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What happened on February 16 Please support our Sponsors - They help us keep this site Alive! 0374 9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 0600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze 1249 Andrew of Longjumeau was dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols. 1486 Diet of Frankfort 1512 Battle at Valeggio French troops beat Venetianen 1559 Pope Paul IV calls for deposition of sovereigns supporting heresy 1568 The entire population of the Netherlands - three million people - was sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy; see Eighty Years' War. 1641 English king Charles I accept Triennial Act 1646 Battle of Great Torrington, Devon - the last major battle of the first English Civil War. 1655 Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker 1659 First known check (£400), it is now (on display at Westminster Abbey 1666 Netherlands & Brandenburg sign treaty 1677 Earl of Shaftesbury arrested/confined in London Tower 1741 Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine (2nd US Magazine) begins publishing 1742 Earl of Wilmington becomes British premier 1742 Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister. 1746 Government forces under Lord Louden attempted to capture Prince Charles Edward stewart at Moy Hall but were surprised and routed by a handful of Jacobites. The only death in the Rout of Moy was Duncan Bam MacCrimmon, Hereditory Piper to the MacLeods of Dunvegan, who took the Hanoverian side in the 45. 1760 Native American hostages killed in Ft Prince George SC 1771 Messier presents his original list of 45 M-objects to French Academy 1777 Messier adds M53 to his catalog (globular cluster in Coma Berenice) 1804 First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia. 1804 Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, with volunteers from frigate Constitution and schooner Enterprise, enters Tripoli harbor by night in the ketch Intrepid to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia. Decatur's raid succeeds without American losses. England's Lord Nelson calls this "the most daring act of the age." 1824 Athenaeum founded 1825 Explorer John Franklin 1786-1847 leaves England on second expedition, with George Back, John Richardson, and surveyor Edward Kendall, to explore from the Mackenzie Delta 1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions 1838 Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus. 1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica 1846 Battle of Sobraon ends first Sikh War in India 1852 Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established. 1857 The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, DC, becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf. 1859 The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch. 1860 Dutch Rochussen/Van Bosse government resigns 1862 Ft Donelson captured by General Grant (1,400 confederates surrender) 1864 Battle of Mobile, AL - operations by Union Army 1866 Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War 1868 In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE). 1878 The Silver Dollar was introduced as a U.S. coin. 1880 American Society of Mechanical Engineers founded, New York NY 1881 In Montreal Quebec George Stephen signs charter and incorporates Canadian Pacific Railway and in 2001 the company said it will break up into it's parts 1883 "Ladies Home Journal" begins publication 1899 Knattspyrnuflag Reykjavkur Iceland's first football club is founded. 1899 Pelham Warner scores 132 on Test Cricket debut (England vs South Africa Johannesburg) 1899 President Flix Faure of France dies in office. 1900 The first Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes first issue (Chung Sai Yat Po-San Francisco) 1903 -59º F (-51º C), Pokegama Dam MN (state record) 1909 Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary 1909 Subway car with side doors goes into service (New York NY) 1913 President Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico 1914 First airplane flight from to Los Angeles from San Francisco 1916 Russian troops conquer Erzurum Armenia 1917 First synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid 1918 Lithuania declares independence from Russia & Germany (National Day) 1918 The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state. 1923 Allies accept Latvia's occupation of Memel territory 1923 Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. 1923 The burial vault of King Tutankhamen's tomb is unsealed in Egypt by Howard Carter 1926 Suzanne Lenglen defeats Helen Wills in Tennis at Cannes France 1927 Noël Coward's "Marquise," premieres in London 1927 US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey 1931 Extreme right wing Svinhufvud becomes President of Finland 1932 Patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree 1933 Catholic newspaper Germania warns against Nazis/communists 1933 Visitor posting - Rolland O. has arrived! Yahoo! In Iowa, Evelyn and Clark are so proud. 1934 Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund 1934 Commission of Government sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland. 1936 Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain. 1936 Spanish Frente Popular (People's Front) wins elections 1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers 1937 Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon. 1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized 1940 RCAF's No. 110 Army Cooperation Squadron sails for Britain; first of 48 squadrons to go overseas 1940 British search plane finds German Altmark off Norway 1940 World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed. 1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery 1942 Massacre of 22 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service and other survivors of the SS Vyner Brooke, on Banka Island, Straits of Sumatra 1943 -32º F (-36º C), Falls Village CT (state record) 1943 British premier Winston Churchill gets pneumonia 1943 Red army conquers Kharkov 1943 Sign on Munich facade "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22 1943 Withdrawing Africa Corps reaches Mareth-line in North-Africa 1943 World War II: USSR reconquers Kharkov. 1945 American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula. 1945 American troops begin their reoccupation of the Philippine island of Corregidor during WWII. 1945 Venezuela declares war on Nazi-Germany 1945 World War II: First American Aircraft carrier strikes on Tokyo. 1946 First commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport CT 1947 Canadians granted Canadian citizenship after 80 years of being British subjects. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen. 1947 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres 1948 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for first time 1949 House of Commons passes the Newfoundland Union Act by a vote of 140-47. Newfoundland officially joins Canada March 31, 1949 1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS 1951 NYC passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing 1952 Ian Craig makes New South Wales cricket debut aged 16 years 249 days (New South Wales record) 1956 Britain abolishes the death penalty 1957 The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television closedown between 6.00pm and 7.00pm was abolished in the United Kingdom 1957 UK hist BBC TV started to broadcast Six-Five Special, breaking the 'Toddlers' Truce' of no broadcasting 6-7pm 1959 Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba after overthrowing Batista. 1960 US nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip 1961 China uses it's first nuclear reactor 1961 First all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island VA 1961 US satellite Explorer 9 is launched 1963 C & A Building in Amsterdam burns down 1963 Please, Please Me, by The Beatles, moves to #1 on the British pop music charts, just a month after it was released. 1964 Beatles' 2nd appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show" 1965 Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors 1966 Bob Cowper makes 307 vs England at the MCG, 727 minute s, 20 fours 1966 End of Wally Grout's Test Cricket career, 187 dismissals as Australia WK 1966 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria 1967 Visitor posting - Joseph Rodgers born in Toronto Ont. - Canada 1967 Number one hit on UK music charts - Petula Clark - This Is My Song 1967 Operation River Raider begins in Mekong Delta 1968 Beatles George Harrison & John Lennon & wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 1968 Country's first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville AL 1968 Elvis Presley receives gold record for "How Great Thou Art" 1968 In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service. 1970 Joe Frazier KOs Jimmy Ellis in 5 for undisputed heavyweight boxing crown 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, under opposition attack in the Commons, utters an apparently unparliamentary expression that he later describes as "fuddle-duddle" we all know what it really was 1972 German mass murderers "Three of Breda" freed 1972 NBA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th point. 1973 West Indies vs Australia at Kingston, first time since 1955 without Sobers 1973 William Calley's murder conviction for the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam 1978 The first Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward & Randy's CBBS, Chicago) 1978 The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois). 1980 Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France 1980 Eric Heiden skates 5k in 7 02.29 (Olympics Record) 1980 Number one hit on UK music charts - Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County 1982 Agatha Barbara elected as first female President of Malta 1982 Assembled STS-3 vehicle moves from Vandenberg AFB to launch pad 1982 Lee Majors & Farrah Fawcett Majors divorce 1983 The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires. 1984 Bill Johnson becomes first American to win Olympics downhill skiing gold 1984 Canada's Brian Orser wins Silver Medal in Figure Skating at the same Olympics; highest Olympic award ever to a Canadian male 1984 In Sarajevo Bosnia Canada's Gaetan Boucher wins second Gold Medal in Speedskating at the 14th Winter Games 1985 Livingston Bramble defeats Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini to win WBA champion 1985 Visitor posting - Marjorie Anne Wright was born in Philadelphia,Pa,USA 1985 The founding of Hezbollah. 1986 French air force bombs Ouadi Doum airport in Chad 1986 Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater 1986 Mário Soares (Socialist) elected Portugal's first civilian president 1986 The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. 1987 John Demjanjuk, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible" trial begins 1987 The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem. 1988 First documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador 1989 Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market 1989 Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden separate after 16 years of marriage 1989 William Hayden becomes governor-General of Australia 1989 Visitor posting - Krystal Hornsey was born - Canada 1990 Visitor posting - phillip stenberg was born to sue and andrew - USA 1991 Dutch PPR, Political Party Radicals, disbands 1992 Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow & blue 1993 Visitor posting - Christin was born! - USA 1994 6.5 earthquake strikes SE Sumatra, kills 200 1994 Over 200 people die as a powerful earthquake rocks the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 1994 Premier Alfonso Bustamente ends government in Peru 1995 Visitor posting - David A. Schmidt is born to parents Lisa M. Schmidt and Everett J. Schmidt. - USA 1996 Gary Kirsten scores 188 for South Africa vs UAE at Rawalpindi 1997 At age 25, Jeff Gordon is youngest winner in Daytona 500 history 1997 Visitor posting - Quanasia was born to her lovely parents - USA 1998 A China Airlines Airbus A300-600 crashes at Taipei Airport on Taiwan and hit a house- 202 killed. 1998 Tellabs Inc acquires Coherent Communications Systems for $670 million 1999 Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah calan. 1999 In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islom Karimov. 1999 Testimony begins in the Jasper, TX, murder trial of John William King, charged in the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. 2003 Serbian Wikipedia is born. 2005 The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia. 2006 The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army. 2006 Visitor posting - Feb 16, 2006 Nicholas Raymond Gonzales was born! 11:42AM San Jose CA - USA 2009 Visitor posting - On February 16, 2009 Mariah Elaine De La Rosa was born to parents Jessica Hernandez and Albert De La Rosa in San Antonio, Texas, USA--Weight 5 lbs 4 oz., Height 19 inches @ 4:28 p.m. 2010 Visitor posting - Aiden Antonio Simmonds was born at 02:42 at 7lbs 3oz. To the parents of Glenn C. Simmonds Jr. and Timberly C. Simmonds. - USA More historical events added daily - keep checking back Add your own Personal Historic listing FREE! - Click Here Return to Daily Calendar Contact us at: info @ datesinhistory.com (remove the spaces) "This site contains links to other Internet sites. These links are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information in such site has been endorsed or approved by this site. We are not responsible for the content of external sites. We do not vouch for accuracy of the dates listed on this site." Privacy Policy . What happened on my birthday? Search other websites with Google If you added a Personal Historic listing - Find it on Google Get a HOUSE for $23,000 ?? Search for "Real Estate" in Las Vegas, Az, Detroit Enter your search terms Submit search form Need financing for that $23,000 House? Search for "Home Financing"