It happened one 16 July

1942 : First day of the roundup of the Vel 'd'Hiv


On 16 and 17 July 1942, took place the biggest roundup of Jews in France. 13,152 people of all ages were arrested, mainly by French police and gendarmerie. A portion of those arrested were taken to the Drancy camp and others at the Velodrome d'Hiver in the XVth district where they stayed five days without food or water before being sent to French camps and then Auschwitz. A few children could be saved before the departure. Otherwise, among those arrested these two days, only 25 people returned from the death camps.

1945 : First test of an atomic bomb in New Mexico


On July 16, 1945, an atomic bomb was successfully tested for the first time in Alamogordo, New Mexico. After the work of Albert Einstein on nuclear chain reactions and research by Enrico Fermi on atom fission, the U.S. Army set up a project to build a nuclear bomb, the Manhattan Project directed by Robert J. Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves, with the help of Hans Bethe, Edward Teller and Fermi among others, in Los Alamos.

1969 : Apollo 11 is launched


On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on a Saturn 5 rocket. Its purpose is to make the first man on the moon. The crew of Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Collins.

1990 : Earthquake in tne Philippines


On July 16, 1990, an earthquake of moment magnitude 7.7 hit the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Over 1000 people were killed, especially from the collapse of buildings.

1999 : John-John crashed with his plane


On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr. crashed in the sea with the aircraft he pilots. He traveled with his wife and his sister-in-law. Their bodies were found on July 21. Kennedy was flying in poor conditions while he was still unskilled.

Quote of the day : 16 July

Enrico Fermi
It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

Birthdays : 16 July

Joshua Reynolds, English painter (1723)
Samuel Huntington, American politician (1731)
Camille Corot, French painter (1796)
Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, first to reach North Pole and South Pole (1872)
Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize (1888)
Trygve Lie, Norwegian diplomat, 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations (1896)
Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (1907)
Ginger Rogers, American actress, singer and dancer (1911)
Irwin Rose, American biologist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1926)
Guy Béart, French singer (1930)
Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese politician (1936)
Pierre Koffmann, French chef (1948)
Miguel Indurain, Spanish cyclist (1964)
Will Ferrell, American comedian (1967)
Stefano Garzelli, Italian cyclist (1973)
Jamie Oliver, Welsh keyboardist (Lostprophets) (1975)
Jesse Jane, American porn actress (1980)
Justine Joli, American porn actress (1980)
Moussa Dembélé, Belgian footballer (1987)
Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer (1989)

They left us one 16 July

Go-Uda, Emperor of Japan (1324)
Giuseppe Crespi, Italian painter (1747)
Elie Metchnikoff, Russian microbiologist, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1916)
Patrick Dewaere, French actor (1982)
Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (1985)
Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (1989)
Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel laureate (1994)
John F. Kennedy, Jr., Magazine publisher (1999)
Maurice De Bevere (Morris) , Belgian cartoonist (Lucky Luke) (2001)
Other dates
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