May 16 in Pop Culture History

May 16 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

May 16 History Highlights

  • 1866 – The United States Congress established the 5-cent nickel.
  • 1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense.
    It was repealed on December 13, 1920.
  • 1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began, between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London.
  • If you were born on May 16th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… August 23rd (prior year)

Hires Root Beer

In Philadelphia, Charles Hires was the first to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer. The key to the original flavoring is Sassafras and Sarsaparilla. Native Americans used both of them as a topical ointment for wounds and acne, so like most sodas when they started, Root Beer was presented as an exotic, healthy drink.

The beverage proved to be popular, and pharmacies and people brewed them home style, but Charles Elmer Hires perfected Root Beer as we know it and sold it at The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. The Centennial Celebration was the First World’s Fair in the United States.

May 16 is…

Biographer’s Day
Coquilles St. Jacques Day

May 16 Birthday Quotes

“Everybody knows there is no such thing as normal. There is no black-and-white definition of normal. Normal is subjective. There’s only a messy, inconsistent, silly, hopeful version of how we feel most at home in our lives.”
– Tori Spelling

“I don’t believe in luck. It’s persistence, hard work, and not forgetting your dream.”
– Janet Jackson

“Years ago when I started doing TV and making appearances in big arenas, the place would put security guys up there and I said, “Please don’t do that. It’s very distracting to see ten cops in front of the stage. Everybody’s looking at the officers instead of me. I don’t want that.” I also found that people will dare to break a barricade. If they have a barricade, somebody will always try to jump over it. I’ve found that the more open I am, the better.”
– Liberace

“Everybody in their own imagination decides what scary is.”
– Yvonne Craig

“Just be you. I’ve learned the hard way and in the end, some people are just so full of hate that no matter what you say or do, they’ll always have something to say.”
– Megan Fox

May 16 Birthdays

1801 – William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (died in 1872)
1892 – Osgood Perkins, American character actor (died in 1937)
1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (died in 1982)
1919 – Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (died in 1987)
1937 – Yvonne Craig, American actress (died in 2015)
1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor
1951 – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor
1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter
1969 – Tucker Carlson, American journalist
1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor
1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress and reality television personality
1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
1990 – Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor

May 16 History

1866 – Charles Elmer Hires invented Root Beer in Philadelphia, PA.

1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany.

1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc.

1946 – Broadway Show – Annie Get Your Gun (Musical) May 16, 1946

1946 – Jack Mullin demonstrated the first magnetic tape recorder.

1964 #1 Hit May 16, 1964 – May 29, 1964: Mary WellsMy Guy. Motown Records got its first #1 hit with the song.

1966 – The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde were both released.

1981 #1 Hit May 16, 1981 – June 19, 1981: Kim CarnesBette Davis Eyes

1983 – The concert special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was broadcast by NBC; Michael Jackson performed his ‘moonwalk’ dance for the first time on television.

1987 #1 Hit May 16, 1987 – June 5, 1987: U2With or Without You

1988 – Nicotine was declared to be addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine, in a report released by US Surgeon-General C. Everett Koop.

1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress.

1996 – 12 million people tuned in for the series finale of Murder, She Wrote on CBS. The show was the longest-running American Murder-Mystery drama.

1998Unsolved Mysteries true-crime series ended.

May 16, 2006 – The Apple MacBook was released.

2014 – Broadcast journalist and TV personality Barbara Walters retired from ABC News and from the daytime program The View.

#1 Hit May 16, 2020 – May 22, 2020: Say SoDoja Cat featuring Nicki Minaj

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

Anne Ramsey (The Goonies, Throw Mama from the Train) also founded the Theater of Living Arts (the TLA) in Philadelphia.

“I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.” – Steve Martin

If 7 billion competed in a single-elimination rock paper scissor tournament, the winner would have only won 33 times in a row.

“Man has always learned from the past. After all, you can’t learn history in reverse!” – Archimedes #moviequotes

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off #moviequotes

Sometimes typing without looking at the keyboard works perfectly; other times it ends up kujw rgua~

The charcoal drawing of Kate Winslet in James Cameron’sTitanic was actually drawn by James Cameron.

“Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” – Lawrence Walsh (Joe Mantell) #moviequotes

My mom always told me, “Don’t talk to strangers online.” But that’s all I do.

The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science were all filmed in Highland Park, Illinois.

A group of Rabbits is called a Colony or Warren or Bury or Trace or Trip or Herd.

Lorde has made millions off a song about how she will never be a millionaire.

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