| 16 January 27 BC | Roman Empire, Spain, Gaul, Syria, Egypt, Roman Empire [administration] | The Roman Senate, in gratitude, bestows on the Roman consul Octavian the name of Augustus. Augustus remains Imperator (‘emperor’, or head of the army), and invents for himself the new title of Princeps (‘first citizen’). His authority as an elder statesman gradually hardens into imperial power. The Senate also gives him provincial imperium for ten years over a large province consisting of Spain, Gaul, Syria, and Egypt. The other provinces are given back to the Senate for administration. |
| 16 January 1547 | Russia [political events] | Ivan IV (‘the Terrible’) is crowned as first ‘Tsar of All the Russias’ in Moscow, aged 16. He marries the princess Anastasia Romanovna the following month. |
| 16 January 1556 | Spain [political events] | The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V abdicates as king (Charles I) of Spain; his son succeeds him as King Philip II. |
| 16 January 1595 | Ottoman Empire [political events] | The Ottoman sultan Murad III dies; he is succeeded by his son Mehmed III, though Mehmed's mother Safiye Sultan continues to hold much of the power in the Porte. |
| 16 January 1641 | Spain, France [political events] | Pau Claris, the leader of the Catalan revolt, announces that Catalonia is now an independent republic under the protection of the French. The rebels swear allegiance to King Louis XIII of France. |
| 16 January 1666 | France, UK, United Netherlands, Germany, Holy Roman Empire [treaties] | By the terms of the treaty of 1662, France declares war against Britain in support of the United Netherlands. The French send an army against the bishop of Münster in the Holy Roman Empire, Britain's sole ally, whose forces have invaded the eastern provinces of the United Netherlands. |
| 16 January 1756 | UK, Prussia, Hanover, Germany, Holy Roman Empire [treaties] | The Treaty of Westminster is signed by Britain and Prussia, by which King Frederick II the Great of Prussia guarantees the neutrality of Hanover, which is designed to frustrate French attempts to seize King George II of Britain's German provinces. This precipitates the Franco-Austrian rapprochement. |
| 16 January 1761 | India [Seven Years War (1754–62)] | The Irish-born British general Sir Eyre Coote takes the French base of Pondicherry after a three-month siege, ending French supremacy in southern India. |
| 16 January 1794 | England [births and deaths] | Edward Gibbon, English historian, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, dies in London, England (57). |
| 16 January 1920 | USA [food and drink] | Prohibition (the ban on manufacturing, selling, or transporting alcohol) begins in the USA, leading to an increase in the sales of soft drinks and coffee and a thriving bootleg and homebrew industry. |
| 16 January 1925 | USSR [political events] | Leon Trotsky, outmanoeuvred by Joseph Stalin in his battle for the leadership of the USSR, is dismissed from the chairmanship of the Revolutionary Military Council. |
| 16 January 1969 | Czechoslovakia [political events] | The Czech student Jan Palach publicly burns himself to death in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest at Soviet occupation. |
| 16 January 1979 | Iran, Egypt [political events] | The shah of Iran and his family flee to Egypt, driven into exile by supporters of the Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini. |
| 16 January 1982 | UK [diplomacy] | Britain and the Vatican resume full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years. |
| 16 January 1984 | UK [television] | The Sky Channel, the first pay satellite television in Britain, begins broadcasting to 10,000 subscribers on Thorn-EMI's existing cable network. |
| 16 January 1987 | USA [family planning] | KRON television in San Francisco, California, shows the first advertisements promoting the use of condoms for safe sex. |
| 16 January 1991 | USA, Kuwait, Iraq [Gulf War (1990–91)] | A US-led coalition commences air offensive ‘Operation Desert Storm’ to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, beginning the Gulf War. |
