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February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 318 days remaining (319 in leap years).
Events
1742 - Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
1804 - First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate Philadelphia.
1838 - Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.
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.
1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1868 - In New York City the Jolly Gorks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
1883 - Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
1918 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
1923 - Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
1943 - World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov.
1945 - World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
1945 - American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1961 - Explorer 9 launched. (See Explorer program)
1968 - In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
1970 - Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.
1972 - NBA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th point.
1978 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
1986 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
1987 - The trial of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
1989 - Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.
1991 - Gulf War: U.S. and U.K. war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
1998 - A China Airlines Airbus A300-622R crashes on approach to airport, Taipei, Taiwan killing 203 including 6 on the ground
1999 - In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
1999 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
1999 - In Jasper, Texas, the trial begins of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime.
Births
1222 - Nichiren, monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism
1497 - Philipp Melanchthon, humanist and reformer (d. 1560)
1620 - Friedrich Wilhelm, called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Ducal Prussia (d. 1688)
1822 - Sir Francis Galton, explorer, biologist (d. 1911)
1826 - Joseph Victor von Scheffel, poet (d. 1886)
1826 - Julia Grant, First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant (d. 1902)
1834 - Ernst Haeckel, zoologist and philosopher (d. 1919)
1838 - Henry Adams, historian and novelist (d. 1918)
1876 - George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian (d. 1962)
1901 - Wayne King, band leader ("The Waltz King")
1903 - Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (d. 1978)
1926 - John Schlesinger, film director (d. 2003)
1927 - June Brown, British actress
1927 - Tom Kennedy, game show host
1931 - Otis Blackwell, songwriter, singer
1935 - Sonny Bono, singer, music producer, television producer, Congressman (d. 1998)
1942 - Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader
1944 - Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
1945 - Jeremy Bulloch, actor
1948 - Pete Postlethwaite, actor
1950 - Peter Hain, British politician
1951 - William Katt, American actor
1954 - Iain Banks, author
1957 - LeVar Burton, actor
1957 - James Ingram, singer
1958 - Ice-T, singer, songwriter, actor
1959 - John McEnroe, tennis player
1960 - Pete Willis, ex-Def Leppard guitarist
1964 - Christopher Eccleston, actor (Our Friends in the North, Doctor Who)
1972 - Jerome Bettis, American football player
1973 - Cathy Freeman, Australian athlete
1975 - Aikawa Nanase, Japanese Musician
1977 - Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet
1980 - Ashley Lelie, American football player
Deaths
1279 - King Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
1898 - Thomas Bracken, NZ poet, author of God's Own Country
1912 - St. Nikolai of Japan, monk priest of Eastern Orthodoxy (b. 1836)
1928 - Eddie Foy, vaudevillian, singer, dancer
1975 - Morgan Taylor, American athlete
1978 - E. Roland Harriman, financier (b. 1895)
1992 - Angela Carter, writer (b. 1940)
1996 - Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California (b. 1905)
1996 - Brownie McGhee, blues singer (b. 1915)
2002 - Walter Winterbottom, the first England football manager (b. 1913)
2003 - Alexander Tišma, author
Holidays and observances
Lithuania - Statehood Day (1918)
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February 15 - February 17 - January 16 - March 16 -- listing of all days
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