January 16th in History

27 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1120 - The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1412 - The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.


1547 - Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.

1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.

1581 - The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.

1707 - The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.


1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1920 - The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.


1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

1956 - President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.

1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

1991 - The Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War

2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

2006 - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

Famous Birthdays:

1245 - Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England

1409 - René I of Naples

1516 - Bayinnaung, King of Burma

1836 - King Francis II of the Two Sicilies

1872 - Henri Busser, composer

1900 - Edith Frank, Holocaust victim and mother of Anne Frank

1920 - Elliott Reid, actor

1937 - Lorraine Bayly, actress

1952 - King Fuad II of Egypt

1962 - Denis O'Hare, actor

1974 - Kate Moss, model

1981 - Nick Valensi, guitarist

1986 - Irina Kuzmina, tennis player