16 Nov 1896
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
- Oswald Mosley was born at 47 Hill Street, Mayfair, London, England, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1916
United States
United States
- USS Arizona departed Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, United States for shakedown training.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1918
Hungary
Hungary
- The Hungarian Republic was established.
16 Nov 1921
United States
United States
- Joseph Rochefort requested transfer to battleship USS Connecticut.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1927
- Saratoga was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1933
- Franklin Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union.
» In-depth article - Submarine tender Taigei was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
16 Nov 1934
- Emperor Showa visited the Nakajima aircraft plant at Ota, Gunma Prefecture, Japan.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1935
Germany
Germany
- Blohm & Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany received the contract for laying down the hull of the future battleship Bismarck; the construction number was BV 509.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1936
- Spanish Nationalist Colonel José Varela's troops had forced a bridgehead over the River Manzanares en route to Madrid, Spain. They would capture almost three quarters of the University City in the coming week before being stopped by Spanish Republican militias.
» In-depth article - John Winant began his second term as the Chairman of the United States Social Security Board.
» In-depth article - Soviet pilot Pavel Rychagov was shot down in Spain in an I-15 fighter; he survived the crash.
» In-depth article
- The US 2nd Marine Brigade completed a three-day training exercise with US Navy warships at San Clemente Island, California, United States.
16 Nov 1937
- Chiang Kaishek ordered Chinese government ministries and agencies to depart from the capital city of Nanjing within the next three to four days.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1938
Russia
Russia
- Lavrentiy Beria personally interrogated Yakov Serebryansky, a former NKVD leader; Serebryansky later reported that he was beaten severely until he agreed to sign a previously prepared confession document.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1939
- In Egypt, Major General Michael O'Mare Creagh replaced Major General P. C. S. "Hobo" Hobart as GOC of the Mobile Division (Later 7th Armoured).
16 Nov 1940
- American destroyer Punkett intercepted German tanker Phrygia; Phrygia's crew scuttled the ship to avoid capture.
- The Greek 3rd Army Corps broke through the Italian 9th Army defensive line at Korcë, Albania. Far to the south, 4,230 British troops arrived at Pireaus, Greece by sea.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-65 sank British ship Fabian with torpedo and her deck gun 250 miles southwest of Sierra Leone, killing 6. 33 survivors were briefly interrogated, given food and water, and placed in lifeboats; they would later be rescued by British tanker British Statesman.
- German submarine U-137 sank British ship Planter 30 miles north of Ireland at 2015 hours; 13 were killed and 60 survivors were picked up by British destroyer HMS Clare.
- British anti-submarine trawler HMT Arsenal collided with Polish destroyer Burza 4 miles south of Toward, Clyde River estuary, Scotland, United Kingdom. Arsenal sank as her depth charges were detonated, which damaged HMS Arrow which came to rescue survivors. Tug Superman also participated in the rescue.
- Heinz Guderian was named commander of Panzer Group 2.
» In-depth article
- RAF bombers attacked Hamburg, Germany again for the second day in a row.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1941
- On this Sunday, a Catholic Mass was secretly held in a dark aisle between bunks on the second floor of Block 4 at Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
» In-depth article - Japanese carrier fleet exercised in the Kurile Islands.
- Canadian troops arrived at Hong Kong.
- British Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes' team, tasked with capturing or assassinating Erwin Rommel in Libya, hid during daylight and moved into positions after sundown.
» In-depth article - German 3rd Panzer Party established a crossing over the Lama River 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia.
» In-depth article - British corvette HMS Marigold damaged German submarine U-433 with depth charges 50 miles east of Gibraltar at 2255 hours. After U-433 surfaced, Marigold continued to attack her with guns. U-433's crew scuttled the boat after suffering 6 killed; the 38 survivors were captured.
- Allied convoy PQ-3 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland in stormy weather.
» In-depth article
- Obsolete Japanese dreadnought Settsu began to sail around the Inland Sea in Japan to generate fake radio communication messages at different ports.
» In-depth article - Crown Prince Euimin was attached to the training department of the Japanese Army.
» In-depth article
- The German 11.Armee captured Kerch, Ukraine. Soviet Deputy Navy Commissar Admiral Gordei Levchenko was arrested after being deemed responsible for this defeat.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1942
- Georg von Bismarck was promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant posthumously.
» In-depth article - American destroyers sank German submarine U-173 off Casablanca, French Morocco.
» In-depth article - The first US Marine night fighter squadron, VMF(N)-531, was commissioned at Cherry Point, North Carolina, United States under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Schwable.
- Oberfeldwebel Karl Lipp of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
- Two or three US B-24 bombers were destroyed while a further two were damaged during an accident during a takeoff at the Iron Range airfield in Queensland, Australia.
- Repair ship Akashi completed the repair work for destroyer Kuroshio at Truk, Caroline Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- The Italian Air Force merged its "Loreto" combat engineers battalion and the 1st Air Force Paratroop Unit to form the 1st Air Force Assault Regiment "Amedeo d'Aosta" at Marsala, Sicily, Italy.
- Joseph Rochefort was transferred to the US Navy Office of the Chief of Naval Operations based in Washington DC, United States. Later in the day, he wrote a personal letter to his former subordinates in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, noting that his relief was the result of politics, and asking them to be loyal to his successor William Goggins, who was not part of the bureaucratic in-fighting.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1943
- Greek island Leros again surrendered to the Germans; Germans carried out severe reprisals against the Italians who cooperated with British forces.
» In-depth article - British bombers attacked the Telemark heavy water plant in Norway, which was in the process of being rebuilt by the Germans.
- US 705th Railway Grand Division, the 758th Railway Shop Battalion, and the 721st, 725th, 726th, 745th, and 748th Railway Operating Battalions were transferred to British India to assist in the expansion of railway systems from India to Burma.
- USS Cero arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her first war patrol.
» In-depth article
- The US submarine Corvina was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-176 off Truk, Caroline Islands.
» In-depth article
- Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan for her 16th voyage with the Japanese Navy.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
16 Nov 1944
- USS Trepang departed for her second war patrol.
» In-depth article - US First and Ninth Armies began attacking east of Aachen, Germany, aimed at the Roer Dams.
- With sufficient ports now usable by the Allies in Europe, the Red Ball Express was shut down.
- German V-2 rocket hit Collier Row in Romford, Essex, England, United Kingdom, killing 12 and injuring 32.
- USS Segundo departed for her second war patrol.
» In-depth article - USS Becuna departed Fremantle, Australia for her second war patrol.
» In-depth article - USS Guitarro arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her third war patrol.
» In-depth article - USS Astoria departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for Eniwetok, Marshall Islands after conducting 16 days of gunnery exercises in Hawaiian waters.
» In-depth article - USS Ray fired two torpedoes at a grounded Japanese transport in the Philippine Islands; both torpedoes missed.
» In-depth article
- Destroyer Yukikaze departed Brunei, Borneo to escort a task force to Kure, Japan.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1945
- 88 German rocket scientists were brought into the United States.
16 Nov 1965
- Erik Heinrichs passed away.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1966
- Destroyer Tang Yan was decommissioned from service.
» In-depth article
16 Nov 1973
United States
United States
- Ticonderoga was struck from the US Naval Vessel Register.
» In-depth article
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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"Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!"Captain Henry P. Jim Crowe, Guadalcanal, 13 Jan 1943