16 September History
- 1620 - The Pilgrims sail from England on the Mayflower.
- 1668 - King John Casimer V of Poland abdicates the throne.
- 1747 - The French capture Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian Flanders in the Netherlands.
- 1789 - Jean-Paul Marat sets up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple.
- 1810 - A revolution for independence breaks out in Mexico.
- 1864 - Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest leads 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
- 1889 - Robert Younger, in Minnesota's Stillwater Penitentiary for life, dies of tuberculosis. Brothers Cole and Bob remain in the prison.
- 1893 - Some 50,000 "Sooners" claim land in the Cherokee Strip during the first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
- 1908 - General Motors files papers of incorporation.
- 1920 - Thirty people are killed in a terrorist bombing in New York's Wall Street financial district.
- 1934 - Anti-Nazi Lutherans stage protest in Munich.
- 1940 - Congress passes the Selective Service Act, which calls for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
- 1942 - The Japanese base at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands is raided by American bombers.
- 1945 - Japan surrenders Hong Kong to Britain.
- 1950 - The U.S. 8th Army breaks out of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea and begins heading north to meet MacArthur's troops heading south from Inchon.
- 1972 - South Vietnamese troops recapture Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese Army.
- 1974 - Limited amnesty is offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
- 1975 - Administrators for Rhodes Scholarships announce the decision to begin offering fellowships to women.
16 September Birthdays
- 1838 - James J. Hill, railroad builder.
- 1875 - James Cash Penney, founder and owner of the J.C. Penny Company department stores.
- 1885 - Karen Horney, psychoanalyst who exposed the male bias in the Freudian analysis of women.
- 1891 - Karl Doenitz, German Admiral who succeeded Hitler in governing Germany.
- 1893 - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, biochemist who isolated vitamin C.
- 1925 - Charlie Byrd, jazz guitarist.
- 1925 - B.B. King, blues guitarist.
- 1926 - John Knowles, writer (A Separate Peace).
- 1950 - Henry Louis Gates Jr., critic and scholar.