ON MAY 16 ...
In 1763, the English lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson first met his future biographer, James Boswell.
In 1866 Congress authorized minting of the 5-cent piece.
In 1868 the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him.
In 1912 author Studs Terkel was born Lewis Terkel in New York.
In 1920 Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.
In 1929 the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. (The movie “Wings” won “best production” while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.)
In 1960 a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U2 incident.
In 1975 Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.
In 1977 five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.
In 1988 Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report declaring nicotine was addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine. Also in 1988 the Supreme Court ruled that police can search discarded garbage without a search warrant.
In 1989, during his visit to Beijing, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, formally ending a 30-year rift between the two Communist powers.
In 1990 entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. died in Los Angeles; he was 64. Also in 1990 Muppets creator Jim Henson died in New York; he was 53.
In 1991 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
In 1994 Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shutting down the prison and military headquarters where Israeli soldiers had been in charge since the 1967 Middle East War.
In 1997 President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis.
In 1999 the Justice Department said preliminary figures from the FBI indicated a decline in serious crime in 1998 for the seventh consecutive year.
In 2000 the Federal Reserve raised its federal funds rate by a half point, the biggest increase in five years. Also in 2000 the New York Democratic Party, meeting in Albany, nominated first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the U.S. Senate.
In 2002 the remains of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were unearthed in Pakistan.
In 2005 Newsweek magazine retracted its Quran abuse story that sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan that left about 15 people dead and scores injured.
In 2006 the Pentagon released the first video images of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the military headquarters building and killing 189 people in the Sept. 11 hijacking. Also in 2006 Richard Hatch, who had won $1 million in the debut season of “Survivor,” was sentenced in Providence, R.I., to more than four years in prison for failing to pay taxes on his reality TV prize and other income. Also in 2006 Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, the winningest coaches in Division I-A football, were elected to the college football Hall of Fame.
In 2011 Rahm Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman and chief of staff for President Barack Obama, took office as the 46th mayor of Chicago, replacing Richard M. Daley, who served a record 22 years in the post.