On this day — February 16

Date

February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 318 days remain until the end of the year (319 in leap years).

• 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
• 1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
• 1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.
• 1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the first English Civil War.
• 1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.
• 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.^[1]
• 1796 – Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) falls to the British, completing their invasion of Ceylon.^[2]
• 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
• 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
• 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
• 1899 – Iceland‘s first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.^[3]
• 1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.^[4]
• 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.^[5]
• 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
• 1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.
• 1936 – The Popular Front wins the 1936 Spanish general election.
• 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.^[6]
• 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 – World War II: In Athens, the Greek People’s Liberation Army is established^[7]
• 1943 – World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city.
• 1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
• 1945 – The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law.^[8]
• 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
• 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
• 1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
• 1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
• 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
• 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
• 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
• 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
• 1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
• 1986 – China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard.^[9]
• 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
• 1996 – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people.
• 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
• 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
• 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs.
• 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
• 2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.

• 1222 – Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)^[10]
• 1304 – Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür, Chinese emperor (d. 1332)
• 1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian political leader (d. 1406)^[11]
• 1419 – John I, Duke of Cleves (d. 1481)
• 1470 – Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1540)^[12]
• 1471 – Krishnadevaraya, emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (d. 1529)
• 1497 – Philip Melanchthon, German astronomer, theologian, and academic (d. 1560)^[13]
• 1514 – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian cartographer and instrument maker (d. 1574)^[14]
• 1519 – Gaspard II de Coligny, French admiral (d. 1572)
• 1543 – Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (d. 1590)
• 1620 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1688)
• 1643 – John Sharp, English archbishop (d. 1714)
• 1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (d. 1758)
• 1727 – Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian botanist, chemist, and mycologist (d. 1817)
• 1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)
• 1761 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (d. 1804)^[15]
• 1774 – Pierre Rode, French violinist and composer (d. 1830)
• 1786 – Maria Pavlovna, Russian Grand Duchess (d. 1859)
• 1802 – Phineas Quimby, American mystic and philosopher (d. 1866)
• 1804 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (d. 1885)
• 1812 – Henry Wilson, American colonel and politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
• 1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer and scholar (d. 1865)^[16]
• 1822 – Francis Galton, English biologist and statistician (d. 1911)
• 1824 – Peter Kosler, Slovenian lawyer, geographer, and cartographer (d. 1879)
• 1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet and author (d. 1886)
• 1830 – Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter (d. 1902)
• 1831 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (d. 1895)
• 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, physician, and philosopher (d. 1919)
• 1838 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (d. 1918)
• 1841 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (d. 1927)
• 1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932)
• 1845 – George Kennan, American journalist and explorer (d. 1924)
• 1848 – Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist, geneticist, and academic (d. 1935)
• 1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (d. 1917)
• 1856 – Ossian Everett Mills, American academic, founded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (d. 1920)
• 1866 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player and manager (d. 1940)
• 1868 – Edward S. Curtis, American ethnologist and photographer (d. 1952)
• 1873 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian journalist and author (d. 1908)
• 1876 – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian and academic (d. 1962)
• 1878 – Pamela Colman Smith, English occultist and illustrator (d. 1951)
• 1878 – James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1920)
• 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, German-Irish American director and producer (d. 1951)
• 1886 – Andy Ducat, English international footballer (forward and manager) and Cricketer (d. 1942)^[17]
• 1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
• 1891 – Hans F. K. Günther, German eugenicist and academic (d. 1968)
• 1893 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (d. 1974)
• 1896 – Eugénie Blanchard, French super-centenarian (d. 2010)
• 1901 – Wayne King, American singer-songwriter and conductor (d. 1985)
• 1901 – Chester Morris, American actor (d. 1970)^[18]
• 1902 – Cyril Vincent, South African cricketer (d. 1968)
• 1903 – Edgar Bergen, Swedish-American ventriloquist and actor (d. 1978)
• 1904 – James Baskett, African-American actor and singer (d. 1948)
• 1904 – George F. Kennan, Scotch-Irish American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (d. 2005)
• 1905 – Henrietta Barnett, British Women’s Royal Air Force officer (d. 1985)^[19]
• 1906 – Vera Menchik, British-Czechoslovak-Russian chess player (d. 1944)
• 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (d. 1982)^[20]
• 1909 – Richard McDonald, Irish-American businessman, co-founded McDonald’s (d. 1998)
• 1914 – Jimmy Wakely, American country music singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1982)
• 1916 – Bill Doggett, African-American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
• 1919 – Georges Ulmer, Danish-French actor and composer (d. 1989)
• 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American general (d. 2018)
• 1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1981)
• 1921 – Jean Behra, French race car driver (d. 1959)
• 1921 – John Galbraith Graham, English priest and academic (d. 2013)
• 1922 – Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, German soldier and pilot (d. 1950)
• 1923 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2016)
• 1926 – Margot Frank, German-Dutch holocaust victim (d. 1945)
• 1926 – John Schlesinger, English actor and director (d. 2003)
• 1927 – June Brown, English actress
• 1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer and architect (d. 1980)
• 1929 – Peter Porter, Australian-English poet and educator (d. 2010)
• 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002)
• 1931 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor and singer (d. 2014)
• 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean economist, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of Sierra Leone (d. 2014)
• 1932 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2007)
• 1934 – August Coppola, American author and academic (d. 2009)
• 1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer
• 1935 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (d. 2016)
• 1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (d. 1998)
• 1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (d. 2014)
• 1935 – Bradford Parkinson, American colonel and engineer
• 1935 – Kenneth Price, American painter and sculptor (d. 2012)
• 1937 – Paul Bailey, British novelist, critic, and biographer
• 1937 – Yuri Manin, Russian-German mathematician and academic
• 1938 – John Corigliano, American composer and academic
• 1939 – Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino lawyer and judge
• 1940 – Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (d. 1979)
• 1941 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 2011)
• 1942 – Richard Williams, American tennis player and coach
• 1944 – Glyn Davies, Welsh farmer and politician
• 1944 – Richard Ford, American novelist and short story writer
• 1944 – Sigiswald Kuijken, Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor
• 1944 – António Mascarenhas Monteiro, Cape Verdean politician, 2nd President of Cape Verde (d. 2016)
• 1947 – Jaroslav Kubera, Czech politician (d. 2020)^[21]
• 1948 – Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler and coach (d. 2014)
• 1949 – Bob O’Reilly, Australian rugby league player
• 1950 – Peter Hain, Kenyan-Welsh politician, Secretary of State for Wales
• 1951 – Barry Foote, American baseball player and coach
• 1952 – William Katt, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1952 – Peter Kitchen, English footballer, striker^[22]
• 1952 – James Ingram, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2019)
• 1953 – John Bradbury, English drummer, songwriter, and producer (d. 2015)
• 1953 – Lanny McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
• 1953 – Roberta Williams, American video game designer, co-founded Sierra Entertainment
• 1954 – Iain Banks, Scottish author and playwright (d. 2013)^[23]
• 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (d. 1996)
• 1954 – Michael Holding, Jamaican cricketer and sportscaster
• 1956 – Vincent Ward, New Zealand director and screenwriter
• 1957 – LeVar Burton, German-born American actor, director, and producer
• 1958 – Natalie Angier, American author
• 1958 – Ice-T, American rapper and actor
• 1958 – Oscar Schmidt, Brazilian basketball player
• 1958 – Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach
• 1959 – John McEnroe, German-American tennis player and sportscaster
• 1959 – Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player and sportscaster
• 1960 – Pete Willis, English guitarist and songwriter
• 1961 – Des Hasler, Australian rugby league player and coach
• 1961 – Liu Kang, Chinese footballer and manager (d. 2013)
• 1961 – Andy Taylor, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1962 – John Balance, English singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
• 1964 – Bebeto, Brazilian footballer and manager
• 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor
• 1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban-American drummer
• 1967 – Keith Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1968 – Warren Ellis, English author and screenwriter
• 1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian footballer and manager
• 1971 – Michael Avenatti, American attorney and pundit^[24]
• 1971 – Craig Laundy, Australian politician
• 1972 – Zoran Čampara, Bosnian football player
• 1972 – Sarah Clarke, American actress
• 1972 – Naomi Nishida, Japanese actress
• 1972 – Darrell Trindall, Australian rugby league player
• 1973 – Cathy Freeman, Australian sprinter
• 1974 – Mahershala Ali, American actor
• 1974 – José Dominguez, Portuguese international footballer, winger and manager^[25]
• 1976 – Eric Byrnes, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1976 – Kyo, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
• 1977 – Ian Clarke, Irish-American computer scientist, founded Freenet
• 1977 – Ahman Green, American football player
• 1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian high jumper and chemist
• 1978 – Wasim Jaffer, Indian cricketer
• 1978 – John Tartaglia, American actor, singer, and puppeteer
• 1979 – Stéphane Dalmat, French footballer, midfielder^[26]
• 1979 – Eric Mun, American-South Korean singer and actor
• 1979 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
• 1980 – Longineu W. Parsons III, French-American drummer
• 1981 – Jay Howard, English race car driver
• 1981 – Jerry Owens, American baseball player
• 1981 – Qyntel Woods, American basketball player
• 1982 – Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
• 1982 – Rickie Lambert, English footballer
• 1982 – Lupe Fiasco, American rapper
• 1983 – Agyness Deyn, English model, actress, and singer
• 1984 – Sofia Arvidsson, Swedish tennis player
• 1984 – Oussama Mellouli, Tunisian swimmer^[27]
• 1985 – Simon Francis, English footballer^[28]
• 1985 – Stacy Lewis, American golfer^[29]
• 1985 – Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
• 1986 – Diego Godín, Uruguayan footballer
• 1987 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
• 1987 – Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
• 1987 – Hasheem Thabeet, Tanzanian basketball player
• 1988 – Diego Capel, Spanish footballer
• 1988 – Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
• 1988 – Denílson Pereira Neves, Brazilian footballer
• 1988 – Andrea Ranocchia, Italian footballer
• 1988 – Kim Soo-hyun, South Korean actor and singer
• 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
• 1990 – Dunamis Lui, Australian-Samoan rugby league player
• 1990 – The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer^[30]
• 1991 – Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
• 1992 – Nicolai Boilesen, Danish footballer
• 1992 – Zsófia Susányi, Hungarian tennis player
• 1994 – Annika Beck, German tennis player^[31]
• 1994 – Federico Bernardeschi, Italian footballer^[32]
• 1994 – Ava Max, American singer and songwriter^[33]
• 1995 – Katy Dunne, English tennis player^[34]
• 1995 – Carina Witthöft, German tennis player^[35]

• 549 – Zhu Yi, Chinese general (b. 483)
• 902 – Mary the Younger, Byzantine saint (b. 875)
• 1184 – Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1247 – Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
• 1279 – Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
• 1281 – Gertrude of Hohenberg, queen consort of Germany (b. c.1225)
• 1390 – Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
• 1391 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1332)
• 1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
• 1560 – Jean du Bellay, French cardinal and diplomat (b. 1493)
• 1579 – Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Spanish explorer (b. 1509)
• 1645 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and politician, 24th Governor of the Duchy of Milan (b. 1585)
• 1710 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (b. 1632)
• 1721 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1686)
• 1754 – Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1673)
• 1820 – Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (b. 1758)
• 1862 – William Pennington American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1796)
• 1898 – Thomas Bracken, Irish-New Zealand journalist, poet, and politician (b. 1843)
• 1899 – Félix Faure, French merchant and politician, 7th President of France (b. 1841)
• 1907 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
• 1912 – Nicholas of Japan, Russian-Japanese monk and saint (b. 1836)
• 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (b. 1848)
• 1919 – Vera Kholodnaya, Ukrainian actress (b. 1893)
• 1928 – Eddie Foy Sr., American actor and dancer (b. 1856)^[36]
• 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1841)
• 1932 – Edgar Speyer, American-English financier and philanthropist (b. 1862)
• 1944 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1870)
• 1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1876)
• 1961 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
• 1967 – Smiley Burnette, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1911)
• 1974 – John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand Rifle(b. 1888)
• 1975 – Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (b. 1903)
• 1977 – Janani Luwum, bishop, Church of Uganda, martyr (b. c.1922)
• 1977 – Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1905)
• 1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (b. 1895)
• 1984 – M. A. G. Osmani, Bangladeshi general (b. 1918)
• 1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)
• 1991 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan lieutenant and engineer (b. 1932)
• 1992 – Angela Carter, English novelist, short story writer (b. 1940)
• 1992 – Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician, 22nd President of Brazil (b. 1917)
• 1992 – Herman Wold, Norwegian-Swedish economist and statistician (b. 1908)
• 1996 – Roberto Aizenberg, Argentinian painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
• 1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor and author (b. 1932)
• 1996 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (b. 1905)
• 1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1915)
• 1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist and academic (b. 1912)
• 1998 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (b. 1908)
• 2000 – Marceline Day, American actress (b. 1908)
• 2000 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-French actress and singer
• 2000 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American businessman, founded PING (b. 1911)
• 2001 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (b. 1916)
• 2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1915)
• 2002 – Walter Winterbottom, English footballer and manager (b. 1913)
• 2003 – Rusty Magee, American actor and composer (b. 1955)
• 2004 – Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
• 2006 – Johnny Grunge, American wrestler (b. 1966)
• 2006 – Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (b. 1925)
• 2009 – Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (b. 1921)
• 2011 – Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
• 2011 – Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet and playwright (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (b. 1954)
• 2012 – Elyse Knox, American model, actress, and fashion designer (b. 1917)
• 2012 – John Macionis, American swimmer and lieutenant (b. 1916)
• 2012 – Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
• 2013 – Colin Edwards, Guyanese footballer (b. 1991)
• 2013 – Grigory Pomerants, Russian philosopher and author (b. 1918)
• 2013 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
• 2014 – Ken Farragut, American football player (b. 1928)
• 2014 – Gert Krawinkel, German guitarist (b. 1947)
• 2014 – Michael Shea, American author (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Lasse Braun, Algerian-Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1936)
• 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
• 2015 – R. R. Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1957)
• 2015 – Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (b. 1971)
• 2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
• 2019 – Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor (b. 1941)^[37]

Holidays and observances[edit]