66 years ago today
Theodore Maiman Fires the World's First Laser
On May 16, 1960, physicist Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, successfully operated the world's first working laser — a ruby laser that emitted a brilliant pulse of coherent red light. Building on the theoretical groundwork of Albert Einstein, Charles Townes, and others, Maiman achieved what many had doubted was practically achievable. The announcement was initially rejected by the journal Physical Review Letters and had to be published in Nature. Within decades, lasers transformed surgery, telecommunications, manufacturing, data storage, entertainment, and weaponry. Today, lasers are so fundamental to modern civilization that it is almost impossible to imagine life without them.
Henry Fonda
American actor
Henry Fonda was one of the defining actors of Hollywood's golden age, celebrated for his portrayal of ordinary American decency and integrity in films like "The Grapes of Wrath," "12 Angry Men," and "Once Upon a Time in the West." He finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor in his final film, "On Golden Pond," released the year he died.
Liberace
American pianist and entertainer
Liberace was the most commercially successful pianist of the 1950s and 60s, combining virtuosic playing with flamboyant costumes, candelabras, and showmanship that made him one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world. His elaborate Las Vegas performances set the template for the modern superstar spectacle.
Adrienne Rich
American poet and feminist essayist
Adrienne Rich was one of the most important American poets and feminists of the twentieth century, whose collections including "Diving into the Wreck" and "Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law" combined formal craft with radical political consciousness. She famously refused the National Medal of Arts in 1997 to protest U.S. arts funding policies.
Pierce Brosnan
Irish-American actor
Pierce Brosnan became internationally famous as the fifth actor to portray James Bond, starring in four Bond films from 1995 to 2002. He later demonstrated his range in films like "The Matador" and the "Mamma Mia!" franchise.
Janet Jackson
American singer-songwriter and actress
Janet Jackson emerged from her famous family's shadow to become one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with albums like "Control" and "Rhythm Nation 1814" defining pop music of the late 1980s. She is one of the most awarded female artists in music history.
Thomas More Resigns as Lord Chancellor
Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England rather than support Henry VIII's break with Rome over his desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. More would be executed for treason three years later and later canonized as a saint.
Marie Antoinette Marries the Future Louis XVI
The 14-year-old Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette married the 15-year-old French dauphin Louis-Auguste at Versailles in a union designed to cement the Franco-Austrian alliance. The marriage would ultimately end on the guillotine for both.
U.S. Senate Fails to Convict Andrew Johnson by One Vote
The U.S. Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict President Andrew Johnson on impeachment charges, sparing him from removal. It was the first presidential impeachment trial in American history.
Nikola Tesla Lectures on Alternating Current
Nikola Tesla delivered his landmark lecture on the transmission of electrical power using alternating current to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, laying the groundwork for the modern electrical grid and his eventual showdown with Thomas Edison.
Sykes-Picot Agreement Secretly Divides the Middle East
Britain and France secretly signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, carving up the former Ottoman territories of the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. The agreement drew borders with little regard for ethnic, religious, or tribal boundaries — the consequences of which still reverberate today.
First Academy Awards Ceremony
The very first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, a private banquet lasting only 15 minutes. Emil Jannings won Best Actor and Janet Gaynor Best Actress in a ceremony honoring films released between 1927 and 1928.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Ends; RAF Dambuster Raid Launched
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising — the largest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust — was crushed after nearly four weeks of fierce fighting, while on the same night RAF bombers breached the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany's Ruhr valley in the famous "Dambuster" raid.
Mao Launches the Cultural Revolution
The Chinese Communist Party issued the "May 16 Notice," initiating Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution — a decade-long campaign of political purges, mass violence, and cultural destruction that killed hundreds of thousands and upended Chinese society.
Junko Tabei Becomes First Woman to Summit Everest
Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, achieving the climb just twelve days after her team was nearly buried by an avalanche at Camp II.
Jim Henson Dies
Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, Sesame Street's beloved characters, and one of the most influential figures in children's television history, died unexpectedly of organ failure caused by streptococcal toxic shock syndrome at age 53.
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American puppeteer and creator of the Muppets
Jim Henson created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the entire Muppets universe, as well as co-creating Sesame Street and its iconic characters. His death at 53 from a sudden infection shocked the entertainment world and left an unfillable void in children's media.
Sammy Davis Jr.
American entertainer
Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the most versatile entertainers of the twentieth century — a singer, dancer, comedian, and actor who overcame profound racial obstacles during the Jim Crow era to become a star of stage, film, television, and nightclubs. His life story was as much a chronicle of American racial history as of show business.
Django Reinhardt
Belgian jazz guitarist and composer
Django Reinhardt was one of the greatest jazz guitarists who ever lived, developing a revolutionary two-fingered technique after losing the use of two fingers on his left hand in a caravan fire. His "Hot Club" recordings with violinist Stéphane Grappelli created the genre known as gypsy jazz.
Andy Kaufman
American comedian and performance artist
Andy Kaufman was a radically original performance artist whose boundary-dissolving work confused, provoked, and delighted audiences. Famous for his Tony Clifton alter ego and inter-gender wrestling stunts on "Taxi," his death from lung cancer at 35 prompted speculation — which he would have appreciated — that he had faked it.
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