16 Shahrivar 1391

Events

• 1885 (141 years ago) Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, thus accomplishing Bulgarian unification.
• 1939 (87 years ago) World War II: The British Royal Air Force suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of the Second World War at the Battle of Barking Creek as a result of friendly fire.
• 1955 (71 years ago) Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, and Armenian minorities are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom; dozens are killed in ensuing riots.
• 1972 (54 years ago) Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.
• 1991 (35 years ago) The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
• 1997 (29 years ago) The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over a million people line the streets and 21⁄2 billion watch around the world on television.
• 2007 (19 years ago) Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria.
• 2012 (14 years ago) Sixty-one people die after a fishing boat capsizes off the İzmir Province coast of Turkey, near the Greek Aegean islands.

Births

• 1757 (269 years ago) Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French general (died 1834)
• 1766 (260 years ago) John Dalton, English chemist, meteorologist, and physicist (died 1844)
• 1808 (218 years ago) Emir Abdelkader, Algerian religious and military leader (died 1883)
• 1860 (166 years ago) Jane Addams, American sociologist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1935)
• 1892 (134 years ago) Edward Victor Appleton, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965)
• 1943 (83 years ago) Roger Waters, English singer-songwriter and bass player
• 1963 (63 years ago) Geert Wilders, Dutch lawyer and politician
• 1972 (54 years ago) Idris Elba, English actor

Deaths

• 972 (1054 years ago) John XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (born 930)
• 1566 (460 years ago) Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman sultan (born 1494)
• 1907 (119 years ago) Sully Prudhomme, French poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1839)
• 1998 (28 years ago) Akira Kurosawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1910)
• 2007 (19 years ago) Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (born 1935)
• 2018 (8 years ago) Burt Reynolds, American actor, director and producer (born 1936)
• 2019 (7 years ago) Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (born 1924)
• 2021 (5 years ago) Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor (born 1933)

All 415 events, births and deaths of September 6