May 16
1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
1866 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first 5-cent piece to be minted.
1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during the Senate impeachment, by one vote.
1879 - The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the Afghan state.
1881 - In Germany, the first electric tram for the public started service.
1888 - The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.
1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.
1910 - The U.S. Bureau of Mines was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1914 - The American Horseshoe Pitchers Association (AHPA) was formed in Kansas City, Kansas.
1920 - Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.
1929 - The first Academy Awards were held in Hollywood.
1939 - The Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians met at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first baseball game to be played under the lights in the American League.
1946 - "Annie Get Your Gun" opened on Broadway.
1946 - Jack Mullin showed the world the first magnetic tape recorder.
1948 - The body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonika Bay in Greece. It had been a week after he'd disappeared.
1960 - A Big Four summit in Paris collapsed due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.
1960 - Theodore Maiman, at Hughes Research Laboratory in California, demonstrated the first working laser.
1963 - After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project Mercury.
1965 - Spaghetti-O's were sold for the first time.
1969 - Venus 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus.
1971 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.
1975 - Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1977 - Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling on top of the Pan Am Building in Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.
1985 - Michael Jordan was named Rookie of the Year in the NBA.
1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge travelled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.
1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.
1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.
1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1992 - The Endeavour space shuttle landed safely after its maiden voyage.
1996 - Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.
1997 - In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko gave control of the country to rebel forces ending 32 years of autocratic rule.
2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.
2003 - Adam Rich was placed on three years probation after he pled no contest to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was also ordered to take part ina 60-day treatment program and pay about $1,200 in fines.
2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.
