THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― AUGUST 16

August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 137 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).

NATIONAL TELL A JOKE DAY 



1513 – The Battle of the Spurs (the Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. The battle was a major strategic success for the American cause; it reduced Burgoyne's army in size by almost 1,000 men, led his Indian support to largely abandon him, and deprived him of much-needed supplies.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Camden ― The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. The rout was a humiliating defeat for Gates, the American general best known for commanding the Americans at the British defeat of Saratoga, whose army had possessed a large numerical superiority over the British force.

1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. Many Native American people in the Northwest Territory were inspired to take arms against American outposts and settlers.

1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.


1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush, an estimated 100,000 prospectors migrated to the Klondike region before 1899.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. In 2012, at the age of 84, he participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator, directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking 39-kilometer (24 mi) free fall from Earth's stratosphere, exceeding Kittinger's earlier free fall in 1960.

1962 – Drummer Pete Best is discharged from the Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr.

1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground.

1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.


2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute near Rustenburg.

2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing.

2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma.

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1821 – Arthur Cayley, English mathematician and academic (d. 1895)

1862 – Amos Alonzo Stagg, American baseball player and coach (d. 1965)

1888 – T. E. Lawrence, British colonel and archaeologist, Lawrence of Arabia (d. 1935)

1894 – George Meany, American plumber and labor leader (d. 1980)

1922 – Ernie Freeman, American pianist and bandleader (d. 2001)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.