1779 – Spain declared war on the Kingdom of Great Britain on the 16th June 1779, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began.
1792 – Thomas Mitchell the Australian explorer was born on the 16th June 1792 (d. 1855).
1816 – Lord Byron read Fantasmagoriana to his 4 house guests Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidoriat the Villa Diodati on the 16th June 1816, which inspired his challenge that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.
1829 – Geronimo the Native American leader was born on the 16th June 1829 (d. 1909).
1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois on the 16th June 1858.
1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England killed 183 children on the 16th June 1883.
1890 – Stan Laurel the English actor and comedian was born on the 16th June 1890 (d. 1965).
1903 – The Ford Motor Company was incorporated on the 16th June 1903.
1911 – IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York on the 16th June 1911
1911 – A 772 gram stony meteorite hit the earth near Kilbourn, Wisconsin damaging a barn on the 16th June 1911.
1952 – Gino Vannelli the Canadian singer-songwriterwas was born on the 16th June 1952.
1963 – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the 1st woman in space on the 16th June 1963, during Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission.
1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival began on the 16th June 1967.
1971 – Tupac Shakur the American rapper was born on the 16th June 1971 (d. 1996).
1975 ~ Peter Helliar the Australian comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, radio & television presenter was born in Melbourne on the 16th June 1975. Peter Helliar is known for his work on television as Rove McManus‘ sidekick on The Loft Live and Rove Live, and as Bryan Strauchan aka Strauchanie on Before the Game ~ www.strauchanie.com.au | Peter Helliar’s Twitter verified: www.Twitter.com/PJHelliar | Peter Helliar’s official Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PeterHelliar
1977 – Oracle Corporation was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) on the 16th June 1977, by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates. .
1990 ~ John Newman the British singer and musician was born on the 16th June 1990. John Newman is best known for the song Love Me Again which peaked at No.1 on the UK Singles Chart in July 2013, as well as being a featured artist on Rudimental‘s 2012 singles Feel the Love and Not Giving In.
2010 – Bhutan became the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco on the 16th June 2010.
2012 – China successfully launched its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft on the 16th June 2012, carrying 3 astronauts, including the 1st female Chinese astronaut, Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
2012 – The United States Air Force‘s robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth on the 16th June 2012, after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
Today in History for June 16th ~ video presented by the Associated Press…