What happend on 16th May

15.05
17.05
1960

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

1960

Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

1948

Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.

1943

World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.

1943

Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

1938

A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.

1929

In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.

1920

In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

1919

US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1918

The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.