12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for October 16, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1846 – First public demonstration of ether anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital by William T. G. Morton.
- 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, attempting to spark a slave uprising.
- 1905 – Partition of Bengal takes effect under British rule, igniting widespread protest in India.
- 1916 – Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn, New York.
- 1923 – Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (later The Walt Disney Company) is founded in Los Angeles.
- 1946 – Ten senior Nazi officials are executed in Nuremberg following war-crimes convictions.
- 1962 – President John F. Kennedy is informed of Soviet missiles in Cuba; the ExComm crisis team is convened.
- 1964 – China detonates its first atomic bomb (Project 596), becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power.
- 1968 – Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise gloved fists in a Black Power salute at the Mexico City Olympics.
- 1978 – Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected Pope John Paul II.
- 1995 – The Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands to Washington, D.C.
- 2003 – China’s first crewed spaceflight, Shenzhou 5, safely returns to Earth after orbiting with astronaut Yang Liwei.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1947 – Bob Weir, guitarist/singer (Grateful Dead co-founder) (78)
- 1958 – Tim Robbins, actor/filmmaker (“The Shawshank Redemption”) (67)
- 1962 – Flea, bassist (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (63)
- 1977 – John Mayer, singer-songwriter/guitarist (48)
- 1980 – Sue Bird, WNBA legend and five-time Olympic gold medalist (45)
- 1992 – Bryce Harper, MLB outfielder and two-time NL MVP (33)
- 1997 – Naomi Osaka, four-time Grand Slam tennis champion (28)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette, last Queen of France before the Revolution (37)
- 1951 – Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (56)
- 1959 – George C. Marshall, U.S. Army general, statesman, Nobel Peace laureate (78)
- 1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and former defense/foreign minister (66)
- 1997 – James A. Michener, Pulitzer Prize–winning author (90)
- 2003 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestling patriarch and trainer (88)
- 2017 – Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese investigative journalist (53)
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