Events from the year 1916 in the United States .
July 1 – The United States Marine Corps take control of Santo Domingo .
July 1–12 – At least one shark mauls five swimmers along 80 miles (130 km) of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 , resulting in four deaths and the survival of one youth who required limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley , over half a century later, to write Jaws
July 8–16 – Massive flooding caused by two hurricanes devastates western North Carolina .[citation needed
July 15 – In Seattle, Washington , William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed The Boeing Company ).
July 22 – In San Francisco, California , a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 and injuring 40. Warren Billings and Tom Mooney would later be wrongfully convicted of the bombing.
July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey , an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least seven people. September 1 – The Keating–Owen Act , the first federal law to restrict child labor , is passed, but is ruled unconstitutional in 1918.
September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith 's film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages
September 6 – The first true self-service grocery store , Piggly Wiggly , is founded in Memphis, Tennessee , by Clarence Saunders (opening 5 days later).
September 7 – The Merchant Marine Act of 1916 establishes the U.S. Shipping Board (inaugurated January 1917).
September 13 – Mary , a circus elephant , is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee for killing her handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge.
September 30 – Construction is completed on the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City .
Gregory Peck January 3
January 6 – Eugene Thomas Maleska , American journalist (died 1993 )[ 6]
January 9 – Vic Mizzy , television theme composer (died 2009 )
January 14
January 15 – Artie Shapiro , jazz bassist (died 2003 )
January 17 – Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr. , politician (died 2011 )
January 19 – Harry Huskey , computer designer (died 2017 )
January 23 – David Douglas Duncan , photojournalist (died 2018 )
January 24 – Marvin Creamer , sailor (died 2020 )
February 7 – Floyd Haskell , U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1973 to 1979 (died 1998 )
February 9 – Tex Hughson , baseball player (died 1993 )
February 10
February 14 – Denham Harman , gerontologist (died 2014 )
February 20 – Jean Erdman , dancer (died 2020 )
February 23 – Retta Scott , animator (died 1990 )
February 26
February 29 – Dinah Shore , popular singer (died 1994 )
March 1 – Emelyn Whiton , Olympic sailor (died 1962 )
March 4 – William Alland , film actor, producer, writer and director (died 1997 )
March 5 – Jack Hamm , cartoonist (died 1996 )
March 13
March 14 – Horton Foote , writer (died 2009 )
March 15
March 16 – Mercedes McCambridge , actress (died 2004 )[ 8]
March 19 – Irving Wallace , novelist (died 1990 )
March 26 – Christian B. Anfinsen , biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 1995 )
March 29 – Eugene McCarthy , U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1959 to 1971 (died 2005 )
March 31 – Lucille Bliss , voice actress (died 2012 )
April 3
April 4 – Robert S. McMillan , architect (died 2001 )
April 5
April 12
April 13 – Phyllis Fraser , actress and publisher (died 2006 )
April 16 – Ted Mann , businessman (d. 2001)
April 15 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale , department store heir (died 1982 )
April 20 – Phil Walters , race car driver and pilot (died 2000 )
April 22 – Yehudi Menuhin , violinist (died 1999 )
April 24
April 25 – R. J. Rushdoony , founder of Christian Reconstructionism (died 2001 )
April 26
April 30
May 2 – Two Ton Baker (Richard Baker), entertainer (died 1975 )
May 4 – Jane Jacobs , née Butzner, urban activist (died 2006 in Canada )
May 6
May 10 – Milton Babbitt , composer (died 2011 )
May 21
May 28 – Dorothy McGuire , film actress (died 2001 )
June 3 – Jack Manning , actor (died 2009 )
June 4 – Robert F. Furchgott , biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2009 )
June 5 – Eddie Joost , baseball player and manager (died 2011 )
June 6 – Jack Miller , U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1961 to 1973 (died 1994 )
June 12 – Raúl Héctor Castro , politician (died 2015 )
June 14 – John Ciardi , poet, translator and etymologist (died 1986 )
June 15
June 16 – Phil Chambers , film and television actor (died 1993 )
June 17 – David "Stringbean" Akeman , country music banjo player (died 1973 )
June 24 – William B. Saxbe , politician (died 2010 )June 29
July 1
July 3 – John Kundla , basketball coach (died 2017 )
July 4 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose"), propaganda broadcaster (died 2006 )
July 6 – Harold Norse , writer (died 2009 )
July 8 – Jean Rouverol , actress, screenwriter and author (died 2017 )
July 18
July 19 – Phil Cavarretta , baseball player (died 2010 )
July 25 – Fred Lasswell , cartoonist (died 2001 )
July 27 – Elizabeth Hardwick , literary critic and novelist (died 2007 )
July 28 – David Brown , producer (died 2010 )
July 31 – Bill Todman , game show producer (died 1979 )
August 5 – Kermit Love , puppeteer (died 2008 )
August 14 – Ralph de Toledano , conservationist and author (died 2007 )
August 16 – Iggy Katona , race car driver (died 2003 )
August 21 – Frank O. Braynard , maritime writer and historian (died 2007 )
August 24 – Hal Smith , actor (died 1994 )
August 25
August 27 – Martha Raye , film actress (died 1994 )
August 28 – Jack Vance , writer (died 2013 )
August 29 – Luther Davis , screenwriter (died 2008 )
August 30 – Shag Crawford , baseball umpire (died 2007 )
August 31
September 1
September 13 – John Malcolm Brinnin , poet and literary critic (died 1998 )
September 15 Frederick C. Weyand , U.S. Army General (died 2010 )
September 18 – John Jacob Rhodes , politician and lawyer (died 2003 )
September 24 – Ruth Leach Amonette , businesswoman (died 2004 )
September 27 – Frank Handlen , marine artist (died 2023 )
October 3 – Shelby Storck , television producer (died 1969 )
October 8 – Spark Matsunaga , U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1977 to 1990 (died 1990 )
October 9 – Robert Brubaker , television Western actor (died 2010 )
October 12 – Alice Childress , actress, playwright and novelist (died 1994 )
October 28 – Bill Harris , jazz trombonist (died 1973 )
October 29 – Hadda Brooks , pianist, singer and composer (died 2002 )
October 30
Kirk Douglas November 4 – Walter Cronkite , television journalist (died 2009 )
November 5 – Bill Fisk , football player and coach (died 2007 )
November 6 – Ray Conniff , trombonist and bandleader (died 2002 )
November 10 – Billy May , composer and arranger (died 2004 )
November 14 – Sherwood Schwartz , television writer and producer (died 2011 )
November 15 – Bill Melendez , animator (died 2008 )
November 16 – Daws Butler , voice actor (died 1988 )
November 17 – Shelby Foote , historian and novelist, author of The Civil War: A Narrative 2005 )
November 24 – Forrest J. Ackerman , writer (died 2008 )
November 27 – Chick Hearn , basketball announcer (died 2002 )
November 29 – Fran Ryan , actress (died 2000 )
November 30 – John C. Harkness , architect (died 2016 ) Betty Grable
January 1 – Alfred W. Benson , U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1906 to 1907 (born 1843 )
January 9 – Ada Rehan , Shakespearean actress (born 1859 in Ireland )
January 16 – Charles A. Zimmermann , band composer (born 1861 )
January 17
February 3 – Bowman Brown Law , politician (born 1855 )
February 12 – John Townsend Trowbridge , author (born 1827 )
February 28 – Henry James , naturalised English novelist (born 1843 )
March 20
March 25 – Ishi , last known member of the Yana people (born c. 1860 )
April 11 – Richard Harding Davis , journalist and author (born 1864 )
April 15 – Joanna P. Moore , Baptist missionary and educator (born 1832 )
April 19 – Ephraim Shay , inventor (born 1839 )
April 21 – John Surratt , suspected of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln , son of Mary Surratt (born 1844 )
May 12 – Fred T. Perris , railroad civil engineer (born 1836 )
May 13
May 29 – James J. Hill , financier (born 1838 )
May 30 – John S. Mosby , Confederate army cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War (born 1833 )
June 9 – Richard C. Saufley , naval aviation pioneer, killed in aviation accident (born 1884 )
June 22 – Oliver Ernesto Branch , politician (born 1847 )
June 24 – Victor Chapman , fighter pilot in the French Air Force , killed in action (born 1890 )
June 25 – Thomas Eakins , realist painter (born 1844 )
June – Addison Hutton , architect (born 1834 )
July 3 – Hetty Green , financier and miser (born 1834)
July 4 – Alan Seeger , poet, killed in action (born 1888 )
July 22 – James Whitcomb Riley , poet (born 1849 )
July 23 – Thomas M. Patterson , newspaper publisher and U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1901 to 1907 (born 1839 in Ireland )
August 31 – Martha McClellan Brown , temperance activist (born 1838 )
September 8 – James Gray , journalist and 19th Mayor of Minneapolis (born 1862 )
September 9 – Sydney Ayres , silent film actor (born 1879 )
October 1 – James Paul Clarke , 18th Governor of Arkansas from 1895 to 1897 and U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1903 to 1916 (born 1854 )
October 12 – Tony Jannus , aviator and aircraft designer, killed in aviation accident in Russia (born 1889 )
October 25 – William Merritt Chase , Impressionist painter (born 1849 )
October 28 – Cleveland Abbe , meteorologist (born 1838 )
October 29 – John Sebastian Little , politician and congressman (born 1851 )
October 31 – Charles Taze Russell , Protestant evangelist, forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses (born 1852 )
November 4 – James D. Moffat , 3rd president of Washington & Jefferson College (born 1846 )
November 10 – Walter Sutton , geneticist and surgeon (born 1877 )
November 13 – Percival Lowell , astronomer (born 1855 )
November 14
November 15 – Molly Elliot Seawell , novelist (born 1860 )
November 22
November 24 – Sir Hiram Maxim , firearms inventor (born 1840 )
November – Charlie Case , vaudeville entertainer (born c. 1860)
December 8 – John Porter Merrell , admiral (born 1846 )
December 20 – William Gilchrist , composer (born 1846)
December 31 – Alice Ball , African-American chemist (born 1892 )
^ Woodson, Carter G., ed. (January 1916). "The Journal of Negro History " . Project Gutenberg . I . Retrieved 2013-05-21 . ^ "Chartered Organizations and the Boy Scouts of America" . www.scouting.org . Archived from the original on 17 March 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2022 .^ The selected papers of Margaret Sanger, Volume 1 : The Woman Rebel, 1900–1928 . University of Illinois Press. 2003. p. 199.^ Engelman, Peter C. (2011). A History of the Birth Control Movement in America . ABC-CLIO. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-313-36509-6 ^ "The long legacy of the U.S. occupation of Haiti" . Washington Post . Retrieved 19 August 2022 .^ Barron, James (August 5, 1993). "Eugene T. Maleska, Crossword Editor, Dies at 77" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2009-03-08 . ^ "Glen Simmons - Glade Skiffs" . Florida Folklife . Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Retrieved 2012-10-20 .^ "Mercedes McCambridge, 87, Actress Known for Strong Roles" The New York Times . 18 March 2004. Retrieved 24 October 2021 .
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