October 16 is:
Bosses Day
Dictionary Day Birthday of Noah Webster (October 16, 1758), American lexicographer whose name became synonymous with “dictionary”. He has been called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education”. As a teacher, he had come to dislike American elementary schools. He believed that students learned most readily when he broke a complex problem into its component parts and had each pupil master one part before moving to the next. He organized his speller accordingly, beginning with the alphabet and moving systematically through the different sounds of vowels and consonants, then syllables, then simple words, then more complex words, then sentences.
National Liqueur Day
Per Foodimentary.com:
In parts of the United States, liqueurs may also be called cordials or schnapps.
Grand Marnier Created in 1880, it is one of the most popular liqueurs of all time. Escoffier used it as an ingredient for his culinary masterpiece Crepe Suzette. Cesar Ritz was so impressed with this liqueur that he was among the first to introduce it at his hotels.
All liqueurs are blends, even those with a primary flavor.
Liqueurs are not usually aged for any great length of time (although their base spirit may be), but may undergo resting stages during their production in order to allow the various flavors to “marry” into a harmonious blend.
The most common liqueurs that you should consider absolutely essential when stocking your bar: Amaretto, Coffee Liqueur (e.g. Kahlua), Dry and Sweet Vermouth, Irish Cream Liqueur, Maraschino Liqueur and Orange Liqueur (e.g. triple sec, Cointreau, Curaçao).
George Washington captured Yorktown, Virginia October 16, 1781.
Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, was guillotined on this date in 1793.
Birthday of Oscar Wilde, Irish author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, and others.
Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 1859. Brown began planning an attack on slaveholders, as well as a United States military armory, at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), using armed freed slaves.
Birthday of David Ben-Gurion (October 16, 1886), Israel’s first prime minister.
Birthday of Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (October 16, 1888), American playwright, author of “Long Day’s Journey into Night”.Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (1936) and Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1920, 1922, 1928, 1957).
October 16, 1978 – Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II, remaining in this position until 2005. He was the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.