What happened on April 16 ?
Events
1178 BC - A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War.
73 - Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.
1071 - Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.
1521 - Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the rest of the estates of the empire.
1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
1746 - Second Jacobite Rebellion: The Battle of Culloden, the last battle of the Jacobite Uprising is fought, ultimately leading to the destruction of the Highland clans.
1780 - The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
1799 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Mount Tabor ? Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.
1853 - The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle at Lee's Mills in Virginia.
1862 - American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.
1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg ? 12 ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Only one ship is lost.
1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg) from exile in Finland.
1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.
1922 - The Treaty of Rapallo, in which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations between Berlin and Moscow, is signed.
1925 - the Communist St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia claims the lives of 150 and injures another 500.
1926 - Lolly Willows by Sylvia Townsend Warner is distributed as the first Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
1935 - Radio program Fibber McGee and Molly debuts.
1943 - Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
1945 - WWII: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
1945 - The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IVc (Colditz Castle).
1945 - German ship Goya, overfilled with refugees, sinks after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing more than 7,000 people.
1947 - Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
1947 - Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1949 - Dave Garroway moves from radio to television to host the musical-variety show Garroway at Large.
1953 - Queen Elizabeth II launches the Royal Yacht Britannia.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
1964 - Sentences totalling 307 years were passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes after holding up the night mail train travelling from Glasgow to London in August of 1963 - a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery.
1972 - Apollo program: Apollo 16 launches toward the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive ? Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
1987 - British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London charged with gross indecency.
1988 - In Forlì (Italy), Red Brigades kill Italian senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita.
1992 - The Katina P. runs aground off of Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean.
1996 - France Télécom introduces its Wanadoo Internet service.
1998 - The Nashville Tornado of 1998, one of the most serious urban tornadoes in history, kills one and significantly damages downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
2000 - Protests against the World Bank and IMF in Washington, DC.
2003 - The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.
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