Reuters historical calendar - May 16

London, May 15 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 16 since 1900: 1929 - In Hollywood the first Academy Award for best film, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, went to ''Wings'', directed by William A Wellman. The awards for best actor and actress went to Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor.

The awards were named Oscars from 1931.

1963 - The US astronaut Gordon Cooper splashed down in his Mercury-Atlas craft near Midway in the Pacific after orbiting the Earth 22 times in a mission lasting just over 34 hours at the time, the longest American space mission.

1969 - The Russian spacecraft Venus 5 landed on Venus.

1975 - Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to climb Everest.

1986 - Members of the military junta that led Argentina to defeat in the 1982 Falklands war with Britain were sentenced to between 8 and 14 years' imprisonment and stripped of their rank.

Former president Leopoldo Galtieri was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

1989 - A car bomb in Beirut killed 21 people including the religious leader of Lebanon's Sunni Moslems, Sheikh Hassan Khaled.

1989 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping met in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years, formally ending a feud between the two big Communist powers.

1990 - The American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr died of throat cancer aged 64.

1991 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth, on a tour of the United States, became the first monarch to address Congress.

1997 - Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko left Kinshasa, saying he was giving up executive powers but keeping the title of president.

2001 - The United States designated the Real IRA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, as a ''foreign terrorist organisation''.

2002 - Belgium became the second country after the Netherlands to decriminalise euthanasia when the lower house of parliament passed a bill giving patients the right to die.

2003 - Suicide bombers using cars or explosive belts set off at least five blasts in Morocco's biggest city, Casablanca. Forty-five people were killed, including 12 suicide bombers, and about 60 people were wounded.

2004 - Kuwait approved a draft law allowing women to vote and run in parliamentary polls, moving them a step closer to full political rights.

2005 - The Kuwaiti parliament passed legislation granting women the right to vote and stand in elections.

2005 - The Democratic Republic of Congo adopted a new constitution in line with a peace deal meant to end a five-year war.

2006 - Nigerian senators threw out a bill amend the constitution, ending a campaign by supporters of President Olusegun Obasanjo to let him stand for a third term in elections in 2007.

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