Thursday, April 16, 2026 Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Today's Anniversary – Thursday, April 16


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Births

* 1965 Martin Lawrence Comedian, musician, actor, and voice artist.
* 1962 Ian MacKaye American singer-songwriter.
* 1955 DJ Kool Herc Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with originating breakbeat DJing in hip-hop music which helped to develop rapping and b-boying.
* 1953 Nick Minchin Australian politician, and has been a Liberal member of the Australian Senate since July 1993, representing South Australia.
* 1952 Yochanan Afek Israeli chess player, composer, trainer and arbiter.
* 1947 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Successful former high school, collegiate, and professional NBA basketball player.
* 1947 Gerry Rafferty Scottish singer-songwriter best known for his solo hits and the band Stealers Wheel.
* 1922 Kingsley Amis English novelist, poet, critic, teacher, and father of novelist Martin Amis.
* 1921 Peter Ustinov Born Peter Alexander von Ustinov, was an Academy Award-winning English-German actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur.
* 1918 Spike Milligan Known as Spike Milligan, was an Irish writer, artist, musician, humanitarian, comedian and poet.
* 1896 Tristan Tzara French-Romanian poet and essayist.
* 1889 Charlie (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin) Chaplin Comedic actor and director, usually known by his stage name of Charlie Chaplin.
* 1881 E. F. L. Wood Known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician.
* 1871 John Millington Synge Irish dramatist, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore.
* 1867 Wilbur Wright Generally credited with the design and construction of the first practical airplane.
* 1866 Jose de Diego Born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, was a statesman, journalist, poet and advocate for Puerto Rico's independence from Spain.
* 1857 Henry Smith Pritchett U S astronomer and educator.
* 1844 Anatole France Born Jacques Anatole François Thibault, was a French poet, journalist, and novelist.
* 1838 Ernest Solvay Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.
* 1823 Ferdinand Eisenstein German mathematician.
* 1569 John (poet) Davies English poet and lawyer, who became attorney general in Ireland and formulated many of the legal principles that underpinned the British Empire.

Deaths

† 1994 Ralph Ellison American scholar and writer, most famous for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953.
† 1972 Yasunari Kawabata Japanese short story writer and novelist known for his spare, lyrical, and subtly-shaded prose.
† 1958 Rosalind Franklin English biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite.
† 1947 Rudolf Hoss SS-Obersturmbannführer and from May 4, 1940 to November 1943 was commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp.
† 1859 Alexis de Tocqueville French political thinker and historian, most famous for his work Democracy in America.
† 1689 Aphra Behn Prolific Restoration dramatist and writer of amatory fiction.
† 1687 George Villiers English dramatist, poet, politician, wit and rake.
† 1687 George Villiers Buckingham English dramatist, poet, politician, wit and rake.
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