What is October 16?
{{calendar}} {{day}} == Events == === Up to 1950 === * [[456]] &ndash; Magister militum [[Ricimer]] defeats Emperor [[Avitus]] at [[Piacenza]] and becomes master of the Western [[Roman Empire]]. * [[690]] &ndash; Empress [[Wu Zetian]] ascends to the throne of the [[Tang dynasty]] and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire. * [[1590]] &ndash; Composer [[Carlo Gesualdo]] murders his wife, [[Donna Maria d'Avalos]] and her lover [[Fabrizio Carafa]], the [[Duke]] of Andria, at the Palazzo San Saverio in [[Naples]]. * [[1780]] &ndash; [[Great Hurricane of 1780]] devastates the [[Caribbean]]. * [[1781]] &ndash; [[George Washington]] captures [[Yorktown, Virginia]], after the [[Siege of Yorktown]]. * [[1793]] &ndash; [[Marie Antoinette]] is executed on the [[guillotine]]. * [[1813]] &ndash; [[Napoleonic Wars]]: [[Battle of Leipzig]] between [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and the forces of the [[Sixth Coalition]]. * [[1834]] &ndash; Much of the ancient structure of the [[Palace of Westminster]] in [[London]] burns to the ground. * [[1843]] &ndash; [[William Rowan Hamilton]] comes up with the idea of [[quaternion]]s, a non–[[Commutativity|commutative]] extension of [[complex number]]s. * [[1846]] &ndash; [[William T. G. Morton]] demonstrates [[anesthesia]] at the [[Massachusetts]] General [[Hospital]]. * [[1859]] &ndash; [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] leads a [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|raid on Harper's Ferry]], [[Virginia]] (now [[West Virginia]]). * [[1875]] &ndash; [[Brigham Young University]] is founded in [[Provo, Utah]]. * [[1905]] &ndash; Partition of [[Bengal]] in [[India]]. * [[1909]] &ndash; [[William Howard Taft]] and [[Porfirio Díaz]] hold the first summit meeting between Presidents of the [[United States]] and [[Mexico]]. * [[1916]] &ndash; In [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]], [[Margaret Sanger]] opens the first family planning [[clinic]] in the [[United States]]. * [[1923]] &ndash; The [[Walt Disney]] Company is founded. * [[1934]] &ndash; [[China|Chinese]] [[Communism|Communists]]