This Day in History on 16 January
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 16 January. The students can refer to them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
- National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
- Teacher’s Day (Myanmar)
- Teachers’ Day (Thailand)
Important Events
1556: Philip II became the Emperor of Spain.
1681: Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was crowned as the successor of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a function held at Raigad Fort.
1760: The British capture Pondicherry from the French.
1769: Planned horse racing organized for the first time in Accra, Calcutta (now Kolkata).
1818: The Rana of Udaipur signed a treaty with the British to protect Mewad.
1858: Baithi, Laikha, Ratna, Maani, and the women who participated in Mairath Kranti at Gudgaon, all were hanged.
1919: The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution had enacted, and a nationwide embargo imposed.
1920: League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris.
1941: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose left the country.
1942: Jawaharlal Nehru succeeds Gandhi as head of Indian National Congress.
1948: Pakistan charges India with systematic campaign to wipe out Muslims.
1973: Om Prakash Mehra, Air Chief Marshal PVSM, became the Air Officer Commanding, India Command. He was in this office till 31/01/1976.
1979: The Shah of Iran fled to Egypt with his family.
1990: All Governors asked to resign.
1992: Extradition treaty between India and Britain.
1992: Prices of steel and iron decontrolled.
1992: For the first time in a decade, India decides to import one million tonnes of wheat.
1995: INS Vidyut, a homemade missile ship, launched at Goa.
1996: Hubble Space Telescope scientists claim to have discovered more than 100 new galaxies in space.
1996: Supreme Court says trial courts should hold trial of rape cases in camera.
1999: Anil Sood of India became the Vice President of the World Bank.
1996: Union Cabinet Minister V.C. Shukla, Balram Jhakar, Madhavrao Scindia, and others including BJP President L.K. Advani, Arjun Singh and Devi Lal chargesheeted in the multi-crore Jain `Hawala’ case. CBI seeks sanction to prosecute them. L.K. Advani resigns from Lok Sabha membership.
1999: Ritwick Bhattacharya (Delhi) and Mekhala Subedar (Maharashtra) won the men’s and women’s titles in the National squash championship in Calcutta.
2000: P. Moses, Indian High Commission Staff member, badly beaten up and abducted by Pakistani intelligence operators in Islamabad.
2000: The Chinese government recognized the two-year-old Tibetan boy as the patron of Buddha.
2000: Punjab men and Railway women win the Senior National Volleyball Championship in Salem.
2003: Kalpana Chawla of Indian origin embarked on a second space trip.
2006: Socialist leader Michelle Bachelet became the first female President of Chile.
2008: Tata Motors unveiled the Nano, a Rs. 1 lakh People’s Car.
Birth/Birth Anniversary
1605: Shahryar Mirza, the fifth and youngest son of the Mughal emperor Jahangir.
1853: André Michelin, a French industrialist.
1896: Jaideva Singh, famous musician and educationist, was born Shohratgarh, U.P.
1916: Amat Debananda, politician, was born in Balani village at Orissa .
1919: Nasikrao Khantadu Tirpude, former Duputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was born.
1920: Nanabhoy Palkhivala, an Indian jurist and liberal economist.
1926: O. P. Nayyar, an Indian film music composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician.
1931: Subhash Mukhopadhyay, an Indian scientist, and physician from Hazaribagh, Bihar, and Orissa Province, British India.
1941: Ashok Vajpai, veteran critic and Hindi poet, was born.
1978: Vijay Sethupathi, an Indian actor, producer, lyricist, and dialogue writer.
1946: Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
1985: Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor
Death/ Death Anniversary
1620: Amarsingh I, Rajput’s guhilot lineage king of Mewad, died.
1711: Joseph Vaz, Indian-Sri Lankan priest and saint (b. 1651)
1901: Mahadev Govind Ranade, an Indian scholar, social reformer, judge, and author.
1924: In a tragic ship wreck, Kumaran Asan, famous Malayalam poet & eminent social worker, died.
1938: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century.
1954: Baburao Painter (Baburao Krishnaji Meshri), famous artist, sculptor, filmmaker and producer, died.
1966: Sadhu Thanwardas Lilaram Vaswani, noted thinker and saint poet, great orator, professor and prolific writer, died at Pune. He was an Indian educationist who started the Mira Movement.
1967: Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, an American physicist, noted for his design and construction of high-voltage Van de Graaff generators.
1988: L. K. Jha, famous economist and member of Rajya Sabha, died.
1989: Prem Nazir, an Indian film actor known as one of Malayalam cinema’s definitive leading men of his generation.
1990: Dr. R.R. Diwakar, Gandhian and former Union Minister, passed away.
1997: Dr. Datta Samant, Trade Union leader, shot dead in Mumbai.
2000: Triloki Nath Kaul, one of India’s foremost diplomats in the 20th century.
2010: Jyoti Basu, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1914)