This day in history: 16 Nov

1384: Ten-year-old Jadwiga, daughter of Louis the Great of Hungary, was crowned King of Poland.

1632: Protestant forces beat the Catholics at the Battle of Lützen, though King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed during the battle.

1857: The second Relief of Lucknow. 24 Victoria Crosses were awarded to British soldiers - the most ever won in a single day.

1885: Louis Riel was hanged for treason at North West Mounted Police headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan.

1907: Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory combined to become the state of Oklahoma - the 46th state.

1943: USS Corvina (SS 226) the only US submarine sunk by a Japanese submarine, was torpedoed by I-176 south of Truk. All 82 men on board were lost.

1959: The Sound of Music, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, on Broadway.

1965: Venera 3, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet, was launched from Baikonur. It crash-landed on Venus on 1 Mar 1966, though the communications systems had failed before planetary data could be returned.

1973: The Skylab 4 mission (Carr, Gibson and Pogue) was launched from Cape Canaveral.

1981: Luke Spencer and Laura (Webber) Baldwin were married on the soap opera General Hospital.




In addition to Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) and Louis Riel (1844-1885), Clark Gable (1901-1960), William Holden (1918-1981) and Jack Finney (1911-1995) died on this date.

And happy birthday to David Kalākaua (1836-1891), George S Kaufman (1889-1961), Burgess Meredith (1907-1997), Daws Butler (1916-1988) and Robin McKinley (1952-TBD).