On October 16, history records 55 notable events, 224 famous births and 124 deaths, spanning the years 456 to 1834.
Events on this day include: Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire. (456); Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire. (690).
Notable people born on October 16 include Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351), William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1396), James II of Scotland (1430).
Notable figures who died on this day include Fú Jiān (385), Lullus (786), Pedro González de Lara (1130).
Events on 16 October 55
See all →Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.
Battle on the Raxa: King Otto I defeats the Obotrite federation led by Nako and his brother Stoigniew near Mecklenburg.
Carlo Gesualdo, composer, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, murders his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.
Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War.
Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.