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“How many of those standing there [when Jesus spoke Matthew 16:28] have still not tasted of death?”

Matthew 17:1-2 (NKJV)
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

This is the very next verse (and the original text did not have chapters and verses). The author is clearly connecting these two events.

Peter later describes this very event this way:

2 Peter 1:16-18 (NKJV)
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

Further, other passages support the possibility that some who were present then will also be present at the end of this age. There are two witnesses who will prophesy for three-and-a-half years near the return of Christ. One of these appears to be Elijah, an Old Testament saint who did not die. We know at least one other—Enoch—who did not die. It is quite possible that some who were present when Christ spoke these words, and similar ones, did not die. For example, the record of John’s death is uncertain. And there were many in the early church, according to the scriptures, who thought John would not die. According to Tertullian, John escaped certain death after being thrown into a caldron of boiling oil. He said John was unharmed, and the onlooking crowds converted to Christianity because of this miracle.

Interestingly, John was told he would prophesy again in the passage in Revelation just before the two witnesses are introduced:

Revelation 10:11 (KJV)
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

(Some translations render this differently, possibly because there is no record of John prophesying after writing Revelation, which is the end of the biblical canon.)