July 16
1746: Priest, mathematician, and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi born. He will discover dwarf planet Ceres.
1945: World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island. See Manhattan Project.
1945: Trinity nuclear weapon test: the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. See Manhattan Project.
1973: Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
1988: Nuclear physicist Herbert L. Anderson dies. Anderson contributed to the Manhattan Project: he was a member of the team which made the first demonstration of nuclear fission in the United States, in the basement of Pupin Hall at Columbia University, and he participated in the first atomic bomb test, code-named Trinity.
