16 May 862

The first Chuck E. Cheese location, the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment (example pictured), and an indoor arcade, opened in San Jose, California.

Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, the Kingdom of Sikkim (flag pictured) abolished its monarchy and was annexed to become the 22nd state of India.

Japanese climber Junko Tabei (pictured) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

A gas explosion in Ronan Point (collapse pictured) causes a corner of the building to collapse, leading to a loss of public confidence in high-rise residential buildings.

Led by Park Chung Hee, the Military Revolution Committee carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Po-sun in Seoul, ending the Second Republic of Korea.

American physicist Theodore Maiman operated the first working laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu.

The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, one of Malta's most important Modernist landmarks, was turned on for the first time.

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world flight airspeed record of 1,404.012 mph (2,259.538 km/h).

Second World War: The Royal Air Force's "Dambusters" squadron embarked on an attack on German dams using bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis.

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.

The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing World War I.

The United States Congress authorized the minting of the Shield nickel (example pictured), the country's first five-cent piece to be made of a copper–nickel alloy.

Prospector Juan Godoy discovered a silver outcrop in Chañarcillo, sparking the Chilean silver rush.

Peninsular War: Allied British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces clashed with French troops at the Battle of Albuera fought south of Badajoz, Spain.

Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, is wounded in a duel with Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh, dying of his injuries several days later.

After a scuffle in which one cardinal had several bones broken, a papal conclave convened in Rome elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V.

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

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

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.