Today in History - June 16 | Renowned dancer's bold move after KGB spot him in Paris gay bars
Renowned Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev slipped his KGB handlers and defected in France on June 16, 1961, in Paris.
Nureyev's defection caused headlines around the world, with the renowned dancer being considered a prime Soviet cultural export.
He had been permitted to tour France with the Kirov ballet company, but while abroad his behaviour sparked suspicion in his KGB handlers.
Nureyev had not only clashed with the ballet company leadership, but had broken rules about mingling with foreigners while overseas.
He had also reportedly been seen in Parisian gay bars.
As the rest of the company prepared to ship off to London, Nureyev was offered subsequent pretexts about the necessity of his return to the USSR, from a demand for a special dance performance, to claims his mother was gravely ill.
Instead, with the help of French police and the fiancee of a French minister's son, he managed to slip the leash and asked for asylum.
Nureyev, an ethnic Tatar who refused to be labelled as "Russian", went on to continue his celebrated career all over the world.
However, he was only allowed to return to the USSR for the first time inn 1987, to visit his ailing mother, with the special permission of Mikhail Gorbachev.
He returned again in 1989 to dance with the Mariinksy Ballet in Leningrad, just a few years before his death in 1992.
On June 16, 2015, businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump glided down the golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York to announce his candidacy as a rank outsider for the presidency of the United States before a middling and skeptical media crowd.
Trump, who was throwing his hat into a ring of what was considered the most promising field of potential Republican candidates in years, opened his campaign with the sensational claim Mexico was sending "rapists" into the US, vowing to build a wall between the two countries, and plugging his wealth.
There were speculations that Trump was leveraging the spectacle as a publicity stunt - he had run for president before in 2000 on the Reform Party ticket.
But the real estate developer played up both his celebrity and his political outsider status to run an increasingly populist campaign, including an appearance hosting Saturday Night Live.
Trump also appeared on late-nigh shows such as Jimmy Fallon, slowly eliminating fellow Republican candidates, though many still reckoned him only an outside chance to beat eventual Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.
The rest, as they say, is history. In one of the most controversial and most turbulent of presidential careers, Trump became the second commander-in-chief to win office in two non-consecutive terms.
Here he is during his 2025 inauguration ceremony taking the oath of office.
On June 16, 2019, more than two million people swarmed Hong Kong's streets after a controversial bill was stalled in government, demanding it be dropped completely.
The protests were part of a rolling series of demonstrations throughout 2019 and 2020 against the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation.
The bill could have given Chinese authorities the ability to arrest people on Hong Kong soil.
The protests succeeded - temporarily - and in September, beleaguered Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam withdrew the bill entirely.
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