June 16
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Coney Island’s “Scenic Railway” roller coaster opens
On this day in 1884, the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway opened to huge crowds at Brooklyn’s Coney Island. The wooden attraction was America’s first roller coaster that was purposely built for entertainment. The marvel featured two tracks that ran parallel to each other in opposite directions, propelling riders down one track and back on the other at around at six miles per hour.
READ MORE
© Bettmann/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Keystone—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
South African police fired on a group of Soweto students marching in protest against state plans to impose the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction in Black schools, igniting a massive popular uprising. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about South Africa.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Pako Mera/Alamy
American writer Joyce Carol Oates, noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres and for her particularly effective depictions of violence and evil in modern society, was born this day in 1938.
Famous Birthdays
More on June 16
NATO photos
2017
German politician Helmut Kohl, who presided over the integration of East Germany into West Germany in 1990 and became the first chancellor of a unified Germany since 1945, died at age 87. [Test your knowledge of German history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2012
Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman in space when she and two other crew members were launched aboard the spacecraft Shenzhou 9. [Take our quiz about famous astronauts and cosmonauts.]
© Sovfoto—Universal Images Group/Getty Images
1963
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, having been launched into orbit aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours. [How much do you know about space exploration?]
Photograph courtesy of the Nekbakht Foundation, www.nekbakhtfoundation.org
1943
Noor Inayat Khan became the first female wireless operator to be sent into occupied France by the British military during World War II. Her work supporting the resistance led to her execution by Nazi troops in 1944. [Find out more about other notable female spies.]
UPI/Bettmann Archive
1933
The Hundred Days period of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to a close, with the bulk of his New Deal legislation passed. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidents.]
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Washington, D.C.; photo provided by FDIC.
1933
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created in the United States under authority of the Federal Reserve Act of 1933. [What other “alphabet soup” agencies created during the 1930s have stuck around?]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1932
The Lausanne Conference, held to liquidate Germany’s payment of reparations to the former Allied and Associated powers of World War I, opened. [Take our quiz about World War I.]
Vince Bucci/Getty Images News
1917
American publisher Katharine Graham, owner and publisher of The Washington Post, was born in New York City. [Find out more about Graham’s role in Watergate.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1911
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), a leading American computer manufacturer, was incorporated. [Take our quiz about tech companies.]
© Bettmann/Corbis
1874
Arthur Meighen, leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister of Canada (1920–21, 1926), was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Canada.]