Discover what happened on June 16 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.

June 16

Discover what happened on June 16 with HISTORY&#8217;s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.

What Happened on June 16 | HISTORY

Home

HISTORY

1884

1965

1958

1963

1977

1940

1961

As the Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia, anti-war rallies flared at home; at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen killed four unarmed student protesters, shocking the nation. Americans held their breath as NASA scrambled to bring Apollo 13 astronauts home safely after their aborted moon mission. Some 20 million people celebrated the first Earth Day, rock icons Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both died of drug overdoses at age 27, and the Beatles called it quits.

1970

The turbulence of 1968 began on New Year’s Day with the Tet Offensive, shocking Americans with the unwinnable realities of the Vietnam War. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy darkened the national mood and deepened domestic unrest. Mass protests erupted around the globe, from Chicago to Prague to France, Mexico and beyond. In space, Apollo 8 orbited the moon, while back on earth, “Laugh-In” topped TV ratings, “Hair” premiered on Broadway and McDonald’s debuted the iconic Big Mac.

1968

1858

In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed legislation creating Yosemite National Park. In South Dakota, years of conflict between the U.S. government and the Lakota Indians culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre and the deaths of at least 150 Native people and 25 U.S. cavalry members. Lakota resistance leader Sitting Bull was killed during an arrest attempt. Notable births of 1890 included Agatha Christie, Charles de Gaulle, Dwight Eisenhower, Groucho Marx, Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley and fried-chicken impresario Colonel Harland Sanders.

1890

1904

As World War II raged on, Allied troops made their first landing in Europe on the island of Sicily. Russian forces turned back German invaders in the Battle of Stalingrad. In the Pacific, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal after bloody battles with U.S. troops. In the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Polish resistance fighters tried and failed to stop the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps. Back on the American homefront, crooner Bing Crosby scored a huge hit with the song “White Christmas.”

1943

1896

1999

1862

1903

1738

World War I ended in 1918, when Germany signed an armistice agreement with the victorious Allies. The war had cost the lives of more than 9 million combatants plus millions of civilians. Meanwhile, an even more deadly threat emerged: the influenza pandemic, which would take another 50 million lives worldwide. Bolshevik revolutionaries executed the Romanov family, ending 300 years of Russian imperial rule. On the U.S. homefront, Congress enacted daylight savings time, only to repeal it the following year.

1918

America’s Founding Fathers decided that one elected civilian—the U.S. president—would lead the executive branch of the federal government, a governmental structure that has remained in place for more than 200 years.

U.S. Presidents

Legacy Unpublished

Crime has been a dark and powerful undercurrent in human society throughout history. Uncover the facts behind some of the most daring robberies, brazen scams and brutal murders ever committed.

Crime

The Civil War was America's bloodiest and most divisive conflict, pitting the Union Army against the Confederate States of America. The war resulted in the deaths of more than 620,000 people, with millions more injured and the South left in ruins.

Civil War

Videos

<a href="http://history.com/">HISTORY.com</a> works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Articles with the “HISTORY.com Editors” byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including <a href="https://www.history.com/author/amanda-onion">Amanda Onion</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/author/missy-sullivan">Missy Sullivan</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/author/matt-mullen">Matt Mullen</a> and Christian Zapata.

History.com Editors

The history of art and entertainment tells the complex story of human civilization through visual art, design, literature, music, film and television. It ranges from cave drawings of the Neolithic period to Renaissance masterpieces to rock 'n' roll and video games.

Arts & Entertainment

Space exploration, one of the greatest technological achievements in human history, includes the Apollo missions, the Space Shuttles Columbia and Challenger, and people like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

Space Exploration

Inventions from the telephone to the Model T and the computer have defined human history, and inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney and Alexander Graham Bell have transformed our society.

Inventions & Science

Though the 19th century saw the rise of populism, the labor movement and Jacksonian democracy, it also ushered in the Gilded Age, when men like Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. P. Morgan wielded vast control over politics and business.

19th Century

The Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted for decades and resulted in anti-communist suspicions and international incidents that led two superpowers to the brink of nuclear disaster.

This Day In History: June 16

First roller coaster in America opens

Also on This Day in History June | 16

This Day in History Video: What Happened on June 16

Bob Dylan records “Like A Rolling Stone”

Imre Nagy, leader of Hungarian uprising, is executed

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space

Leonid Brezhnev is elected Soviet president

Marshal Petain becomes premier of occupied France

21,000 more U.S. troops are sent to Vietnam

Kennedy agrees to send instructors to train troops

Communists isolate Phnom Penh

Lee Trevino wins his first U.S. Open

Lincoln warns that America is becoming a “house divided”

Alaskan explorer Fred Fickett leaves Army

James Joyce meets his future wife, Nora

Charlie Chaplin marries Oona O’Neill

Tsunami ravages Japanese coast

SLA member captured after more than 20 years

Russian ballet star Rudolf Nureyev defects from USSR

Union thwarted at the Battle of Secessionville

Ford Motor Company incorporated

Patriot printer, publisher and postmistress, Mary Katharine Goddard, born

Battle of the Piave River

Also on This Day in History June | 16

Wake Up to This Day in History