Today: Saturday - 16 May 2026
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Events

1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
1771 - The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
1811 - Peninsular War – The allies Spain, Portugal and Britain, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
1815 - The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.
1822 - Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
1874 - A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
1877 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
1910 - The United States Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
1914 - The first ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final is played. Brooklyn Field Club defeats Brooklyn Celtic 2-1.
1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1919 - A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected the first President of Israel.
1951 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
1965 - The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.
1966 - The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
1974 - Josip Broz Tito is re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he is elected for life.
1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favour of merging with India.
1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1983 - Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.
1986 - The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.
1988 - A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
2004 - The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.
2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
2006 - A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand.

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2026

1 JanuaryNew Year's Day (El am Hejir)
8 MarchMarch 8 Revolution (Ṯaurät aṯ-Ṯāmin min Āḏār ثورة الثامن من اذار)
20 MarchEnd of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr)
21 MarchMother's Day
21 MarchEnd of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr)
22 MarchEnd of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr)
17 AprilEvacuation Day
1 MayLabour Day
6 MayMartyrs' Day
26 MaySacrifice Feast (Eid ul-Adha)
27 MaySacrifice Feast (Eid ul-Adha)
28 MaySacrifice Feast (Eid ul-Adha)
16 JuneIslamic New Year (El am Hejir)
10 SeptemberBirth of the Prophet (Eid-Milad Nnabi)
6 OctoberOctober Liberatory War (حرب تشرين التحريرية Harb Teshreen Al-Tahririyyah)
25 DecemberChristmas
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Syrian Arab Republic
الجمهوريّة العربيّة السّوريّة
Syrian Arab Republic - FlagSyrian Arab Republic - Coat of arms
Syrian Arab Republic - Location
Capital: Damascus
Official languages: Arabic
Government: Republic
Currency: Syrian Pound (SYP)
Population: 19 748 000
Area: 185 180 km²
Religion: Islam
Time Zone:
UTC +2 winter
UTC +3 summer
Auto Code: SYR
Internet TLD: .sy
Calling code: +963
Corporate Income Tax: 0-28%
Personal Income Tax: 0-22%
Value Added Tax: 0-10%
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