French and US soldiers gather before launching a counter-assault on Islamist gunmen at the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 16, 2016. (Reuters Photo)
Following are some of the major events to have occurred on Jan 16
Reuters
1920 - The prohibition era began in the United States when a ban on making and selling alcohol came into force.
1942 - U.S. screen actress Carole Lombard, wife of film star Clark Gable, died in an air crash; she was best known for her films "Twentieth Century" and "To Be or Not to Be".
1957 - Arturo Toscanini, conductor of Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan opera houses and the NBC symphony orchestra, died.
2001 - Congo President Laurent Kabila shot by bodyguard.
2002 - Declaration of end to civil war in Sierra Leone.
2006 - Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office as Africa's first elected woman president.
2007 - Biggest trial in Swiss history opens against Swissair.
2007 - Supermodel Naomi Campbell pleads guilty to assaulting housekeeper with mobile phone.
2009 - Renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth, famous for landscapes of his native Pennsylvania and Maine, died.
2011 - French far-right National Front party elects Marine Le Pen to replace her father.
2016 - Burkina Faso troops rescue hostages.
