Historical events on July 16

JULY 16, 2008
A tainted milk powder scandal broke in China which ultimately involved an estimated 300,000 victims, the vast majority infants, with 54,000 hospitalized with kidney problems and 6 deaths.
The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a significant food safety incident in China. The scandal involved Sanlu Group's milk and infant formula
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JULY 16, 1931
Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie promulgated the nation's first modern constitution.
Haile Selassie I was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia under
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JULY 16, 2007
An earthquake of magnitude .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}Mw6.6 struck Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.
The Chūetsu offshore earthquake ) was a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake that occurred 10:13 local time on July 16, 2007, in the
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JULY 16, 1965
South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo—an undetected communist spy—was reported dead due to injuries sustained during his capture, but it is generally assumed he was killed on the orders of military officials.
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to
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JULY 16, 1994
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began colliding with the planet Jupiter (impact site pictured), with the first impact causing a fireball that reached a peak temperature of 24,000 kelvin.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was a comet that broke apart in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first
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JULY 16, 1951
The Catcher in the Rye, an American coming-of-age novel by J. D. Salinger, was first published.
The Catcher in the Rye is the only novel by American author J. D. Salinger. It was partially published in serial form
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JULY 16, 1990
A 7.8 MS earthquake struck the densely populated Philippine island of Luzon, killing an estimated 1,621 people.
The surface wave magnitude scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It
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JULY 16, 2004
Millennium Park, a public park in Chicago, Illinois, and one of the world's largest rooftop gardens, opened to the public.
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
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JULY 16, 1232
Muhammad ibn Yusuf, who later established the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Spain, was elected the ruler of Arjona.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr, also known as Ibn al-Ahmar and by his honorific al-Ghalib billah, was the first ruler
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JULY 16, 2013
At least 23 students died and dozens more fell ill at a primary school in the Indian state of Bihar after consuming a Midday Meal that was contaminated with pesticide.
Bihar is a state in Eastern India. It is the second largest state by population, the 12th largest by area, and the
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JULY 16, 1950
Korean War: A Korean People's Army unit massacred 31 prisoners of war of the U.S. Army on a mountain near the village of Tuman.
The Korean War was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North
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JULY 16, 1983
A Sikorsky S-61 helicopter operated by British Airways crashed in thick fog in the Celtic Sea, killing 20 of the 26 people on board.
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. They were developed and produced by the
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JULY 16, 1790
President George Washington signed the Residence Act, selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of
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JULY 16, 1377
The ten-year-old Richard II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
Richard II, also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was
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JULY 16, 1782
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premiered in Vienna, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally remarked that it had "too many notes".
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition
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