16 June History
- 455 - Rome is sacked by the Vandal army.
- 1815 - Napoleon defeats the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny.
- 1858 - Abraham Lincoln, in accepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, declares that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
- 1864 - The siege of Petersburg and Richmond begins after a moonlight skirmish.
- 1907 - The Russian czar dissolves the Duma in St. Petersburg.
- 1910 - The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane Washington.
- 1925 - France accepts a German proposal for a security pact.
- 1932 - The ban on Nazi storm troopers is lifted by the von Papen government in Germany.
- 1935 - President Roosevelt's New Deal legislation is passed by the House of Representatives.
- 1940 - French Chief of State, Henri Petain asks for an armistice with Germany.
- 1952 - Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl is published in the United States.
- 1955 - The U.S. House of Representatives votes to extend Selective Service until 1959.
- 1961 - Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union while in Paris.
- 1971 - An El Greco sketch, "The Immaculate Conception," stolen in Spain 35 years earlier, is recovered in New York City by the FBI.
- 1977 - Leonid Brezhnev is named president of the Soviet Union.
16 June Birthdays
- 1888 - Bobby Clark, comedian and actor.
- 1890 - Stan Laurel, British-born entertainer, partner of Oliver Hardy.
- 1902 - Barbara McClintock, geneticist.
- 1902 - George Gaylord Simpson, paleontologist.
- 1917 - Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post.
- 1917 - Irving Penn, fashion photographer, brother of film director Arthur Penn.
- 1920 - John Howard Griffin, writer (Black Like Me).
- 1935 - Jim Dine, American artist.
- 1938 - Torgny Lindgren, Swedish writer.
- 1938 - Joyce Carol Oates, American writer and university professor (Them, Garden of Earthly Delights).