What Happened Today in History on October 16

The Council of Vienne begins on October 16 1311 to discuss various church matters including the Templar Order. The council was summoned by Pope Clement V under heavy pressure from King Philip IV of France, who had arrested the Templars in France in 1307. The Council ended on May 6, 1312.  More 

Marie Antoinette, the former Queen of France, is executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. She was 37. Her husband, Louis XVI had been executed on January 23, 1793  More

The three- day Battle of Leipzig fought at Leipzig, Saxony from from October 16 to October 19, 1813 begins. The Grande Armée of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was decisively defeated by the Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia. It was the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, involving over 550,000 soldiers.  Expand +

John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters start their march toward the town of Harpers Ferry. In the early hours of October 17, they capture local residents and seized the federal armory and arsenal. Brown was captured two days later and quickly placed on trial and charged with treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and slave insurrection. Brown was sentenced to death for his crimes and hanged on December 2, 1859. More

Walt Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies — the date is used as the start of the Disney company, first known as “The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.” More

The Red Army brakes through the first Nationalist enemy lines which were surrounding it and sets out on its Long March, a year-long trek to the west and to the north. More

The People's Republic of China (PRC) joined the nuclear club when it tested a nuclear device at its Lop Nur test site in Inner Mongolia. More

Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła of Poland was elected to be the 264th Pope; he assumed the name John Paul II and was the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years. More

An estimated 850,000 to 1 Million African American men from across the United States gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The march took place in the context of a larger grassroots movement that set out to win politicians' attention for urban and minority issues through widespread voter registration campaigns.  Expand +

NASA's Lucy spacecraft launches on a 12-year journey to study the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive asteroids orbiting in tandem with Jupiter, marking a significant step in asteroid research. More