On This Day: 16 May

Henry III lays the foundation stone for a new Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey – the first stage in rebuilding the 11^th century church in gothic style		1220
Florence re–establishes itself as a republic, after the Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time		1527
Thomas More resigns as chancellor		1532
Mary Queen of Scots flees to England after her defeat at Langside, Glasgow		1568
Voltaire imprisoned in the Bastille		1717
Doctor Samuel Johnson and James Boswell meet for the first time		1763
The Dauphin Louis–Auguste, aged 15 (later Louis XVI) marries Marie Antoinette		1770
The Batavian Republic is established in Holland		1795
The Lombardic Republic is established		1796
The French Senate and Tribune proclaim Napoleon as Emperor		1804
The Allies (Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom) under General Beresford defeat the French under Marshal Soult at Albuera, near Badajoz		1811
The US warship President attacks a British sloop		1811
Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo–Turkish War; the Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia		1812
Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13–year–old cousin		1836
US President Andrew Johnson survives impeachment proceedings in the Senate by one vote		1868
The world's first electric tram enters public service at Lichterfelde, nr. Berlin		1881
Emile Berliner demonstrates the first gramophone record at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia		1888
Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment that will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances		1888
Remains of Neanderthal Man are found in Jersey		1911
The Zeppelin Deutschland crashes and is wrecked at Dusseldorf		1911
The UK and France sign the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria		1916
A Curtiss NC–4 seaplane, commanded by Albert Cushing Read, leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon and the UK, via the Azores, on the first transatlantic flight (there were six stops along the way, and more than one aircraft was used)		1919
Joan of Arc is canonised by Pope Benedict XV		1920
The golden age of bullfighting comes to an end as Joselito is gored at Talavera de la Reina		1920
The White Star Line's Majestic – the largest ship built to date – reaches New York, 5½ days out from Southampton		1922
The first Academy Awards ceremony takes place (renamed the Oscars in 1931, allegedly after Margaret Herrick said the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar)		1929
Daphne Kearley becomes Britain's first air hostess, in an Avro 642 from Croydon to Le Bourquet, France		1936
The Warsaw Ghetto uprising is crushed by the SS, police and Wehrmacht, after 27 days		1943
El Al Israel Airlines begins the first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights, between Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy International) in New York and Heathrow		1951
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California		1960
The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution		1966
Earthquake in Northern Japan kills 47 and injures 217		1968
Three people lose their lives when one entire corner of Ronan Point, a new block of flats in Newham, in London's East End, collapses		1968
Pete Townshend spends a night in jail in New York for kicking a policeman off stage		1969
Israeli planes bomb seven Palestinian refugee camps and villages in southern Lebanon, killing at least 27 people and leaving 138 injured		1974
Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia		1974
Michael Abdul Malik, Black Power leader, hanged for murder in Trinidad		1975
Junko Tabei of Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest		1975
Dr. George Nickopoulos indicted in Memphis for over–prescribing drugs to 11 patients, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley		1980
Wheel clamps first used in London		1983
Two South Wales miners are jailed for life for the murder of taxi driver David Wilkie, by throwing a block of concrete on his car from a bridge as he drove a miner to work six months earlier (during the miners' strike)		1985
C. Everett Koop, US Surgeon General, reports that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine		1988
Eileen Molyneaux, 66, at Brook Hospital, Greenwich, London, becomes the first adult to undergo a successful hole–in–the–heart operation		1989
Christie's, New York, sells Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet to a Japanese businessman for $82.5		1990
Minister of Agriculture John Gummer invites newspapers and camera crews to photograph him trying to feed a beefburger to his four–year–old daughter Cordelia, at an event in his Suffolk constituency, as the government tries desperately to convince the public that British beef is safe		1990
Elizabeth II becomes the first British sovereign to address the US Congress		1991
Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire, flees the country		1997
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is attacked and wrestled to the ground after punching farm worker Craig Evans, who threw an egg at him as he campaigned in Rhyl, Clwyd, for the general election		2001

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On This Day: 16 May