By Robert Crowe
– 1916 is a leap year.
– The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a national income tax.
– WWI Paris is bombed by German zeppelins.
– BMW is founded in Germany.
– Poncho Villa attacks Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 American soldiers.
– In April, the Chicago Cubs play their first game in Weeghman Park, later called Wrigley Field.
– The Easter Rising occurs in Dublin, Ireland, declaring an Irish State. The uprising was ended by British troops.
– The Boy Scouts of America incorporation is approved by President Wilson.
– A shark attack off New Jersey shores prompts a book fifty years later, “Jaws,” by Peter Benchley.
– On September 13, Mary, a circus elephant, is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee, for killing her handler, Walter “Red” Eldridge.
– College football: Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College 222 – 0.
– Woodrow Wilson beat Charles Hughes in the U.S. Presidential election.
– Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
– Writer Jack London died of kidney failure at his California home, aged 40.
– In December, German troops are defeated at Verdun, France.
– The mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Births:
Maxene Andrews (Andrews Sisters) d. 1995
Jackie Gleason (actor, musician) d. 1987
Preacher Roe (baseball player) d. 2008
Dinah Shore (singer) d. 1994
Harry James (musician) d. 1983
Eugene McCarthy (politician) d. 2005
Gregory Peck (actor) d. 2003
Beverly Cleary (author)
Glenn Ford (actor) d. 2006
Harold Robbins (author) d. 1997
Robert McNamara (US Secretary of State) d. 2009
Olivia de Havilland (actress)
Phil Cavarretta (baseball player) d. 2010
Walter Cronkite (journalist) d. 2009
Kirk Douglas (actor)
Shirley Jackson (author) d.1965
