Events in the year 2016 in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

Philippe Philippe is a masculine given name, cognate to Philip, and sometimes also a surname. The name may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Charles Michel Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the president of the European Council from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Belgium, prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Miche ...

Events

;January * 30 January – Belgian cyclist

Femke Van den Driessche Femke Van den Driessche (; born 27 August 1996) is a Belgian former cyclo-cross bicycle racing, cyclist, mountainbiker and road racing cyclist. As a junior, she became national cyclo-cross champion in 2011 and mountain bike champion in 2013. In 2 ...

is caught concealing a motor and battery in her bicycle during the under-23 women's race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in

Zolder The Circuit Zolder, also known as Circuit Terlamen, is an undulating motorsport race track in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. History Built in 1963, Zolder hosted the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix on 10 separate occasions in the 1970s and 1980s, a ...

. She was found guilty of "technological fraud", the world's first case of

mechanical doping Motor doping, or mechanical doping, in competitive cycling terminology, is a method of cheating by using a hidden motor to help propel a racing bicycle. The term is an analogy to chemical doping in sport, cheating by using performance-enhan ...

in cycling. ;February * 6 February –

6th Magritte Awards The 6th Magritte Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie André Delvaux, honored the best 2015 in film, films of 2015 in Belgium and took place on February 6, 2016, at the Square – Brussels Meeting Centre, Square in the historic site of Mont ...

to recognise achievement in the film industry held in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

;March * 22 March –

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in and close to Brussels, Belgium, were carried out by the Islamic State (IS). Two suicide bombers detonated bombs at Brussels Airport in Zaventem just outside Brussels, and one detonated a b ...

cause 34 deaths * 25 March –

2016 E3 Harelbeke The 2016 E3 Harelbeke (officially the Record Bank E3 Harelbeke) was a one-day cycling classic that took place on Friday 25 March 2016. It was the 59th edition of the E3 Harelbeke; it was the second one-day race of the 2016 UCI World Tour and t ...

(one-day cycling classic) * 27 March –

2016 Gent–Wevelgem The 2016 Gent–Wevelgem, (officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields) was a one-day cycling classic that took place on 27 March 2016. It was the 78th edition of the Gent–Wevelgem race and the seventh event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. T ...

(one-day cycling classic) ;April * 3 April –

2016 Tour of Flanders The 2016 Tour of Flanders was a one-day classic cycle races, classic cycling race that took place in Belgium on Sunday 3 April 2016. It was the 100th edition of the Tour of Flanders (men's race), Tour of Flanders; it was the eighth event of the ...

(one-day cycling classic) ;June * 5 June – Hermalle-sous-Huy train collision ;August * 6 August – 2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers: a man attacks two policewomen with a machete * 28 August –

Nico Rosberg Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German and Finnish former racing driver and entrepreneur, who competed under the German flag in Formula One from to . Rosberg won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes, and w ...

wins the

Belgian Grand Prix The Belgian Grand Prix (; ; ) is a motor racing event which forms part of the Formula One World Championship. The first national race of Belgium was held in 1925 at the Spa region's race course, an area of the country that had been associated ...

at the

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a Race track, motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa, Belgium, Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One ...

Spa, Belgium Spa (; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia in the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for spa, mineral baths with supposed curative properties. It is ...

. ;October * 5 October – 2016 stabbing of Brussels police officers: man stabs three police officers ;November * 19 November –

Jozef De Kesel Jozef De Kesel (born 17 June 1947) is a Belgian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels from 2015 to 2023. He previously served there as auxiliary bishop from 2002 to 2010. He served as Bishop of Bruges from 2010 to 20 ...

, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, appointed cardinal. * 30 November –

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

lists A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...

beer culture in Belgium as part of the

intangible cultural heritage of humanity UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergover ...

. ;December * 4 December –

Lode Aerts Lode Aerts (born 2 October 1959), identified also as Lodewijk Aerts, is a Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Bishop of Bruges since December 2016. Biography Lode Aerts is a native of Geraardsbergen, diocese of Ghent. He attende ...

consecrated as

bishop of Bruges The Diocese of Bruges (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolis (religious jurisdiction), metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen ...

Deaths

* 6 February –

Eddy Wally Eduard Van De Walle (12 July 1932 – 6 February 2016), known by his stage name Eddy Wally, was a Belgian schlager singer and actor from Zelzate, East Flanders, and the once self-proclaimed "Voice of Europe". As a crooner and showman, Eddy W ...

(born 1932), singer. * 27 March –

Antoine Demoitié Antoine Demoitié (16 October 1990 – 27 March 2016) was a Belgian cyclist, who rode professionally between 2011 and his death in 2016. Death At the age of 25, Demoitié crashed on 27 March 2016 when he went down in a pile-up of several cyclist ...

(born 1990), cyclist. * 21 May – Gaston Berghmans (born 1926), actor and comedian. * 25 July - Paskal Deboosere (born 1962), radio and television host. * 18 August – Jan van Cauwelaert (born 1914), bishop. * 22 August -

Toots Thielemans Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans (), was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and wh ...

(born 1922), jazz musician. * 20 October -

Roger Lallemand Roger Lallemand (; 17 January 1932 – 20 October 2016) was a Walloon lawyer, socialist politician, and president of the Belgian Senate. Education He graduated as a licentiate in Romance philology and obtained a doctorate in law at the Univers ...

(born 1932), politician. * 4 November - Hubert van Herreweghen (born 1920), poet. * 6 November -

Marc Sleen Marcel Honoree Nestor ( ridder) Neels (30 December 1922 – 6 November 2016), known as Marc Sleen, was a Belgian comics artist. He was mostly known for his humorous adventure comic '' The Adventures of Nero and Co.'', but also created gag comic ...

(born 1922), comics artist. * 2 December - Paul de Wispelaere (born 1928), poet and novelist. * 13 December - Patrick Derochette (born 1964), criminal.

References

{{Year in Europe, 2016

2010s in Belgium Years of the 21st century in Belgium

Incumbents

Events

Deaths

See also

References