May 16 Birthday
On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It lasted fifteen minutes. 270 people attended, and tickets cost $5. The winners had been announced three months earlier, so there were no surprises. Wings won Best Picture. Emil Jannings won Best Actor, though he had already returned to Germany before the ceremony and received his statuette before leaving. The first ceremony was so low-key that a second one was held the following year with even less attention. The Oscars would grow into a global spectacle, but they began as a dinner party. Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest on May 16, 1975. She was thirty-five and a mother of a three-year-old. She had organized the first women's climbing club in Japan, which had been dismissed by male climbers. On the Everest expedition, she was buried in an avalanche at Camp II and was dug out by Sherpas. She continued climbing. She became the first woman to complete the Seven Summits — the highest peak on each continent. She died of cancer in 2016, having climbed seventy-six of the world's highest peaks. Studs Terkel, born this day in 1912, was a radio host and oral historian who interviewed thousands of Americans about their lives. Working (1974) collected interviews about what people do all day. Hard Times (1970) collected memories of the Great Depression. The Good War (1984) collected memories of World War II. His technique was to listen — not to guide, not to interrupt, just to listen. His books captured the voices of ordinary Americans in a way that no novelist or sociologist had managed. People born on May 16 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 16 include 1929: First Academy Awards ceremony held at the Roosevelt Hotel, 1975: Junko Tabei becomes first woman to summit Mount Everest, 1991: Queen Elizabeth II becomes first British monarch to address US Congress. Famous people born on May 16 include Studs Terkel (1912), Liberace (1919), Janet Jackson (1966).