| 16 May 1152 | Anjou, Normandy, Aquitaine, France [diplomacy] | Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Maine and Duke of Normandy, marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, gaining her lands in southern France – he now controls more of France than King Louis VII of France. |
| 16 May 1596 | United Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, England, France, Spain [treaties] | The Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, Advocaat of Holland, mediates in the formation of a triple alliance against Spain; England, France, and the United Netherlands sign a formal treaty at Greenwich, London, England, against their mutual enemy. |
| 16 May 1795 | United Netherlands, Batavian Republic [administration] | The Dutch Republic is reorganized under French control as the Batavian Republic, and signs an offensive and defensive alliance with France. |
| 16 May 1796 | France, Italy [administration] | The northern Italian region of Lombardy is declared a republic, under French rule. |
| 16 May 1905 | [births and deaths] | Henry Fonda, US actor of stage and film, born in Grand Island, Nebraska (–1982). |
| 16 May 1926 | [births and deaths] | Mehmed VI, last sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1918–22, dies in San Remo, Italy (65). |
| 16 May 1926 | Ireland [political events] | The Irish nationalist Eamon de Valera founds the Fianna Fáil (‘Soldiers of Destiny’) party in the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) to put up republican candidates for election to the Dáil (parliament). |
| 16 May 1939 | USA [food and drink] | Rochester, New York, begins a food-stamp plan to distribute surplus food to the poor, a plan copied by more than 100 US cities in the next two years. |
| 16 May 1943 | Germany, UK [World War II (1939–45)] | British bombers attack three dams in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany in Operation Chastise, using the rotating bouncing bombs designed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis. Two dams are breached. |
| 16 May 1947 | England [births and deaths] | Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist who discovered vitamins, dies in Cambridge, England (85). |
| 16 May 1967 | France, UK [diplomacy] | The French president Charles de Gaulle, in a press conference, virtually vetoes British entry into the European Economic Community (EEC). |
| 16 May 1975 | Japan, Asia [mountaineering] | Junko Tabei of Japan becomes the first woman to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. |
| 16 May 1993 | Germany, Somalia [United Nations] | German troops are sent to Somalia as part of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force; this is the first time since their incorporation into NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) that they have served outside Europe. |
| 16–17 May 1997 | Zaire [political events] | Antigovernment Tutsi rebels take Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, and President Mobutu Sese Seko flees. The country is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. |
| 16 May 2003 | Morocco [terrorism] | In Casablanca, Morocco, 12 suicide bombers thought to be Islamic fundamentalists linked to the al-Qaeda international terrorist network kill about 30 other people and injure many more in five coordinated explosions at a hotel, a nightclub, a Jewish community centre and cemetery, and the Belgian consulate. |
| 16 May 2005 | Kuwait [women's rights] | In the conservative Arab state of Kuwait, the National Assembly passes legislation granting women the right to vote and stand for office in elections. |
