August 16

1777 – U.S. forces led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at Bennington near Walloomsac, New York.

1780 – British forces under the command of General Cornwallis rout U.S. troops led by General Horatio Gates near Camden, South Carolina

1792 – During the French Revolution, a month after the Storming of the Bastille, Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, demanding the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.

1793 –During the French Revolution, a levée en masse –a general conscription for military service – is decreed by the National Convention.

1812 – During the War of 1812, General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit to the British Army without a fight.

1841 – President Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the reestablishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Whig Party members riot outside the White House in protest.

1858 – President Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria

1888 – Thomas Edward Lawrence more well known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is born in Snowdon Lodge,  Tremadog, Wales.

1896 – ‘Skookum’ Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada

1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed.

1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which 2 of the 8 starting planes crash on takeoff, 2 are forced to return for repairs, and 2 go missing over the Pacific ocean.

1945 – “The Father of the Kamikazi”, Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi commits seppuku without the assistance of a Kaishakunin – an assistant that immediately cuts off the head of the suicide – taking 15 hours to die.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

1959 – Fleet Admiral William Halsey, Jr. USN dies while on holiday on Fishers Island, New York.

1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet. The records stands until 2012.

1966 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong.

1977 – Elvis Presley dies at age 42 in his Graceland mansion, in Memphis.

1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 passengers and crew on board, plus 2 people on the ground.

2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet, at the time becoming the world’s highest residence above ground level.

2010 – AIRES Flight 8250, a Boeing 737, crashes short of the runway on landing at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport in San Andrés, San Andrés y Providencia, Colombia, killing 2 of the 131 passengers and crew aboard.

2020 – Lightning strikes ignite the ‘August Complex’ fire in California, eventually burning over one million acres of land.