1916 in the United States

Federal government

• President: Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey)
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (Louisiana)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri)
• Congress: 64th

January

• January – The Journal of Negro History is founded by Carter G. Woodson, the father of "Black History" and "Negro History Week".^[1]
• January 24
  • In Browning, Montana, the temperature drops from +6.7 Â°C to −48.8 Â°C (44 Â°F to −56 Â°F) in one day, the greatest change ever on record for a 24-hour period.
  • Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the national income tax.
• c. January – The Anti-Militarism Committee changes its name to the Anti-Preparedness Committee, later in the year becoming the American Union Against Militarism.

February

• February 11
  • Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control.
  • The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert.

March

• March 3 – The Original Dixieland Jazz Band begin playing at Schiller's Cafe in Chicago. Until June 5 it is known as Stein's Dixie Jazz Band.
• March 6 – Newton D. Baker appointed Secretary of War.
• March 8–9 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.
• March 15 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.
• March 16 – Mexican Revolution
  • The U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border to join the hunt for Villa.
  • United States Army aircraft fly their first mission over foreign soil when Curtiss JN-3s of the 1st Aero Squadron carry out reconnaissance over Mexico.

April

• April 20
  • The Escadrille Américaine ("American Squadron"), later to be known as the Lafayette Escadrille ("Lafayette Squadron"), is established as an American volunteer unit of the French Air Force. Their first aerial victory is claimed on May 18 by Kiffin Rockwell.
  • The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (modern-day Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings.

May

• May 5 – United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–24) begins when companies of the United States Marine Corps land in the Dominican Republic.
• May 15 – Lynching of Jesse Washington: Jesse Washington, a black farmhand, is brutally lynched in Robinson, Texas by a crowd of white people, for allegedly murdering his employers' wife.
• May 19 – Norman Rockwell's first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, Boy with Baby Carriage.
• May 22 – The case of United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola is decided.

June

• June 3 – Division of Militia Affairs renamed Militia Bureau.
• June 5 – Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
• June 15 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.^[2] This year also, Robert Baden-Powell founds the Wolf Cubs in Britain, changed to Cub Scouts in the U.S.

July

• July 1 – The United States Marine Corps take control of Santo Domingo.
• July 1–12 – At least one shark mauls five swimmers along 80 miles (130 km) of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, resulting in four deaths and the survival of one youth who required limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.
• July 8–16 – Massive flooding caused by two hurricanes devastates western North Carolina and kills 80 people.^{[citation needed]}
• July 15 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed The Boeing Company).
• July 22 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 and injuring 40. Warren Billings and Tom Mooney would later be wrongfully convicted of the bombing.
• July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least seven people.

August

• August 1 – HawaiÊ»i Volcanoes National Park is established in Hawaii
• August 9 – Lassen Volcanic National Park is established in California.
• August 25 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service.
• August 29
  • Council of National Defense formed.
  • The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.

September

• September 1 – The Keating–Owen Act, the first federal law to restrict child labor, is passed, but is ruled unconstitutional in 1918.
• September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages.
• September 6 – The first true self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders (opening 5 days later).
• September 7 – The Merchant Marine Act of 1916 establishes the U.S. Shipping Board (inaugurated January 1917).
• September 13 – Mary, a circus elephant, is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee for killing her handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge.
• September 30 – Construction is completed on the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City.

October

• October 16 – Margaret Sanger opens a family planning and birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the U.S., a forerunner of Planned Parenthood.^[3] Nine days later, she is arrested for breaking a New York state law prohibiting distribution of contraceptives.^[4] This same year, she publishes What Every Girl Should Know, providing information about such topics as menstruation and sexuality in adolescents.

November

• November 1 – The first 40-hour work week officially begins in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York.
• November 5 – Everett massacre: An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World results in seven deaths.
• November 7
  • U.S. presidential election, 1916: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles E. Hughes.
  • Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
• November 19 – Ruth Law sets a new distance record for cross-country flight by flying 590 miles (950 km) non-stop from Chicago to New York State. She flies on to New York City the next day.
• November 21 – The U.S. rejects a German offer of £10000 per American lost in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

December

• December – Wilbur Sweatman records his hot ragtime for Emerson Records in New York City.
• December 5 – "Petticoat Revolution" in Umatilla, Oregon: 7 women successfully capture the mayorship and a majority of council seats.
• December 31
  • The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the nation at this time, burns to the ground.
  • 14 journals have published Louis Raemaekers's anti-German cartoons.

Undated

• The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era in the Supreme Court of the United States (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)^[5]
• Pancho Villa Expedition (1916–1917)

January–June

• January 3
  • Maxene Andrews, singer (The Andrews Sisters) (died 1995)
  • Betty Furness, actress and consumer activist (died 1994)
  • Bernard Greenhouse, cellist (died 2011)
  • Warren King, cartoonist (died 1978)
• January 6 – Eugene Thomas Maleska, American journalist (died 1993)^[6]
• January 9 – Vic Mizzy, television theme composer (died 2009)
• January 14
  • Maxwell Davis, R&B musician (died 1970)
  • Glenn Simmons, outdoorsman and guide, skiff builder (died 2009)^[7]
• January 15 – Artie Shapiro, jazz bassist (died 2003)
• January 17 – Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr., politician (died 2011)
• January 19 – Harry Huskey, computer designer (died 2017)
• January 23 – David Douglas Duncan, photojournalist (died 2018)
• January 24 – Marvin Creamer, sailor (died 2020)
• February 7 – Floyd Haskell, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1973 to 1979 (died 1998)
• February 9 – Tex Hughson, baseball player (died 1993)
• February 10
  • Louis Guttman, mathematician (died 1987)
  • Julia Hawkins, athlete (died 2024)
• February 14 – Denham Harman, gerontologist (died 2014)
• February 20 – Jean Erdman, dancer (died 2020)
• February 23 – Retta Scott, animator (died 1990)
• February 26
  • Jackie Gleason, film actor (died 1987)
  • Preacher Roe, baseball player (died 2008)
• February 29 – Dinah Shore, popular singer (died 1994)
• March 1 – Emelyn Whiton, Olympic sailor (died 1962)
• March 4 – William Alland, film actor, producer, writer and director (died 1997)
• March 5 – Jack Hamm, cartoonist (died 1996)
• March 13
  • Lindy Boggs, politician (died 2013)
  • Jacque Fresco, futurist and designer (died 2017)
  • John Aspinwall Roosevelt, businessman and philanthropist (died 1981)
• March 14 – Horton Foote, writer (died 2009)
• March 15
  • Junior Coghlan (Frank Coghlan, Jr.), film actor and naval aviator (died 2009)
  • Harry James, musician and band leader (died 1983)
• March 16 – Mercedes McCambridge, actress (died 2004)^[8]
• March 19 – Irving Wallace, novelist (died 1990)
• March 26 – Christian B. Anfinsen, biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 1995)
• March 29 – Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1959 to 1971 (died 2005)
• March 31 – Lucille Bliss, voice actress (died 2012)
• April 3
  • Herb Caen, journalist (died 1997)
  • Peter Gowland, photographer (died 2010)
• April 4 – Robert S. McMillan, architect (died 2001)
• April 5
  • Albert Henry Ottenweller, bishop (died 2012)
  • Gregory Peck, film actor (died 2003)
• April 12
  • Beverly Cleary, children's author (died 2021)
  • Benjamin Libet, pioneering scientist in the field of human consciousness (died 2007)
• April 13 – Phyllis Fraser, actress and publisher (died 2006)
• April 15
  • Alfred S. Bloomingdale, department store heir (died 1982)
  • Helene Hanff, writer (died 1997)
• April 16 – Ted Mann, businessman (died 2001)
• April 20 – Phil Walters, race car driver and pilot (died 2000)
• April 22 – Yehudi Menuhin, violinist (died 1999)
• April 24
  • Stanley Kauffmann, film critic (died 2013)
  • Lou Thesz, wrestler (died 2002)
• April 25 – R. J. Rushdoony, founder of Christian Reconstructionism (died 2001)
• April 26
  • Dorothy Salisbury Davis, writer (died 2014)
  • Vic Perrin, voice actor (died 1989)
  • George Tuska, comic strip artist (died 2009)
• April 30
  • Claude Elwood Shannon, mathematician, "father of information theory" (died 2001)
  • Robert Shaw, choral and orchestral conductor (died 1999)
• May 2 – Two Ton Baker (Richard Baker), entertainer (died 1975)
• May 4 – Jane Jacobs, née Butzner, urban activist (died 2006 in Canada)
• May 6
  • Adriana Caselotti, voice actress (died 1997)
  • Robert H. Dicke, physicist (died 1997)
• May 10 – Milton Babbitt, composer (died 2011)
• May 21
  • Lydia Mendoza, singer-guitarist (died 2007)
  • Harold Robbins, novelist (died 1997)
• May 28 – Dorothy McGuire, film actress (died 2001)
• June 3 – Jack Manning, actor (died 2009)
• June 4 – Robert F. Furchgott, biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2009)
• June 5 – Eddie Joost, baseball player and manager (died 2011)
• June 6 – Jack Miller, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1961 to 1973 (died 1994)
• June 12 – Raúl Héctor Castro, politician (died 2015)
• June 14 – John Ciardi, poet, translator and etymologist (died 1986)
• June 15
  • Olga Erteszek, lingerie designer and manufacturer (died 1989)
  • Herbert A. Simon, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics (died 2001)
• June 16 – Phil Chambers, film and television actor (died 1993)
• June 17 – David "Stringbean" Akeman, country music banjo player (died 1973)
• June 24 – William B. Saxbe, politician (died 2010)
• June 29
  • John M. Johansen, architect (died 2012)
  • Ruth Warrick, television actress (died 2005)

July–December

• July 1
  • Olivia de Havilland, Japanese born-British actress (died 2020)
  • Lawrence Halprin, architect (died 2009)
• July 3 – John Kundla, basketball coach (died 2017)
• July 4 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose"), propaganda broadcaster (died 2006)
• July 6 – Harold Norse, writer (died 2009)
• July 8 – Jean Rouverol, actress, screenwriter and author (died 2017)
• July 18
  • L. Patrick Gray III, Federal Bureau of Investigation director (died 2005)
  • Johnny Hopp, baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
• July 19 – Phil Cavarretta, baseball player (died 2010)
• July 25 – Fred Lasswell, cartoonist (died 2001)
• July 27 – Elizabeth Hardwick, literary critic and novelist (died 2007)
• July 28 – David Brown, producer (died 2010)
• July 31 – Bill Todman, game show producer (died 1979)
• August 5 – Kermit Love, puppeteer (died 2008)
• August 14 – Ralph de Toledano, conservationist and author (died 2007)
• August 16 – Iggy Katona, race car driver (died 2003)
• August 21 – Frank O. Braynard, maritime writer and historian (died 2007)
• August 24 – Hal Smith, actor (died 1994)
• August 25
  • Van Johnson, film actor (died 2008)
  • Frederick Chapman Robbins, pediatrician and virologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2003)
• August 27 – Martha Raye, film actress (died 1994)
• August 28 – Jack Vance, writer (died 2013)
• August 29 – Luther Davis, screenwriter (died 2008)
• August 30 – Shag Crawford, baseball umpire (died 2007)
• August 31
  • Daniel Schorr, journalist (died 2010)
  • John S. Wold, politician (died 2017)
• September 1
  • Dorothy Cheney, tennis player (died 2014)
  • Joseph Minish, politician (died 2007)
• September 13 – John Malcolm Brinnin, poet and literary critic (died 1998)
• September 15 Frederick C. Weyand, U.S. Army General (died 2010)
• September 18 – John Jacob Rhodes, politician and lawyer (died 2003)
• September 24 – Ruth Leach Amonette, businesswoman (died 2004)
• September 27 – Frank Handlen, marine artist (died 2023)
• October 3 – Shelby Storck, television producer (died 1969)
• October 8 – Spark Matsunaga, U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1977 to 1990 (died 1990)
• October 9 – Robert Brubaker, television Western actor (died 2010)
• October 12 – Alice Childress, actress, playwright and novelist (died 1994)
• October 24 – Ramsay D. Potts, American air force general (died 2006)
• October 28 – Bill Harris, jazz trombonist (died 1973)
• October 29 – Hadda Brooks, pianist, singer and composer (died 2002)
• October 30
  • Leon Day, baseball player (died 1995)
  • Charles E. Potter, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1952 to 1959 (died 1979)

• November 4 – Walter Cronkite, television journalist (died 2009)
• November 5 – Bill Fisk, football player and coach (died 2007)
• November 6 – Ray Conniff, trombonist and bandleader (died 2002)
• November 10 – Billy May, composer and arranger (died 2004)
• November 14 – Sherwood Schwartz, television writer and producer (died 2011)
• November 15 – Bill Melendez, animator (died 2008)
• November 16 – Daws Butler, voice actor (died 1988)
• November 17 – Shelby Foote, historian and novelist, author of The Civil War: A Narrative (died 2005)
• November 24 – Forrest J. Ackerman, writer (died 2008)
• November 27 – Chick Hearn, basketball announcer (died 2002)
• November 29 – Fran Ryan, actress (died 2000)
• November 30 – John C. Harkness, architect (died 2016)

• December 7
  • John G. Morris, picture editor (died 2017)
  • George Russell Weller, retired salesman known for the Santa Monica Farmers Market crash in 2003 (died 2010)
• December 8 – Richard Fleischer, film director (died 2006)
• December 9
  • Jerome Beatty, Jr., children's author (died 2002)
  • Kirk Douglas, film actor (died 2020)
  • Esther Wilkins, pioneer of dental hygiene (died 2016)
• December 14 – Shirley Jackson, writer (died 1965)
• December 18 – Betty Grable, film actress (died 1973)
• December 25 – Oscar Moore, swing jazz guitarist (died 1981)
• December 27 – Johnny Frigo, jazz violinist and bassist (died 2007)