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May 16.
1770. 14 year old Marie Antionette marries 15 year old Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France, who in four years will take the French throne. At age 38, months after her husband was already executed, the "Widow Capet" is beheaded by guillotine.
1836. Edgar Allen Poe, then 27 years old, marries his 13 year old first cousin, Virginia.
1866. Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
1868. President Andrew Johnson is acquitted by one vote in his impeachment trial in the US Senate.
1920. Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
1966. China begins the Cultural Revolution by issuing teh "May 16th Notice". The Cultural Revolution completely revamps the social, political and economic order in Communist China for its nearly one billion people. Millions die, and a tremendous number of historical artifacts are destroyed.
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