May 16 in Pop Culture History
1866 – Root Beer was invented by Charles Elmer Hires in Philadelphia, PA.
Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway Musical) Opened on May 16, 1946 and Closed: February 12, 1949
1946 – The first magnetic tape recorder was demonstrated by Jack Mullin.
1964 # 1 Hit May 16, 1964 – May 29, 1964: Mary Wells – My Guy. Motown Records got its first #1 hit with the song.
1966 – The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde were both released.
1981 # 1 Hit May 16, 1981 – June 19, 1981: Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes
1983 – The concert special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was broadcast by NBC; Michael Jackson performed his ‘moonwalk’ dance for the first time on television.
1987 # 1 Hit May 16, 1987 – June 5, 1987: U2 – With or Without You
1988 – Nicotine was declared to be addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine, in a report released by US Surgeon-General C. Everett Koop.
1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress.
1996 – 12 million people tuned in for the series finale of Murder, She Wrote on CBS. The show was the longest running American Murder-Mystery drama.
1998 – Unsolved Mysteries true-crime series ended.
2014 – Broadcast journalist and TV personality Barbara Walters retired from ABC News and from daytime program The View.
