16 January History
- 1547 - Ivan IV crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.
- 1786 - The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.
- 1847 - John C. Fremont, the famed "Pathfinder" of Western exploration, is appointed governor of California.
- 1865 - General William T. Sherman begins a march through the Carolinas.
- 1900 - The U.S. Senate recognizes the Anglo-German Treaty of 1899 by which the UK renounced its rights to the Samoan Islands.
- 1909 - One of Ernest Shackleton's polar exploration teams reaches the Magnetic South Pole.
- 1914 - Maxim Gorky is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.
- 1920 - The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.
- 1920 - Allies lift the blockade on trade with Russia.
- 1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.
- 1940 - Hitler cancels an attack in the West due to bad weather and the capture of German attack plans in Belgium.
- 1942 - Japan's advance into Burma begins.
- 1944 - Eisenhower assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
- 1945 - The U.S. First and Third armies link up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of the Bulge.
- 1956 - The Egyptian government makes Islam the state religion.
- 1965 - Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.
- 1975 - The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.
- 1979 - The Shah leaves Iran.
- 1991 - The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — ended on February 28, 1991, when President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.
16 January Birthdays
- 1757 - Samuel McIntire, architect of Salem, Massachusetts.
- 1749 - Vittorio Alfieri, Italian tragic poet (Cleopatra, Parigi shastigliata).
- 1821 - John C. Breckinridge, 14th U.S. Vice President, Confederate Secretary of War.
- 1909 - Ethel Merman, U.S. singer and actress, the "Queen of Broadway."