1916

1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday in the Julian calendar.

• January 1
  • The Royal Army Medical Corps does the first successful blood transfusion.
  • Impressionist painter Monet paints 'Water Lilies'.
• January 5 – Heavy rain – allegedly caused by rainmaker Charles Hatfield – begins; it will cause flooding around San Diego, California
• January 8 – Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli
• January 12 - The Gilbert and Ellice Islands become a British colony
• January 13/14 – A heavy storm sweeps through the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands, causing extensive damage. This storm helped the Dutch parliament to decide to build the Afsluitdijk and build polders in the current IJsselmeer.
• January 17 – The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is formed
• January 18 – A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite struck a house near Baxter, Stone County, Missouri.
• January 23 to January 24 In Browning, Montana, the temperature drops from +6.7 °C to -48.8 °C (44 °F to -56 °F) in one day, the greatest change ever on record for a 24-hour period.
• January 24 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad the Supreme Court of the United States upholds the federal income tax
• January 28 – Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• January 29 – World War I: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
• February 3 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada are burned down.
• February 9 – 6.00 PM – Tristan Tzara "founds" Dadaism (according to Hans Arp)
• February 11
  • Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control.
  • Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert
• February 21 – World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
• March 20 – Albert Einstein publishes his Theory of Relativity, which explains the relationship between mass and energy.

• January 7 – Elena Ceaușescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1989)
• January 12 – P. W. Botha, State President of South Africa (d. 2006)
• January 24 – Rafael Caldera, President of Venezuela (d. 2009)

• February 26 – Jackie Gleason, American comedian and actor (d. 1987)

• March 11 – Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)

• April 5 – Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
• April 28 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (d. 1993)

• May 1 – Glenn Ford, Canadian-American actor (d. 2006)
• May 8 – João Havelange, 7th President of FIFA (d. 2016)
• May 16 – Ephraim Katzir, 4th President of Israel (d. 2009)

• June 6 – Hamani Diori, 1st President of Niger (d. 1989)
• June 8 – Francis Crick, English chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
• June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, American actress (d. 2001)

• July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress (d. 2020)
• July 9 – Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
• July 11 – Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2014)
• July 28 - David Brown, American producer (d. 2010)

• September 13 – Roald Dahl, British writer (d. 1990)
• September 23 – Aldo Moro, 38th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1978)
• September 28 – Peter Finch, British-born Australian actor (d. 1977)

• October 4 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist (d. 2009)
• October 14 – C. Everett Koop, American politician and spokesperson (d. 2013)
• October 26 – Francois Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)

• November 4 – Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist (d. 2009)
• November 20 – Evelyn Keyes, American film actress (d. 2008)
• November 23 – Michael Gough, British actor (d. 2011)
• November 28 – Ramón José Velásquez, President of Venezuela (d. 2014)

• December 6 – Kristjan Eldjarn, 3rd President of Iceland (d. 1982)
• December 9 – Kirk Douglas, American actor, director and producer (d. 2020)
• December 18 – Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
• December 25 – Ahmed Ben Bella, 1st President of Algeria (d. Ahmed Ben Bella)

• June 4 - Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, drowned.
• August 5 - George Butterworth, English composer, killed in battle.
• November 21 - Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary