1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). [edit] Events of 1916 [edit] January [edit] February - March 1 – Liberal British Columbia Premier Harlan Carey Brewster's term in office ends.
- March 8–9 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.
- March 15 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.
- March 16
- March 20 – At the age of 32, Ota Benga, a Congolese pygmy brought to America as part of a racist exhibition, builds a ceremonial fire, chips off the caps on his teeth, performs a final tribal dance, and shoots himself in the heart with a stolen pistol.
- March 22 – John Ronald Reuel Tolkien marries Edith Bratt (they would serve as the inspiration for the fictional characters Lúthien and Beren).
- March 22 – The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored.
- July 1 – November 18 – World War I – More than 1 million soldiers die during the Battle of the Somme, including 60,000 casualties for the British Commonwealth on the first day.
- July 1 – July 12: At least one shark mauls 5 swimmers along 80 miles (130 km) of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth who required limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.
- July 2 – Battle of Erzincan: Russian forces defeat troops of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia.
- July 8 – July 16- Massive flooding caused by 2 different hurricanes devastates western North Carolina.
- July 15 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
- July 22 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 injuring 40 (Warren Billings and Tom Mooney are later wrongly convicted of it).
- July 29 – In Ontario, Canada, a lightning strike ignites a forest fire that destroys the towns of Cochrane and Matheson, killing 233.
- July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least 7 people.
[edit] August [edit] September [edit] October [edit] November  Britannic sinks in the Kea Channel. [edit] December [edit] Undated - Oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller closely related to codeine is first synthesized in Germany.
- Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by the Bascom boys (Raymond, Mel, Earl) and their father John W. Bascom at Welling, Alberta Canada.
- Cours de linguistique générale by Ferdinand de Saussure is published.
- The Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, are cancelled.
- Food is rationed in Germany.
- Ernst Rüdin publishes his initial results on the genetics of schizophrenia.
- The Netherlands is hit by a North Sea storm that floods the lowlands and kills 10,000 people.
- Robert Baden-Powell founds the Wolf Cubs Scouts in Britain, changed to Cub Scouts in the USA.
- Louis Enricht claims he has a substitute for gasoline.
- Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32.
- Bray Studios creates the Farmer Al Falfa series, the first of the Terrytoons.
- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States.
- The Enrico Parodi sinks while in tow off The Carracks in Cornwall, England.
[edit] Ongoing [edit] Fictional The following are references to year 1916 in fiction: [edit] Births [edit] January–February - January 3 – Bernard Greenhouse, American cellist
- January 3 – Betty Furness, American actress and consumer activist (d. 1994)
- January 7 – Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975)
- January 9 – Peter Twinn, English mathematician and World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)
- January 10 – Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- January 12 – Pieter Willem Botha, President of South Africa (d. 2006)
- January 17 – Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr., American politician
- January 18 – Silviu Brucan, Romanian author and politician (d. 2006)
- January 19 – Harry Huskey, American computer designer
- January 22 – Henri Dutilleux, French composer
- January 24 – Marvin Creamer, American sailor
- January 24 – Rafael Caldera, President of Venezuela
- February 2 – Olaf Pooley, English actor
- February 9 – Tex Hughson, American baseball player (d. 1993)
- February 11 – Ivan Hristov Bashev, Bulgarian Foreign Minister (d. 1971)
- February 11 – Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
- February 14 – Sally Gray, English actress (d. 2006)
- February 14 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese film director (d. 1996)
- February 14 – Denham Harman, American gerontologist
- February 14 – Marcel Bigeard, French military officer
- February 15 – Ernest Millington, English politician (d. 2009)
- February 18 – Maria Altmann, Austrian Holocaust survivor and heiress
- February 20 – Jean Erdman, American dancer
- February 23 – Retta Scott, first female Disney animator to be credited on a feature film (d. 1990)
- February 26 – Jackie Gleason, American comedian (d. 1987)
- February 28 – Svend Asmussen, Danish jazz violinist
- February 28 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino politician (d. 1984)
- February 29 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
[edit] March–April - March 3 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 2006)
- March 4 – William Alland, American actor, producer, writer and director (d. 1997)
- March 4 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (d. 2000)
- March 4 – Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997)
- March 11 – Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
- March 13 – John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1981)
- March 13 – Lindy Boggs, American politician
- March 14 – Horton Foote, American writer (d. 2009)
- March 15 – Harry James, American musician and band leader (d. 1983)
- March 15 – Frank Coghlan Jr, American actor (d. 2009)
- March 17 – Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985)
- March 17 – Volodia Teitelboim, Chilean author and politician (d. 2008)
- March 19 – Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)
- March 20 – Pierre Messmer, French politician (d. 2007)
- March 24 – Donald Hamilton, Swedish-born writer (d. 2006)
- March 26 – Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- March 26 – Harry Rabinowitz, British film composer and conductor
- March 29 – Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota and Presidential candidate (d. 2005)
- March 29 – Peter Geach, British philosopher
- March 31 – Lucille Bliss, American voice actor
- April 3 – Peter Gowland, American photographer
- April 3 – Herb Caen, American journalist (d. 1997)
- April 5 – Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
- April 5 – Albert Henry Ottenweller, American Bishop
- April 11 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (d. 1983)
- April 12 – Beverly Cleary, American author
- April 12 – Benjamin Libet, American pioneering scientist in the field of human consciousness (d. 2007)
- April 13 – Phyllis Fraser, American actor and publisher (d. 2006)
- April 15 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American department store heir (d. 1982)
- April 18 – José Joaquín Trejos Fernández, President of Costa Rica
- April 22 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (d. 1999)
- April 24 – Stanley Kauffmann, American film critic
- April 24 – Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002)
- April 25 – R.J. Rushdoony, American founder of Christian Reconstructionism (d. 2001)
- April 26 – Dorothy Salisbury Davis, American writer
- April 26 – George Tuska, American comic strip artist (d. 2009)
- April 28 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (d. 1993)
- April 30 – Claude Elwood Shannon, American information theorist (d. 2001)
- April 30 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (d. 1999)
[edit] May–June - May 1 – Glenn Ford, American actor (d. 2006)
- May 6 – Robert H. Dicke, American experimental physicist (d. 1997)
- May 6 – Sif Ruud, Swedish actress
- May 8 – Chinmayananda, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1993)
- May 8 – João Havelange, Brazilian industrialist and football league president
- May 10 – Milton Babbitt, American composer
- May 11 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- May 14 – Sammy Luftspring, Canadian boxer (d. 2000)
- May 15 – Vera Gebuhr, Danish actress
- May 16 – Ephraim Katzir, President of Israel (d. 2009)
- May 17 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer (d. 2008)
- May 20 – Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete (d. 2006)
- May 20 – Owen Chadwick, British author and historian
- May 21 – Lydia Mendoza, American musician (d. 2007)
- May 21 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
- May 21 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- May 26 – Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
- May 31 – Bert Haanstra, Dutch filmmaker (d. 1997)
- May 31 – Bernard Lewis, British historian
- June 3 – Jack Manning, American film, stage and television actor (d.2009).
- June 4 – Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009)
- June 5 – Eddie Joost, baseball player and manager
- June 8 – Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- June 9 – Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense (d. 2009)
- June 15 – Herbert Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
- June 18 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian politician (d. 2005)
- June 23 – Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian educator (d. 1986)
- June 23 – Len Hutton, English cricketer (d. 1990)
- June 24 – William B. Saxbe, American politician
[edit] July–August - July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, British-born American actress
- July 1 – Lawrence Halprin, American architect
- July 2 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (d. 1982)
- July 2 – Zélia Gattai, Brazilian author and photographer (d. 2008)
- July 3 – John Kundla, American basketball coach
- July 4 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose") (d. 2006)
- July 4 – Fernand Leduc, Canadian painter
- July 6 – Harold Norse, American writer (d. 2009)
- July 8 – Jean Rouverol, American actress, screenwriter, and author
- July 9 – Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- July 11 – Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
- July 11 – Gough Whitlam, twenty-first Prime Minister of Australia
- July 11 – Reg Varney, British actor (d. 2008)
- July 14 – Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author (d. 1991)
- July 18 – L. Patrick Gray III, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 2005)
- July 19 – Phil Cavarretta, baseball player
- July 22 – Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (d. 1949)
- July 22 – Larry Hooper, American singer and musician (d. 1983)
- July 25 – Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist (d. 2001)
- July 27 – Elizabeth Hardwick, American literary critic and novelist (d. 2007)
- July 28 – David Brown, American producer
- July 30 – Dick Wilson, American actor (d. 2007)
- July 31 – Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979)
- August 1 – Fiorenzo Cardinal Angelini, Italian Cardinal
- August 5 – Kermit Love, American puppeteer (d. 2008)
- August 6 – Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta
- August 14 – Ralph de Toledano, American conservationist and author (d. 2007)
- August 16 – Iggy Katona, American race car driver (d. 2003)
- August 20 – Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian chess player (d. 1984)
- August 25 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003)
- August 25 – Van Johnson, American actor (d. 2008)
- August 27 – Martha Raye, American actress (d. 1994)
- August 28 – Jack Vance, American writer
- August 29 – Luther Davis, American screenwriter (d. 2008)
- August 30 – Shag Crawford, American baseball umpire (d. 2007)
- August 31 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist
- August 31 – John S. Wold, American politician
[edit] September–October - September 1
- September 13 – Roald Dahl, Welsh author (d. 1990)
- September 14 – John Heyer, Australian documentary filmmaker (d. 2001)
- September 15 – Margaret Lockwood, British actress (d. 1990)
- September 16 – Frank Leslie Walcott, Barbadian labour leader (d. 1999)
- September 18 – John Jacob Rhodes, American politician and lawyer (d. 2003)
- September 21 – Zinovi Gerdt, Russian actor (d. 1996)
- September 27 – Frank Handlen, American artist
- October 3 – Shelby Storck, American television producer (d. 1969)
- October 3 – James Herriot, Scottish veterinarian and author (d. 1995)
- October 4 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2009)
- October 12 – Alice Childress, American actress, playwright, and novelist (d. 1994)
- October 14 – C. Everett Koop, United States Surgeon General
- October 19 – Jean Dausset, French immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009)
- October 19 – Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994)
- October 26 – François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
- October 30 – Leon Day, American baseball player (d. 1995)
[edit] November–December - November 1 – John C. Harkness, American architect
- November 4 – Walter Cronkite, American television journalist (d. 2009)
- November 5 – Jim Tabor, baseball player (d. 1953)
- November 10 – Louis le Brocquy, Irish painter
- November 11 – Robert Carr, British politician
- November 12 – Rogelio de la Rosa, Filipino actor and politician (d. 1986)
- November 14 – Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer
- November 15 – Bill Melendez, American animator (d. 2008)
- November 16 – Daws Butler, American voice actor (d. 1988)
- November 24 – Forrest J. Ackerman, American writer (d. 2008)
- November 26 – Gerhard Unger, German tenor
- November 27 – Chick Hearn, American basketball announcer (d. 2002)
- November 28 – Mary Lilian Baels, queen of Léopold III of Belgium (d. 2002)
- November 28 – Ramón José Velásquez, President of Venezuela
- November 29 – Fran Ryan, American actress (d. 2000)
- December 1 – Wan Li, Chinese government official
- December 5 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish virologist and immunologist
- December 7 – George Russell Weller, retired salesman known for the Santa Monica Farmer's Market incident
- December 8 – Richard Fleischer, American film director (d. 2006)
- December 9 – Kirk Douglas, American actor
- December 11 – Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban musician (d. 1989)
- December 14 – Shirley Jackson, American writer (d. 1965)
- December 15 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- December 16 – Birgitta Valberg, Swedish actress
- December 18 – Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
- December 18 – Douglas Fraser, Scottish-born union leader (d. 2008)
- December 19
- December 19 – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German political scientist
- December 19 – Roy Ward Baker, English film director
- December 19 – Jack Agazarian, English World War II spy (d. 1945)
- December 25 – Graciela Naranjo, Venezuelan singer and actress (d. 2001)
- December 27 – Johnny Frigo, American jazz violinist and bassist (d. 2007)
[edit] Deaths [edit] January–June - January 4 – Bruce Sloss, Australian footballer (b. 1889)
- January 8 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884)
- January 13 – Victoriano Huerta, President of Mexico (b. 1854)
- January 17 – Arthur V. Johnson, American actor and director (b. 1876)
- February 6 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
- February 12 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (b. 1831)
- February 13 – Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (b. 1864)
- February 19 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
- February 20 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844)
- February 28 – Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
- March 4 – Franz Marc, German artist (b. 1880)
- March 24 – Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (ship sinking) (b. 1867)
- April 11 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (b. 1864)
- April 19 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor (b. 1839)
- April 21 – Georges Boillot, French Grand Prix driver (killed in action) (b. 1884)
- May 3 – Padraig Pearse, Irish nationalist (b. 1879)
- May 11 – Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873)
- May 12 – James Connolly, Irish socialist (b. 1868)
- May 13 – Sholom Aleichem, Ukrainian Yiddish writer (b. 1859)
- May 21 – Artúr Görgey, Hungarian military general and politician (b. 1818)
- June 5 – Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British field marshal and statesman (b. 1850)
- June 6 – Yuan Shikai, Chinese military official and politician (b. 1859)
- June 7 – Émile Faguet, French writer and critic (b. 1847)
- June 18 – Max Immelmann, German World War I fighter ace, (b. 1890)
- June 25 – Thomas Eakins, American realist painter (b. 1844)
- June 29 – Georges Lacombe, French artist (b. 1868)
[edit] July–December - July 6 – Odilon Redon, French painter (b. 1840)
- July 16 – Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)
- July 23 – Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- July 29 – Claude Charles Castleton, Australian VC recipient (killed in battle) (b. 1893)
- August 3 – Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist (executed) (b. 1864)
- August 5 – George Butterworth, English composer (b. 1885)
- August 31 – Martha McClellan Brown, American activist (b. 1838)
- September 4 – José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
- October 7 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (b. 1849)
- October 11 – Otto of Bavaria, Bavarian King (b. 1848)
- October 28 – Oswald Boelcke, German World War I fighter ace, (b.1891)
- October 28 – Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (b. 1838)
- October 29 – John Sebastian Little, American politician and congressman (b. 1851)
- October 31 – Charles Taze Russell, Protestant evangelist, forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses (b. 1852)
- November 9 – Ion Dragalina, Romanian general (killed in action) (b. 1860)
- November 10 – Walter Sutton, Geineciatrist (b. 1877)
- November 12 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer (b. 1855)
- November 14
- November 15 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
- November 21 – Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (b. 1830)
- November 22 – Jack London, American author (b. 1876)
- November 23 – Lanoe Hawker VC, British World War I fighter ace, Killed in action by The Red Baron, (b. 1890)
- November 24 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, American firearms inventor (b. 1840)
- December 28 – Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer (b. 1835)
- December 29 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic (b. 1869)
[edit] Nobel Prizes Notable Literature Written: Chicago by Carl Sandburg [edit] External links - Early Advertising Publications: "Fishing for Suckers" From the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress
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