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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250thOn this day › October 16
What happened on October 16 in American history
October 16 is the 289th day of the year (the 290th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 6 stories from October 16 spanning 1859 to 1962. Among them: in 1859, John Brown and eighteen men seize the federal armory at Harpers Ferry; and in 1869, Well diggers near Cardiff strike a ten-foot stone giant.
1859
John Brown and eighteen men seize the federal armory at Harpers Ferry
The raiders cut telegraph wires and take hostages, but the uprising they expect never comes.
1869
Well diggers near Cardiff strike a ten-foot stone giant
Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols hit stone four feet down on Stub Newell's farm, and word of an ancient man spreads fast.
1891Member story · 1776 Club
Sailors on shore leave are set upon in Valparaíso; two Americans dead
A spat portrait, a saloon brawl, and an hour of stones and knives in a Chilean port.
1923
Walt and Roy Disney start a cartoon studio out of a Hollywood real-estate office
Roy signs on the morning after leaving a tuberculosis ward, betting on his brother's deal with a New York distributor.
1944Member story · 1776 Club
Four days over Formosa end: Japan's land-based air power is gutted
Mitscher's carrier pilots leave the Combined Fleet without air cover two weeks before Leyte Gulf.
1962Member story · 1776 Club
Kennedy is shown U-2 photos: Soviet missiles, ninety miles from Florida
The images were two days old before anyone in Washington saw them.
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