July 16

[edit] Events

1661 - The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
1769 - Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission in California. The mission later evolves into the city of San Diego.
1790 - The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia (seat of government).
1931 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
1945 - Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
1948 - The city of Nazareth, is captured by the Jews during 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
1955 - Original Disneyland park opens in Anaheim, California
1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France with Italy opens.
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon.
1973 - Watergate Scandal: Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially-incriminating conversations.
1979 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.