Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 16:
1900 – Joan of Arc canonised.
1975 – Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to climb Everest.
1986 – Members of the military junta that led Argentina to defeat in the 1982 Falklands war with Britain were sentenced to between eight and 14 years’ imprisonment and stripped of their rank. Former President Leopoldo Galtieri was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
1990 – The American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr died of throat cancer aged 64.
1997 – President Mobutu Sese Seko fled into exile as rebels closed in on Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2002 – Belgium became the second country after the Netherlands to decriminalise euthanasia when the lower house of parliament passed a bill giving patients the “right to die”.
2003 – Suicide bombers set off at least five blasts in Morocco’s biggest city, Casablanca. Forty-five people were killed, including 12 suicide bombers, and about 60 people were injured.
2005 – The Democratic Republic of Congo adopted a new constitution in line with a peace deal meant to end a five-year war.
2005 – The Kuwaiti parliament passed legislation granting women the right to vote and stand in elections.
2011 – Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off from Cape Canaveral on its 25th and final flight.
2014 – Twin explosions at Nairobi’s open-air Gikomba market.
(Reuters)