These historical events took place on May 16th:
1777: Button Gwinnett, Georgia delegate to United States Continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, wounded in a duel with political rival Lachlan McIntosh.
1860: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln who would later become the 16th President of the United States of America and be the face on the penny.
1866: United States Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece this would replace the silver half-dime.
1868: United States Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson by one vote.
1918: The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the United States Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.
1941: First United States radio performance of Robert Russell Bennett’s “Symphony in D for the Dodgers.”
1946: Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields’ musical “Annie Get Your Gun” starring Ethel Merman and featuring “There’s No Business Like Show Business” opens at Imperial Theater, New York City.
1977: Five die as New York Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am building in New York City. As well, the television drama “Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn”, starring Leigh McCloskey, follow up to “Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway” premieres on United States network NBC, focusing on what happened to him after Dawn left Los Angeles to return to her hometown.
2011: Space shuttle Endeavour launches on its final commission in space.