GMT

Today in History: April 16

0556 Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton.

1818 The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.

1854 San Salvador is destroyed by an earthquake.

1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves a conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.

1922 Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in a row, setting a woman's record.

1945 The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa, earning the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die."

1972 Two giants pandas arrive in the U.S. from China.

1990 Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977

1993 David Lee Roth arrested in NYC for purchasing marijuana for $10

1993 Jury reaches guilty verdict in federal case against police officers (two convicted, two acquitted) who beat Rodney King, but the verdict is not read until April 17th

2020 Nationwide State of Emergency declared in Japan till 6 May due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak

2023 Spanish extreme athlete Beatriz Flamini exits a deep cave in Granada, Spain, after spending 500 days isolated underground in probable world record, as part of social isolation experiment

Born on April 16

1889 Charlie Chaplin, film actor and director.

1924 Henry Mancini, composer and conductor ("Moon River").

1947 Lew Alcinder (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), professional basketball player.

1960 Mrs Armymanns (Wife)

JOTD

A flat-Earther died, and to his surprise found himself standing on a cloud in front of the gates of heaven. God himself was there and told him he would be happy to answer any questions the man might have - about anything across the entirety of Space and Time.
So of course the man said - "Was I right? Is the earth actually flat?" and God chuckled and said "Of course not".
The man shook his head in disbelief, shaken to his very core, before murmuring "...this goes even higher than I thought..."