| 16 August 963 | Byzantine Empire [political events] | Following the death of the Byzantine emperor Romanus II, the Byzantine general Nicephorus Phocas is crowned Byzantine emperor (Nicephorus II), and shortly after marries Romanus's widow. |
| 16 August 1311 | England [administration] | A parliament meets in which King Edward II of England accepts the Ordinances for the reform of his government and banishes his favourite, Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall. |
| 16 August 1513 | England, Holy Roman Empire, France, Spanish Netherlands [Habsburg–Valois Wars (1494–1559)] | King Henry VIII of England and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I lead the English expeditionary force to rout a French army attempting to break their siege of the fortress city of Thérouanne on the River Scheldt, the Netherlands, in the so-called ‘Battle of the Spurs’. |
| 16 August–12 September 1692 | France, Savoy, Italy [War of the League of Augsburg (1688–97)] | Allied troops launch an invasion of France from Savoy. They converge on Embrun in Dauphiné, which capitulates on 16 August. However, because of supply problems they decide to withdraw on 12 September. France remains free from foreign troops for the rest of the Nine Years' War (also known as the War of the League of Augsburg). |
| 16 August 1717 | Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Serbia, Hungary [Habsburg–Ottoman Wars (1525–1718)] | The Austrian general Prince Eugène of Savoy defeats an Ottoman army of 200,000 men under Halil Pasha, at Peterwardein, Hungary. Halil had been ordered to relieve Belgrade, on the right bank of the River Danube in Serbia, which had been under Austrian siege since May. Belgrade surrenders on 22 August. |
| 16 August 1819 | UK [law and government] | The ‘Peterloo Massacre’ takes place in England when a crowd of 60,000 people gathered in St Peter's Fields, Manchester, to listen to speeches on parliamentary reform and repeal of the Corn Laws, is charged on by the yeomanry. Eleven people are killed and 400 injured. |
| 16 August 1858 | UK, USA [technology] | Queen Victoria of Britain and US president James Buchanan are the first to exchange messages on the first successful Atlantic telegraph cable laid between Valentia, Ireland, and Newfoundland, Canada. The cable lasts for only 27 days. |
| 16 August 1960 | Cyprus [law and government] | Cyprus becomes an independent republic with Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios as president and Turkish Cypriot Dr Fazil Kütchük as vice-president. |
| 16 August 1974 | Cyprus [political events] | A second ceasefire following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus leaves 40% of the island under Turkish control. |
| 16–17 August 1977 | USA [musical performers] | Around 2 million Elvis Presley records sell within one day of his death. |
| 16 August 1977 | USA [births and deaths] | Elvis Presley, US rock and roll singer, whose great success changed US popular culture, dies of heart failure (probably associated with drug abuse) at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee (42). |
| 16 August 1987 | USA [musical performers] | Fifty thousand people gather in Memphis, Tennessee, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. |
| 16 August 2000 | UK [health and medicine] | The British government approves its chief medical officer's proposals to allow the cloning of human embryos less than 14 days old for research purposes. |
