January 16 birthdays & history

Famous people born on January 16

• 1933Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, and critic
• 1901Fulgencio Batista, Cuban colonel and politician, ninth President of Cuba
• 1996Jennie, South Korean singer
• 1932Dian Fossey, American zoologist and anthropologist
• 1979Aaliyah, American singer and actress
• 1974Kate Moss, English model and fashion designer
• 1959Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer
• 1988Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
• 1749Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright
• 1948John Carpenter, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer

What happened on January 16

• 27 BCGaius Octavianus was given the titles Augustus and Princeps by the Roman Senate when he became the first Roman emperor.
• 1883The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, was enacted by the U.S. Congress.
• 1905Despite being blind in one eye, ice hockey player Frank McGee set the record for most goals in a Stanley Cup game when he scored 14 against the Dawson City Nuggets.
• 1909Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
• 1913Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results.
• 1920The League of Nations, the first worldwide intergovernmental organization with a focus on peace and security, held its first council meeting in Paris.
• 1921The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.
• 1964The musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, and went on to win ten Tony Awards, a record that stood for 37 years.
• 1969Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
• 1979Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
• 2006Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
• 2020The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA.

Also observed on January 16

• National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
• Teachers' Day in Thailand and Myanmar