Reuters historical calendar - April 16

London, Apr 15 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 16 since 1900: 1912 - American pilot Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

1922 - The Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo under which Germany recognised the Soviet Union as ''a great power'' and diplomatic and trade relations were restored.

1941 - In World War Two, German troops entered Sarajevo in the then Yugoslavia and destroyed the main synagogue.

1947 - NBC television in the United States demonstrated the first zoom lens, the Zoomar, in New York. It had been invented by Dr Frank Back.

1947 - A French freighter with a cargo of nitrates exploded at Texas City, Texas, killing more than 500 people.

1948 - The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) was set up in Paris.

1951 - The British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel with the loss of 75 lives.

1972 - The Apollo 16 moon mission blasted off; its crew later made the fifth manned moon landing.

1982 - Queen Elizabeth proclaimed Canada's new constitution, severing the last colonial links with Britain.

1988 - Palestinian commando chief Khalil el-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was assassinated in Tunis.

1991 - David Lean, British film director, died. His films included ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'', ''Lawrence of Arabia'' and ''A Passage to India''.

1992 - Italian financier Carlo De Benedetti and 32 others were convicted of fraud in connection with the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

1996 - An Italian court found disgraced former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi guilty on charges of corruption and sentenced him to eight years and three months in prison.

1998 - Argentinian-born Alberto Calderon, considered one of the century most influential mathematicians, died aged 77.

2000 - Street protests broke out in Algerian cities after Abdelaziz Bouteflika was declared the winner of a one-candidate presidential election boycotted by the opposition.

2001 - Israeli jets attacked a Syrian radar base in eastern Lebanon, killing three Syrian soldiers and wounding six in the first attack on a Syrian target there since April 1996.

2002 - Trades unions brought much of Italy to a halt, as they staged their first full-day general strike in 20 years to protest against government labour reforms.

2002 - The Dutch cabinet resigned en masse over an official report condemning its failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity of the Bosnian war.

2003 - The U S said the military had spent 20 billion dollars on the war in Iraq. Personnel costs approached 7 billion dollars, combat operations slightly over 10 billion dollar and ammunition and equipment over 3 billion dollar.

2005 - Pope John Paul's ''Fisherman's Ring'', a gold signet ring that was a symbol of his authority and which countless pilgrims kissed over the years, was destroyed in a symbolic break with the past.

2005 - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf arrived in India for a weekend of prayers, peace talks and cricket, his first visit since a disastrous summit in 2001.

REUTERS OM DS1122