Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/May 16

Births

 * 1578 – Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
 * 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (pictured) (d. 1689)
 * 1801 – William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, bought Alaska at 2 ¢/acre (d. 1872)
 * 1845 – Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist (d. 1916)
 * 1919 – Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
 * 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
 * 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player

Deaths

 * 1703 – Saint Andrew Bobola, Polish martyr (b. 1591)
 * 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (b. 1768)
 * 1891 – Ion Brătianu, Romanian politician (b. 1821)
 * 1926 – Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
 * 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
 * 1990 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American entertainer (b. 1925)
 * 1990  – Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)