February 16

Events
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 Felix 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 Ocalan.
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.
Births
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 Levesque, 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 Ordonez, 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 Witthoft, German tennis player
Deaths
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 Stoffler, 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 Flechier, French writer and Bishop of Nimes (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 - Felix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)
1901 2000
1907 - Giosue 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 Huckel, 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)
Days of the year