Today in History: National Library Started to Serve Users in Ankara

August 16 is the 228th (229th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 137.

Railways

• 16 August 1838 The Balde Port Trade Agreement facilitated the trade and investment of European capitalists in Ottoman lands.
• 16 August 1917 The rebels of Sheriff Hussein injured our 4 soldier and our martyr 10. Our 57 soldier has been captured. 326 rail, 6 bridge, 30 telegraph pole, were sabotaged.
• 16 August 1937 Sivas-Malatya iltisak line was opened.
• 16 August 1998 Iskenderun-Divrigi (577 km) Electrification Plant was put into service.
• 16 In August 1908, Ankara-Baghdad railway workers went on strike.

Events 

• 1543 – Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha conquered Tunisia.
• 1556 – Suleymaniye Mosque was opened with a ceremony.
• 1838 – Baltalimanı Trade Agreement was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom in the Baltalimanı district of Istanbul.
• 1858 - US President James Buchanan opened the first transoceanic telegraph conversation with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
• 1868 – The Peruvian city of Arica (now part of Chile) is devastated by a tsunami following an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. A total of 25.000 people died, of which about 70.000 were in Arica.
• 1913 - Japan's Tōhoku Imperial University (now Tohoku University) admits its first female student.
• 1925 – Charlie Chaplin's "Gold rush” movie was released.
• 1929 - Chinese and Soviet soldiers clash in Manchuria.
• 1948 – The National Library started to serve the users in Ankara.
• 1953 – Pope XII. With the concession granted by Pius, the House of Virgin Mary, built in Selçuk, İzmir, was opened.
• 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon approximately 31.330 m high in New Mexico and broke three unbreakable records: high jump, free fall, and fastest man.
• 1960 – The Zurich and London Treaties, which granted independence to Cyprus, entered into force and the Republic of Cyprus was established.
• 1974 – Andreas Papandreou returns to Greece after 7 years of exile.
• 1974 – Last day of the Second Peace Operation in Cyprus. Turkish troops took control of the area north of the Famagusta-Nicosia-Lefke line and the fire ceased.
• 1997 – The draft law, which stipulates that primary education should be compulsory and uninterrupted for 8 years, was accepted in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly with 242 votes to 277.
• 2005 – A Western Caribbean Airlines passenger plane crashes near Machiques, Venezuela: 160 people are killed.
• 2008 – Usain Bolt broke the world record in the 2008 meters at the 100 Summer Olympics in Beijing with 9.69 seconds.
• 2009 – Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt broke the world record of 2009 in the 100 meters at the 9.58 World Championships in Athletics held in Berlin.

Births 

• 1055 – Melikşah, Ruler of Great Seljuk State (d. 1092)
• 1645 – Jean de La Bruyere, French writer (d. 1696)
• 1815 – Giovanni Bosco, Italian educator, author, and Catholic priest (d. 1888)
• 1821 – Arthur Cayley, English mathematician (d. 1895)
• 1832 – Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (d. 1920)
• 1858 – Arthur Achleitner, German writer (d. 1927)
• 1888 – Dora Gabe, Bulgarian poet, writer, translator and activist (d. 1983)
• 1913 – Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1992)
• 1920 – Charles Bukowski, American author (d. 1994)
• 1923 – Jack Aeby, American physicist and photographer (d. 2015)
• 1924 – Fess Parker, American film and television actress (d. 2010)
• 1925 – Bahtiyar Vahabzade, Azerbaijani poet and writer (d. 2009)
• 1927 – Lois Nettleton, American actress (d. 2008)
• 1928 – Eydie Gormé, American singer and musician (d. 2013)
• 1928 – Ara Güler, Turkish photographer (d. 2018)
• 1929 – Bill Evans, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 1980)
• 1929 – Fritz Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1997)
• 1930 – Robert Culp, American actor, copywriter, and director (d. 2010)
• 1930 – Flor Silvestre, Mexican actress, singer, and rider (d. 2020)
• 1933 – Dagfinn Bakke, Norwegian painter and graphic artist (d. 2019)
• 1933 – Reiner Kunze, German poet and writer
• 1933 - Julie Newmar is an American stage, television and film actress.
• 1934 – Diana Wynne Jones, English writer, mainly wrote fantasy novels (d. 2011)
• 1936 – Alan Hodgkinson, English international football player (d. 2015)
• 1937 – Ergun Öztuna, Turkish national football player
• 1939 – Ersin Faralyalı, Turkish industrialist and politician (d. 2008)
• 1939 – Billy Joe Shaver, American country singer, songwriter, and guitarist (d. 2020)
• 1940 – Bruce Beresford, Australian screenwriter and filmmaker
• 1945 – Bob Balaban is an American actor.
• 1945 – Russell Brookes, Former professional British speedway driver (d. 2019)
• 1946 – Massoud Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician and President of the Kurdistan Regional Government
• 1946 – Lesley Ann Warren is an American film and television actress.
• 1951 – Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian President and 13th President (d. 2010)
• 1951 – Erten Kasımoğlu, Turkish Cypriot cartoonist
• 1953 – Kathie Lee Gifford, American television host, actress, singer, songwriter, and author
• 1954 – James Cameron, American director, screenwriter, and producer
• 1957 – Laura Innes, American actress
• 1958 – Angela Bassett, American actress and director
• 1958 - Madonna, American pop singer
• 1960 – Timothy Hutton, American Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning actor
• 1962 – Steve Carell, American comedian, actor, producer, and writer
• 1963 – Christine Cavanaugh, American voice actor and actress (d. 2014)
• 1964 - Barry Venison, English former football player
• 1972 – Stan Lazaridis, Australian international footballer
• 1973 – Milan Rapaic, Croatian football player
• 1974 – Iván Hurtado, Ecuadorian national football player
• 1975 – Taika Waititi, New Zealand film director and actress
• 1977 – Pavel Kralovec, Czech football referee
• 1978 – Serdar Tuncer, Turkish television host and poet
• 1979 – Halil Sezai Paracıkoğlu, Turkish actor, musician, songwriter and composer
• 1981 – Roque Santa Cruz is a Paraguayan footballer who plays as a forward.
• 1982 – Joleon Lescott is an English former football player.
• 1982 – Sevcan Orhan, Turkish folk music artist
• 1983 - Nikos Zisis, Greek professional basketball player
• 1984 – Konstantin Vassiljev, Estonian national football player
• 1985 – Cristin Milioti, American actress and singer
• 1987 – Eri Kitamura, Japanese female voice actor and singer
• 1988 - Ismaïl Aissati, Moroccan football player
• 1989 – Moussa Sissoko, French football player
• 1990 – Godfrey Oboabona, Nigerian national football player
• 1991 – José Eduardo de Araújo, Brazilian football player
• 1991 - Evanna Lynch, Irish actress
• 1991 – Kwon Ri-se, Japanese singer and model (d. 2014)
• 1991 – Young Thug, American rapper, singer and songwriter
• 1992 – Ventura Alvarado, American football player
• 1992 – Diego Schwartzman is an Argentine tennis player.
• 1993 - Cameron Monaghan, American actress
• 1994 – Julian Pollersbeck, German football player
• 1997 – Greyson Chance, American pop singer and pianist

Deaths 

• 1027 – Giorgi I, a member of the Bagrationi Dynasty (b. 1002)
• 1225 – Hōjō Masako, Japanese political leader of the Heian and Kamakura periods (b. 1156)
• 1258 – II. Theodoros was the emperor of the Nicaean Empire between 1254-1258 (b. 1221)
• 1297 – II. John, Ruler of the Empire of Trebizond (b. 1262)
• 1443 – Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, seventh shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate (b. 1434)
• 1705 – Jakob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1654)
• 1861 – Ranavalona I, queen of the Merina Kingdom from 1828 to 1861 (b. 1782)
• 1886 – Sri Ramakrishna, Hindu saint (b. 1836)
• 1888 – John S. Pemberton, American pharmacist (first producer of Coca-Cola) (b. 1831)
• 1893 - Jean Martin Charcot, French neurologist. Known as the father of neurology (b. 1825)
• 1899 – Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
• 1919 – Alexander Izvolski, Russian diplomat (b. 1856)
• 1920 – John Gilbert Baker, English botanist (b. 1834)
• 1921 – Petar I (Petar Karadordevic), King of Serbia (b. 1844)
• 1934 – Calligrapher Aziz Efendi, Turkish calligrapher (b. 1872)
• 1938 – Andrej Hlinka, Slovak Catholic priest, journalist, banker and politician (b. 1864)
• 1938 – Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
• 1940 – Henri Desgrange, French racing cyclist and sportscaster (b. 1865)
• 1945 – Mahmut Yesari, Turkish writer (b. 1895)
• 1949 Margaret Mitchell, American writer ('Gone with the Wind'creator of ) (b. 1900)
• 1956 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (b. 1882)
• 1957 – Irving Langmuir, American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (b. 1881)
• 1973 – Selman Abraham Waksman, American biochemist (b. 1888)
• 1977 – Elvis Presley, American musician (b. 1935)
• 1979 – John Diefenbaker, Canadian politician (b. 1895)
• 1993 – Stewart Granger, British film actor (b. 1913)
• 1997 – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani musician (b. 1948)
• 2001 – Abdullah Rıza Ergüven, Turkish poet, writer, essayist, critic and philosopher (b. 1925)
• 2002 – Abu Nidal, Palestinian political leader (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Idi Amin, Ugandan soldier and 3rd President of Uganda (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Tonino Delli Colli, Italian cinematographer (b. 1922)
• 2006 – Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguayan soldier and President (b. 1912)
• 2008 – Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (b. 1934)
• 2008 – Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese farmer and philosopher (b. 1913)
• 2009 – Mualla Eyüboğlu, Turkish architect (one of Turkey's first female architects) (b. 1919)
• 2010 – Bekir Çınar, Turkish businessman (b. 1969)
• 2010 – Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek soldier (b. 1923)
• 2011 – Mihri Belli, Turkish communist politician and writer (b. 1915)
• 2012 – William Windom, famous American actor (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Besim Bokshi, Albanian poet, linguist and philologist (b. 1930)
• 2014 – Shaken Niyazbekov, Kazakh artist (b. 1938)
• 2015 – Jacob David Bekenstein, American-Israeli theoretical physicist and professor (b. 1947)
• 2015 – Sylvia Hitchcock, American model and former beauty queen (b. 1946)
• 2016 – Andrew Florent, former Australian tennis player (b. 1970)
• 2016 – João Havelange, Brazilian former FIFA president (1974-1998) (b. 1916)
• 2017 – Vera Glagoleva, Russian actress (b. 1956)
• 2017 – Kira Golovko, Soviet-Russian theater and film actress and theater instructor (b. 1919)
• 2017 – David Robert Somerset, English aristocrat, bureaucrat and politician (b. 1928)
• 2018 – Aretha Franklin, American singer and musician (b. 1942)
• 2018 – Yelena Shusunova is a Russian gymnast (b. 1969)
• 2018 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian politician (b. 1924)
• 2019 – Gustavo Barreiro, Cuban-American politician (b. 1959)
• 2019 – Christina was the youngest of four daughters of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (b. 1947)
• 2019 – Peter Fonda, American actor and director (b. 1940)
• 2019 – Felice Gimondi, Former Italian racing cyclist (b. 1942)
• 2019 – Faisal Masood, Pakistani educator, internist, and academic (b. 1954)
• 2019 – José Nápoles, Mexican professional boxer (b. 1940)
• 2020 – Chetan Chauhan, Indian cricketer who served as minister of youth and sports (b. 1947)
• 2020 – Viorica Ionică, Romanian handball player (b. 1955)
• 2020 – Caio Narcio, Brazilian politician and social scientist (b. 1986)
• 2020 – Aysultan Nazarbayev, Kazakh football player, businessperson (b. 1990)