Events on September 16 45
Year 307
Emperor Severus II is captured and imprisoned at Tres Tabernae. He is later executed (or forced to commit suicide) after Galerius unsuccessfully invades Italy.
Year 1701
James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the "Old Pretender", becomes the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.
Year 1732
In Campo Maior, Portugal, a storm hits the Armory and a violent explosion ensues, killing two thirds of its inhabitants.
Year 1810
With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo begins Mexico's fight for independence from Spain.
Year 1863
Robert College, in Istanbul, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.
Year 1880
The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation's oldest, continuously-independent college daily.
Year 1920
The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 and injuring 400.
Year 1943
World War II: The German Tenth Army reports that it can no longer contain the Allied bridgehead around Salerno.
Year 1945
World War II: The surrender of the Japanese troops in Hong Kong is accepted by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.
Year 1947
Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo and Tone River area, at least 1,930 killed.
Year 1955
The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.
Year 1955
A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.
Year 1956
TCN-9 Sydney is the first Australian television station to commence regular broadcasts.
Year 1959
The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.
Year 1961
The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.
Year 1961
Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.
Year 1961
Pakistan establishes its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission with Abdus Salam as its head.
Year 1963
Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. However, Singapore soon leaves this new country.
Year 1966
The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.
Year 1970
King Hussein of Jordan declares military rule following the hijacking of four civilian airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This results in the formation of the Black September Palestinian paramilitary unit.
Year 1976
Armenian champion swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.
Year 1978
The 7.4 Mw Tabas earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed.
Year 1990
The railroad between the People's Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge.
Year 1992
The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the United States with a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Year 1992
Black Wednesday: The pound is forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by currency speculators and is forced to devalue against the German mark.
Year 1994
The British government lifts the broadcasting ban imposed against members of Sinn Féin and Irish paramilitary groups in 1988.
Year 2004
Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane.
Year 2007
One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people.
Year 2007
Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad
Year 2014
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian-Kurdish forces.