Today in History in 1977 Singer, musician and actor Elvis Presley dies at the age of 42; and in 2018 American singer Aretha Franklin dies aged 76 on the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 137 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1 BC – China: Wang Mang is declared marshal of the state. Emepror Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no living heirs.

1513 – Battle of Guinegate: Henry VIII of England and his imperial allies defeat French forces who are then forced to retreat.

1728 – Vitus Bering reaches the Diomede Islands between Siberia and Alaska in the now-named Bering Strait.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American troops defeat British forces at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - British forces defeat American forces near Camden, South Carolina.

1787 – Lieutenant William Bligh takes command of HMAV Bounty.

1801 – Horatio Nelson fails in an attempt to attack a French fleet in Boulogne-sur-Mer on France's English Channel coast.

1812 – War of 1812 - American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit, without a fight, to the British Army.

1812 – Arnold Abbuehl, Joseph Bortis and Alois Volker become the first people to climb the mountain Finsteraarhorn in the Swiss Alps.

1819 – Peterloo Massacre: 17 people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, UK.

1858 – US President James Buchanan inaugurates a new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. A weak line forces the service to close after just a few weeks.

1863 – Fighting starts between the Dominican Republic and Spain over Dominican independence.

1868 – Arica, in Peru (now in Chile) is hit by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake. Resulting tsunamis kill thousands of people.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.

1896 – Klondike Gold Rush: Keish, George Carnack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon, northwestern Canada.

1906 – A magnitude 8.2 earthquake strikes Valparaiso, Chile, killing almost 3,900 people.

1913 – Tohoku Imperial University becomes the first university in Japan to allow female students to study at its institution.

1914 – World War I: The Battle of Cer begins troops of Austria-Hungary enter Serbian territory.

1930 – The first colour sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is created by Ub Iwerks.

1930 – The first British Empire Games begin in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In later years, these games become better known as the Commonwealth Games.

1935 – The first successful climb of Gunnbjorn Fjeld, the highest mountain in Greenland, takes place.

1936 – 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany end.

1936 – Spanish Civil War: Republican troops land on Mallorca, starting the Battle of Mallorca.

1942 – German U-Boat U-507 sinks three civilian Brazilian ships off Brazil's coast. They are Araraguara (131 killed), Anibal Benevelo (150 killed) and Baependy (270 killed).

1944 – First flight of a Junkers Ju 287 aircraft.

1945 – Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor, and ruler of Manchuria, is captured by Soviet troops.

1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Prime Minister of Japan Kantaro Suzuki.

1945 – Poland cedes 46 % of its previous territory to the Soviet Union.

1946 – Mass riots begin in Kolkata, killing 4,000 people in 3 days.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico.

1962 – The Beatles fire Pete Best and hire Ringo Starr.

1962 – Algeria joins the Arab League.

1964 – A coup occurs in South Vietnam, where President Duong Van Minh is replaced by Nguyen Khanh.

1972 – An unsuccessful coup attempt is made in Morocco, as the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires at the plane of King Hassan II of Morocco, who is flying back to the capital, Rabat, at the time.

1974 – The Ramones play their first show in the New York City nightclub CBGB's.

1975 – Police arrest serial killer Ted Bundy.

1976 – A magnitude 7.9 earthquake strikes the island of Mindanao, Philippines.

1976 – ABBA's hit single Dancing Queen is released.

1977 – Singer, musician and actor Elvis Presley dies at the age of 42, leading to a worldwide outpouring of grief.

1987 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft of Northwest Airlines crashes in Detroit, killing 154 people, leaving only one survivor.

1988 – The dam of the Bagauda Reservoir in Nigeria breaks, killing 23 people.

1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips.

From 2001

2004 – Heavy rains cause a river to flood the small coastal town of Boscastle in Cornwall, England.

2004 – The Cassini Huygens space probe discovers two moons of Saturn.

2005 – A West Caribbean Airlines plane crashes near Machiques in Northwestern Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.

2007 – Tropical Storm Erin makes landfall near Lamar, Texas.

2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 423 meters (1,389 feet).

2012 – South African police shoot 34 miners dead during an industrial dispute at the Marikana Mine.

2012 – Ecuador agrees to give asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who remains in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

2013 – Over 80 protestors are killed in violence across Egypt, two days after hundreds of people were killed in Cairo.

2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas sinks off Cebu, Philippines, killing at least 61, and leaving over 59 missing. The accident happened as a result of a collision with a cargo ship.

2013 – In addition to the 10,000-meter title six days earlier, Mo Farah also wins the 5,000-meter title at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow. He is only the second man to hold these titles in both the Olympics and World Championships at the same time.

2018 – American singer Aretha Franklin dies aged 76 on the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, and on Madonna's 60th birthday.