February 16

### Up to 1900

- 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau was dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
- 1270 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
- 1279 – Afonso III of Portugal dies. His son Denis succeeds the Portuguese throne.
- 1646 – The Battle of Torrington takes place in Devon, as the last major battle of the English Civil War.
- 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.
- 1863 – Kansas State University is founded.
- 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).
- 1874 – The Silver Dollar becomes the legal US tender.
- 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.
- 1883 – Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
- 1899 – President Félix Faure of France dies in office.
- 1899 – Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur, the first football club in Iceland, is founded.

### 1901 – 2000

- 1904 – The ship RRS _Discovery_ is rescued from ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica after two years of being trapped in the ice, in an expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. The ship _Terra Nova_ was involved in the rescue operation.
- 1918 – Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
- 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
- 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation is founded.
- 1934 – Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
- 1936 – Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
- 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
- 1940 – Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark, with 299 British prisoners, was boarded in neutral Norwegian waters by sailors from the British destroyer HMS _Cossack_ and the prisoners set free, a breach of Norwegian neutrality at the beginning of World War II.
- 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.
- 1948 – Gerard Kuiper discovers Miranda, a moon of Uranus.
- 1952 – Greece and Turkey join NATO.
- 1957 – The first Africa Cup of Nations football tournament is won by the Egypt national football team.
- 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
- 1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS _Triton_ begins Operation Sunblast, setting sail from New Haven, Connecticut to begin the first submerged circumnavigation (round–the–world journey) of the globe.
- 1961 – Explorer 9 is launched. (_See Explorer program_).
- 1962 – Northern Germany is affected by major flooding in the night to February 17. In Hamburg alone, 300 lives are lost.
- 1964 – Willy Brandt succeeds Erich Ollenhauer  as leader of the SPD in West Germany.
- 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).
- 1982 – Agatha Barbara becomes the first woman to be elected President of Malta.
- 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
- 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
- 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.
- 1990 – Sam Nujoma is elected to become the first President of Namibia, which becomes independent on March 21.
- 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 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashed into a residential area near by Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people, included all 196 on board and six 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.

### From 2001

- 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
- 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–2005 regular season and playoffs, becoming the first major sports league in North America to do so over a labour dispute.
- 2013 – A bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan kills over 80 people.
- 2015 – The Egyptian military begins conducting air strikes against militants from a branch of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Libya in retaliation for the group's beheading of several Egyptian Christians.
- 2017 – At least 48 people are killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad.
- 2017 – At least 80 people are killed in a bomb attack on a Sufi shrine in the province of Sindh, southern Pakistan.

### Up to 1900

- 1032 – Emperor Yingzong of Song of China (d. 1067)
- 1222 – Nichiren, monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
- 1304 – Jayaatu Khan, Emperor Wenzong of Yuan (d. 1332)
- 1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian humanist and politician (d. 1406)
- 1497 – Philipp Melanchthon, German humanist and reformer (d. 1560)
- 1519 – Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (d. 1572)
- 1620 – Friedrich Wilhelm, called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg–Ducal Prussia (d. 1688)
- 1665 – Queen Anne of Great Britain (d. 1714)
- 1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (d. 1758)
- 1727 – Nikolaus von Jacquin, Austrian botanist and chemist (d. 1817)
- 1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian printmaker and publicist (d. 1813)
- 1786 – Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1859)
- 1791 – Claude Pouillet, French physicist (d. 1868)
- 1802 – Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, American philosopher (d. 1866)
- 1804 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (d. 1885)
- 1812 – Henry Wilson, Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
- 1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer (d. 1865)
- 1822 – Sir Francis Galton, English explorer, biologist (d. 1911)
- 1824 – Peter Kozler, Slovenian cartographer, geographer (d. 1879)
- 1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, poet (d. 1886)
- 1826 – Julia Grant, First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant (d. 1902)
- 1831 – Nikolay Leskov, Russian writer (d. 1895)
- 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (d. 1919)
- 1838 – Henry Adams, American historian and novelist (d. 1918)
- 1847 – Philipp Scharwenka, Polish–German composer (d. 1917)
- 1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (d. 1917)
- 1852 – Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses (d. 1916)
- 1856 – Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (d. 1944)
- 1856 – Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (d. 1934)
- 1876 – George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian (d. 1962)
- 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, American movie maker (d. 1951)
- 1886 – Van Wyck Brooks, American historian, critic (d. 1963)
- 1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
- 1896 – Roberto Chery, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1919)
- 1896 – Eugenie Blanchard, French–Caribbean supercentenarian (d. 2010)

### 1901 – 1950

- 1901 – Vincent Coleman, American actor (d. 1971)
- 1903 – Georges-Henri Lévesque, Canadian priest and sociologist (d. 2000)
- 1903 – Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (d. 1978)
- 1904 – George F. Kennan, architect of Cold War policy of containment, centenarian (d. 2005)
- 1906 – Vera Menchik, Russian–British chess player (d. 1944)
- 1909 – Jeffrey Lynn, American actor (d. 1995)
- 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1909 – Dick McDonald, American businessman (d. 1998)
- 1915 – Michael Relph, American movie producer and director (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Duong Van Minh, South Vietnamese politician and general (d. 2001)
- 1916 – Bill Doggett, American pianist and organist (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Patty Andrews, American singer (d. 2013)
- 1919 – Georges Ulmer, French singer and composer (d. 1989)
- 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American brigadier general
- 1921 – Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Communist Party of China (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Araucaria, British crossword compiler (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Vera-Ellen, American actress (d. 1981)
- 1923 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish–Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2016)
- 1925 – Carlos Paredes, Portuguese guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1926 – John Schlesinger, American movie director (d. 2003)
- 1926 – Margot Frank, sister of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
- 1927 – June Brown, British actress
- 1927 – Tom Kennedy, game show host
- 1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer (d. 1980)
- 1929 – Kazimierz Kutz, Polish actor, director and politician
- 1931 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American songwriter, singer (d. 2002)
- 1932 – Antonio Ordóñez, Spanish matador (d. 1998)
- 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, former President of Sierra Leone (d. 2014)
- 1934 – August Coppola, American academic (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer
- 1935 – Sonny Bono, American singer, music producer, television producer, Congressman (d. 1998)
- 1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Brian Bedford, English actor (d. 2016)
- 1936 – Jill Kinmont, American skier
- 1936 – Joe Frank Harris, American politician, former Governor of Georgia
- 1937 – Valentin Bondarenko, Soviet–Ukrainian pilot (d. 1961)
- 1937 – Yuri Manin, Russian mathematician
- 1938 – John Corigliano, American Composer, wrote Academy Award winning music for _The Red Violin_
- 1939 – Czeslaw Niemen, Polish singer-songwriter and composer (d. 2004)
- 1940 – Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (d. 1979)
- 1941 – Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader (d. 2011)
- 1942 – Richard Williams, father of Venus Williams and Serena Williams
- 1944 – Richard Ford, American Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
- 1944 – Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro, 2nd President of Cape Verde
- 1945 – Jeremy Bulloch, British actor
- 1946 – Ian Lavender, British actor
- 1948 – Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 2014)
- 1950 – Kazuki Tomokawa, Japanese singer
- 1950 – Peter Hain, British politician

### 1951 – 1975

- 1951 – William Katt, American actor
- 1952 – James Ingram, American singer, pianist and composer
- 1953 – Lanny McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1953 – Roberta Williams, American computer game developer
- 1954 – Iain Banks, Scottish writer (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Bruce Crawford, Scottish politician
- 1955 – Margaux Hemingway, American actress, model (d. 1996)
- 1956 – Bodo Ramelow, German politician, Prime Minister of Thuringia
- 1957 – LeVar Burton, American actor, director and writer
- 1958 – Ice-T, American singer, songwriter, actor
- 1958 – Lisa Loring, American actress
- 1958 – Anil Ramdas, Surinamese–Dutch journalist (d. 2012)
- 1958 – Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach
- 1959 – John McEnroe, American tennis player
- 1959 – Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player
- 1960 – Pete Willis, English ex–Def Leppard guitarist
- 1961 – Andy Taylor, English musician, Duran Duran
- 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor (_Our Friends in the North_, _Doctor Who_)
- 1964 – Bebeto, Brazilian footballer
- 1965 – Adama Barrow, President of the Gambia
- 1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban drummer
- 1966 – Martin Perscheid, German cartoonist
- 1967 – Keith Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1967 – John Valentin, American baseball player
- 1969 – Holly Aird, English actress
- 1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Amanda Holden, English actress
- 1971 – Steven Houghton, English actor and singer
- 1972 – Jerome Bettis, American football player
- 1972 – Taylor Hawkins, American musician (Foo Fighters)
- 1972 – Grit Breuer, German athlete
- 1972 – Sarah Clarke, American actress
- 1973 – Cathy Freeman, Australian athlete
- 1973 – Christian Bassedas, Argentine footballer
- 1973 – Nikos Kostakis, Greek footballer
- 1974 – Luis Figueroa, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1975 – Aikawa Nanase, Japanese musician

### From 1976

- 1977 – Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet
- 1978 – Vala Flosadottir, Icelandic pole vaulter
- 1978 – Sam Salter, American singer
- 1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian athlete
- 1978 – John Tartaglia, American actor
- 1979 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1980 – Ashley Lelie, American football player
- 1981 – Susanna Kallur, Swedish athlete
- 1981 – Jenny Kallur, Swedish athlete
- 1982 – Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
- 1982 – Rickie Lambert, English footballer
- 1982 – Lee Min-jung, South Korean actress
- 1983 – Agyness Deyn, English model
- 1985 – Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Josje Huisman, Dutch singer, actress and dancer
- 1986 – Diego Godin, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
- 1987 – Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
- 1987 – Hasheem Thabeet, American basketball player
- 1988 – Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
- 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
- 1990 – The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1991 – Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg
- 1991 – Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
- 1993 – Mike Weinberg, American actor
- 1994 – Annika Beck, German tennis player
- 1995 – Carina Witthöft, German tennis player

### Up to 1900

- 1184 – Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1247 – Heinrich Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
- 1279 – King Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
- 1390 – Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
- 1391 – John V Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1332)
- 1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
- 1560 – Jean du Bellay, French Catholic cardinal and diplomat
- 1617 – Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist (b. 1553)
- 1645 – Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, Spanish military leader and politician (b. 1585)
- 1710 – Esprit Fléchier, French writer and Bishop of Nîmes (b. 1632)
- 1721 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician (b. 1686)
- 1754 – Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1763)
- 1892 – Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist, evolutionary biologist and entomologist (b. 1825)
- 1898 – Thomas Bracken, New Zealand poet (b. 1843)
- 1899 – Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)

### 1901 – 2000

- 1907 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
- 1912 – St. Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox priest (b. 1836)
- 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (b. 1848)
- 1924 – John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (b. 1853)
- 1927 – Jonas Basanavicius, Lithuanian independence hero (b. 1851)
- 1928 – Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (b. 1856)
- 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1841)
- 1944 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1870)
- 1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish inventor, composer and pianist (b. 1876)
- 1957 – John Sealy, Irish physicist (b. 1868)
- 1961 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
- 1967 – Antonio Moreno, Spanish–born actor (b. 1887)
- 1967 – Smiley Burnette, American actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1911)
- 1974 – John Garand, Canadian rifle engineer and manufacturer (b. 1888)
- 1975 – Morgan Taylor, American athlete (b. 1903)
- 1977 – Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (b. 1897)
- 1978 – E. Roland Harriman, American financier (b. 1895)
- 1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist (b. 1895)
- 1990 – Keith Haring, American artist (b. 1958)
- 1991 – Enrique Bermudez, leader of the Nicaraguan Contras (b. 1932)
- 1992 – Angela Carter, English writer (b. 1940)
- 1992 – Herman Wold, Swedish statistician (b. 1908)
- 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (b. 1936)
- 1996 – Pat Brown, Governor of California (b. 1905)
- 1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer (b. 1915)
- 1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor (b. 1932)
- 2000 – Karsten Solheim, engineer, inventor

### From 2001

- 2001 – Bob Buhl, baseball player (b. 1928)
- 2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1915)
- 2001 – Howard W. Koch, American movie director (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Walter Winterbottom, England football manager (b. 1913)
- 2003 – Rusty Magee, American composer (b. 1955)
- 2004 – Shirley Strickland, Australian athlete (b. 1925)
- 2004 – Doris Troy, American singer (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Narriman Sadek, former Queen of Egypt
- 2005 – Nicole DeHuff, American actress (pneumonia) (b. 1974)
- 2007 – Sheridan Morley, English writer, actor and director (b. 1941)
- 2009 – Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (b. 1922)
- 2011 – Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Baddeley Devesi, Governor–General of the Solomon Islands (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Anil Ramdas, Surinamese–Dutch journalist (b. 1958)
- 2012 – Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
- 2013 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
- 2014 – Mansour Koushan, Norwegian–Iranian poet, writer and director (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Jimmy Murakami, American animator and movie director (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Michael Shea, American writer (b. 1946)
- 2015 – John Davies, Welsh historian (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer, songwriter, actress and activist (b. 1946)
- 2015 – Uri Orbach, Israeli writer, journalist and politician (b. 1960)
- 2015 – R. R. Patil, Indian politician (b. 1956)
- 2015 – Lasse Braun, Italian director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1936)
- 2015 – Aleksandr Melentyev, Russian short shooter (b. 1954)
- 2015 – Heinrich Windelen, German politician (b. 1921)
- 2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Belinda Nash, Canadian–American historian (b. 1946)
- 2016 – Charles Caldwell Ryrie, American theologian (b. 1925)
- 2016 – Robert J. Walker, American sailor (b. 1929)
- 2017 – Josef Augusta, Czech ice hockey player and coach (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator (b. 1927)
- 2017 – Ep Wieldraaijer, Dutch politician (b. 1927)
- 2017 – George Steele, American professional wrestler (b. 1937)
- 2017 – Jannis Kounellis, Greek–Italian artist (b. 1936)

## Observances

- Independence Day (Lithuania)
- Birthday of Kim Jong-Il (North Korea)