Blackstar
Co-produces Blackstar, Bowie's final studio album, released two days before Bowie's death.
Permanent historical records · Updated 2026-11-03
2016 in United States of America
Explore 38 historical events and records for United States of America in 2016.
Historical records for United States of America in 2016
Sorted by month and day. Records with no month are shown last. Showing 38 of 38 unique records.
38Unique records
1 of 1Page
34Named events on this page
31Named people on this page
9Places on this page
January
Death of Glenn Frey
Dies in New York, prompting major tributes to his role as Eagles co-founder and songwriter.
February
Gravitational Waves
Reitze announces the first direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO collaboration
April
Closest Images of 1994 JR1
New Horizons images 1994 JR1 from about 111 million kilometres away, then the closest spacecraft observations of a small Kuiper Belt object.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Deep Purple's recognised classic membership.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple.
Voyager 1 Ultraviolet Spectrometer Shutdown
Voyager 1's ultraviolet spectrometer is switched off as part of long-term power conservation.
Makemake Moon Discovery
Parker leads Hubble observations discovering a small dark moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake.
Makemake Moon Discovery
Parker leads Hubble observations revealing a small dark moon orbiting the Kuiper Belt dwarf planet Makemake.
June
Sputnik Planitia
Models using New Horizons data show that Sputnik Planitia's nitrogen ice is renewed by slow convection, producing polygonal surface cells.
July
Juno Orbit Insertion
Juno enters a polar orbit around Jupiter after a five-year interplanetary journey.
August
First Images of Jupiter North Pole
Juno returns the first close images of Jupiter's north pole, revealing dense storm systems.
Juno First Science Perijove
Juno completes its first close Jupiter pass with the full science instrument suite operating.
September
Born to Run Memoir
Publishes Born to Run, a memoir about his life, music and struggles with depression.
October
Nobel Prize in Literature
Is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
New Horizons
The final stored data from the 2015 Pluto encounter finish downloading to Earth after more than fifteen months.
December
Sputnik Planitia
Research proposes that Pluto's nitrogen-rich Sputnik Planitia could have formed early and migrated as the dwarf planet's rotation evolved.
Death of Vera Florence Cooper Rubin
Death of Vera Rubin
Other events (month unknown)
1994 JR1 Rotation Period
New Horizons observations determine that Kuiper Belt object 1994 JR1 rotates roughly once every five and a half hours.
Academy Award
The Revenant brings DiCaprio his first Academy Award for Best Actor.
Cafe Society Film
In 2016, Woody Allen made Cafe Society, a period romance set within Hollywood and New York social circles.
Discovery of K2-33 b
Leads discovery of the very young transiting planet K2-33 b.
Fences
Directs and stars in Fences, adapting August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Improved Local Expansion Rate
Riess and the SH0ES collaboration improve the local Hubble constant measurement, sharpening comparisons between the late universe and cosmological models containing dark energy.
Keanu
Co-writes and stars in Keanu, a comedy about two cousins searching for a stolen kitten.
La La Land
Writes and directs La La Land, a musical romance about two artists pursuing careers in Los Angeles.
London Fog 1966
Releases archival recordings from the London Fog.
Mercury Topographic Model
A post-mission data release provides the first global topographic model of Mercury and expands the lasting scientific archive from MESSENGER.
Moonlight
Directs Moonlight, tracing one man's childhood, adolescence and adulthood in three connected chapters.
Neptune Dark Vortex Confirmed
Hubble observations confirm a long-lived dark vortex in Neptune's southern hemisphere.
Neptune Storm Precursors
Simon and colleagues identify increased cloud activity that precedes the appearance of a later large Neptune dark storm.
New Horizons Extended Mission
NASA approves the New Horizons extended mission to explore the Kuiper Belt and conduct a close flyby of 2014 MU69.
Nobel Prize
Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature for creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
Pluto
New Horizons studies identify widespread past and present glacial activity, including eroded and hanging valleys on Pluto.
Pluto
New Horizons results strengthen evidence that Pluto may retain a subsurface water-ice ocean beneath its crust.
Soft Hair on Black Holes
With Stephen Hawking and Malcolm Perry, develops a soft-hair framework linking horizon symmetries to the black hole information problem.
Sully
Directs Sully, starring Tom Hanks as airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger.
Toby Award Hamilton Actor
Leslie Odom Jr won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for portraying Aaron Burr in Hamilton.
How these records were prepared
Generated from the World History Database historical_events table. Identical display records are collapsed; descriptions otherwise retain the stored text. Coverage and source quality vary. Check primary and specialist sources before citing individual historical claims.