Historical timeline for May 16

A devastating EF4 tornado kills nineteen people in Southeast Kentucky, hitting the towns of Somerset and London.

A catastrophic EF3 tornado kills five people and causes over $1 billion in damages in St. Louis, MO.

Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.

STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.

In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.

An Antonov An-24 crashes into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk, killing 35.

Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.

The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.

Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.

The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.