Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 16
This is a list of selected July 16 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
July 16: Feast Day of Saint Helier (Roman Catholic Church)
- 1769 – Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá (pictured today), the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain.
- 1790 – The United States Congress passed 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.
- 1945 – Manhattan Project: "Trinity", the first nuclear test explosion, was detonated near Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States.
- 1983 – A British Airways Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashed in the Celtic Sea when en route from Penzance in England to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly in thick fog, killing 20 of the 26 on board, and sparking a review of helicopter safety in the United Kingdom.
- 1994 – Fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet began hitting the planet Jupiter, with the first one causing a fireball which reached a peak temperature of about 24,000K.