Today in History: October 16, 2026

• 2024: Former One Direction singer Liam Payne dies in Argentina at 31.
  He fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Payne rose to fame in One Direction, the boy band put together on The X Factor in 2010, and later had a solo hit with “Strip That Down.”
• 2003: Hungarian boxing great László Papp dies at 77.
  Papp was the first boxer to win three Olympic gold medals, taking titles at the 1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, and 1956 Melbourne Games.
• 1995: The Million Man March fills the National Mall in Washington.
  Organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as a call for unity and responsibility among African American men, the rally drew a crowd estimated at about 1.1 million, though official and unofficial counts varied widely.
• 1978: Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected pope and takes the name John Paul II.
  He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first ever from Poland. He led the Catholic Church until his death in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014.
• 1968: Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists on the Olympic medal stand.
  After finishing first and third in the 200 meters at the Mexico City Games, the two American sprinters bowed their heads and raised black-gloved fists during the national anthem in a Black-power salute. They were ordered out of the Games, but the image became one of the most famous in sports history.
• 1964: China explodes its first atomic bomb.
  The test at Lop Nur in the remote western region of Xinjiang made China the world's fifth nuclear power, after the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France.
• 1961: Patsy Cline releases “Crazy.”
  Written by a young Willie Nelson, the ballad became her signature song and a hit on both the country and pop charts. Cline died in a plane crash less than two years later.
• 1946: Ten Nazi leaders convicted at Nuremberg are hanged.
  They were among twelve defendants sentenced to death by the international tribunal, and included former foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and security chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Hermann Göring escaped the gallows by taking poison hours before, and Martin Bormann had been sentenced in absentia.
• 1923: Walt and Roy Disney start their cartoon studio in Hollywood.
  The brothers founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, whose first series was the Alice Comedies. It was later renamed and grew into the Walt Disney Company.
• 1916: Margaret Sanger opens America's first birth control clinic.
  The reproductive rights activist set up the clinic in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. Police shut it down within days and arrested her, but she went on to found the group that became Planned Parenthood.
• 1905: Britain's partition of Bengal takes effect.
  Ordered under viceroy Lord Curzon, it split the province of Bengal into two. The move set off widespread protests that energized the Indian independence movement, and Britain reversed the partition in 1911.
• 1869: The “petrified” Cardiff Giant is dug up in New York State.
  Workers digging a well on a farm in Cardiff, New York, uncovered the ten-foot stone figure, which was billed as a fossilized ancient man and drew paying crowds. It was soon exposed as a hoax carved from gypsum on the orders of tobacconist George Hull.
• 1859: Abolitionist John Brown raids the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
  Brown and a small band of followers seized the armory in what was then Virginia, hoping to spark an uprising of enslaved people. U.S. Marines under Robert E. Lee captured him two days later, and he was hanged that December.
• 1847: Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre.
  The English novelist released the book in London under the pen name Currer Bell. It was an immediate success and remains one of the best-loved novels in the English language.
• 1846: Ether is first demonstrated publicly as a surgical anesthetic.
  Dentist William Thomas Green Morton put a patient to sleep with ether at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston while surgeon John Collins Warren removed a tumor from his neck. The room is still known as the Ether Dome.
• 1829: Boston's Tremont House opens as America's first modern luxury hotel.
  The 170-room hotel offered indoor plumbing and running water, a novelty at the time, and was celebrated with a grand opening feast. Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among its guests before it was torn down in 1895.
• 1813: The Battle of Leipzig begins.
  Napoleon's army faced the combined forces of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden in what became known as the Battle of the Nations, fought from October 16 to 19. His defeat forced him to retreat across the Rhine and led to his first exile the following year.
• 1793: Marie-Antoinette is executed by guillotine in Paris.
  The Austrian-born queen of France had become a target of revolutionaries who resented her lavish spending and her efforts to save the monarchy. She was 37 and died nine months after her husband, Louis XVI, met the same fate.

Born on This Day

• 1997: Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player
  Turns 29. Four-time Grand Slam singles champion and a former world No. 1.
• 1992: Bryce Harper, American baseball player
  Turns 34. Philadelphia Phillies slugger and two-time National League MVP.
• 1980: Sue Bird, American basketball player
  Seattle Storm point guard who won four WNBA titles and five Olympic gold medals.
• 1977: John Mayer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  Turns 49. Known for “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Gravity,” and for touring with Dead & Company.
• 1975: Kellie Martin, American actress
  Turns 51. Played Becca on Life Goes On and later starred on ER.
• 1962: Flea, Australian-American rock bassist
  Turns 64. Bassist and founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• 1962: Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player
  At 7 feet 7 inches, one of the tallest players in NBA history and a fearsome shot blocker.
• 1960: Bob Mould, American rock singer and guitarist
  Minnesota connection: co-founded the influential St. Paul punk band Hüsker Dü.
• 1958: Tim Robbins, American actor and director
  Turns 68. Starred in The Shawshank Redemption and won an Oscar for Mystic River.
• 1947: Bob Weir, American rock guitarist and singer
  Founding guitarist and singer of the Grateful Dead; he died in January 2026.
• 1947: David Zucker, American filmmaker
  Co-creator of the comedy classics Airplane! and The Naked Gun.
• 1946: Suzanne Somers, American actress
  Played Chrissy Snow on Three's Company.
• 1941: Tim McCarver, American baseball catcher and broadcaster
  Two-time World Series champion with the Cardinals and longtime voice of baseball on Fox.
• 1940: Barry Corbin, American actor
  Turns 86. Known for Northern Exposure, Lonesome Dove, and WarGames.
• 1940: Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player
  Hall of Fame forward who won two NBA titles with the New York Knicks.
• 1938: Nico, German singer and actress
  Sang on the landmark album The Velvet Underground & Nico.
• 1925: Angela Lansbury, English-American actress
  Starred as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote and voiced Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast.
• 1888: Eugene O'Neill, American playwright
  Nobel Prize winner and author of Long Day's Journey into Night.
• 1854: Oscar Wilde, Irish writer
  Wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest.
• 1758: Noah Webster, American lexicographer
  His American dictionary gave us the name Webster's and standardized American spelling.