wikipedia has the history of 16:9 - it originated as a compromise of the other popular aspect ratios at the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16:9_aspect_rati

wikipedia has the history of 16:9 - it originated as a compromise of the other popular aspect ratios at the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16:9_aspect_ratio#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16:9_aspect_ratio#History