Oct 16
1829
America’s first modern luxury hotel’s grand opening
Boston’s Tremont House, considered America’s first modern luxury hotel, opened on this day with a lavish 44-item feast. It boasted 170 rooms, indoor plumbing and running water (at least on the first floor), and an elegant lobby—a novelty at the time. Its innovative design helped set the standard for modern hotels, attracting famous guests such as Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, and Ralph Waldo Emerson before its demolition in 1895.
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Boston Public Library; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Austin and Irene Young Trust by exchange AC1996.127.1), www.lacma.org
After the French Revolution began, Marie-Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI, was targeted by agitators who, enraged by her extravagance and attempts to save the monarchy, ultimately guillotined her on this day in 1793. [Did Marie-Antoinette really say “Let them eat cake”?]
Featured Biography
Zuma Press/Alamy
The literary conscience of the generation that grew up in Nazi Germany, Günter Grass, poet, novelist, playwright, and 1999 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born this day in 1927 in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland).
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2024
Liam Payne, a member of British boy band One Direction, died in a tragic fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
AFP/Getty Images
2003
László Papp—who was the first three-time Olympic boxing champion, winning gold medals for Hungary in 1948, 1952, and 1956—died at age 77. [How much do you know about boxing?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-38892)
1995
Nearly 1.1 million men marched in Washington, D.C., to promote African American unity in a political demonstration known as the Million Man March.
Claudio Luffoli—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
1978
Karol Józef Wojtyła of Poland was elected pope; he assumed the name John Paul II and was the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years. [Test your knowledge of the papacy.]
AP—REX/Shutterstock.com
1968
During the awards ceremony for the 200-metre race at the Mexico City Olympics, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a Black-power salute, for which they were later ordered to leave the Games. [Take our quiz about Olympic history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1964
China, eager to join the nuclear race, successfully detonated its first atomic bomb. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about China.]
Everett Collection Historical/Alamy
1961
Country music star Patsy Cline released her signature single, “Crazy.”
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1946
Ten of the 12 defendants sentenced to death at the Nürnberg trials, including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, were executed. [Take our quiz about infamous Nazis.]
© The Walt Disney Company
1923
Brothers Roy and Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, laying the foundation for what would become one of the world’s largest entertainment companies. [Learn more about the Disney Company.]
Bain News Service/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-16122)
1916
Margaret Sanger, an activist for women’s reproductive rights, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, in Brooklyn, New York.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1905
The British partition of Bengal took effect, dividing the region into two provinces and sparking widespread protests that strengthened the Indian Independence Movement.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1888
American dramatist Eugene O’Neill, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, was born. [Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literature.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1869
The Cardiff Giant was “discovered” in New York state; originally thought to be a petrified prehistoric man, it was later revealed to be a hoax.
© Everett Collection/Shutterstock.com
1859
John Brown, a militant abolitionist, made his legendary raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry. [How much do you know about American history?]
© Photos.com/Thinkstock
1847
English novelist Charlotte Brontë (under the pseudonym Currer Bell) published Jane Eyre, which became a classic noted for giving new truthfulness to the Victorian novel. [Take our quiz about English authors.]
Science History Images/Alamy
1846
William Thomas Green Morton first demonstrated the use of ether as a general anesthetic before a gathering of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. [Take our quiz about medical conditions and discoveries.]
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1813
Napoleon led his troops against an allied force of Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops during the Battle of Leipzig. [Test your knowledge of the history of warfare.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. cph 3b47136)
1758
Lexicographer Noah Webster, who was instrumental in giving American English a dignity and vitality of its own, was born in West Hartford, Connecticut.
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