
Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffered several attacks from the Persians.
Year 632
Yazdegerd III ascends to the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
Year 1407
Ming-Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
Year 1745
War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, New France (Old Style date).
Year 1746
War of the Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
Year 1755
French and Indian War: The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
Year 1779
Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
Year 1815
Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
Year 1836
The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
Year 1846
The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
Year 1871
The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).
Year 1884
The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway", opens in New York's Coney Island amusement park.
Year 1897
A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
Year 1903
Roald Amundsen commences the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage, leaving Oslo, Norway.
Year 1904
Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".
Year 1911
IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
Year 1922
General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin win a large majority.
Year 1933
The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed. It would later be declared unconstitutional.
Year 1940
World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français).
Year 1944
At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.
Year 1948
Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
Year 1955
In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
Year 1958
Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
Year 1963
Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
Year 1972
The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
Year 1976
Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
Year 1977
Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
Year 1981
U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
Year 1989
Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
Year 2000
Israel complies with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 22 years after its issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel does so, except the disputed Shebaa farms.
Year 2012
China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
Year 2012
The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
Year 2013
A multi-day cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.