February 16

## Events
### Up to 1900 
* 1249 &ndash; Andrew of Longjumeau was dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
* 1270 &ndash; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
* 1279 &ndash; Afonso III of Portugal dies. His son Denis succeeds the Portuguese throne.
* 1646 &ndash; The Battle of Torrington takes place in Devon, as the last major battle of the English Civil War.
* 1742 &ndash; Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
* 1804 &ndash; First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate–held frigate *Philadelphia*.
* 1838 &ndash; Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.
* 1852 &ndash; Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
* 1857 &ndash; 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 &ndash; American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
* 1863 &ndash; Kansas State University is founded.
* 1866 &ndash; Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War
* 1868 &ndash; In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
* 1874 &ndash; The Silver Dollar becomes the legal US tender.
* 1881 &ndash; The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.
* 1883 &ndash; Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
* 1899 &ndash; President Félix Faure of France dies in office.
* 1899 &ndash; Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur, the first football club in Iceland, is founded.

### 1901 – 2000 
* 1904 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
* 1923 &ndash; Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
* 1930 &ndash; The Romanian Football Federation is founded.
* 1934 &ndash; Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
* 1936 &ndash; Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
* 1937 &ndash; Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
* 1940 &ndash; 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 &ndash; World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov.
* 1945 &ndash; World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
* 1945 &ndash; American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
* 1948 &ndash; Gerard Kuiper discovers Miranda, a moon of Uranus.
* 1952 &ndash; Greece and Turkey join NATO.
* 1957 &ndash; The first Africa Cup of Nations football tournament is won by the Egypt national football team.
* 1959 &ndash; Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
* 1960 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Explorer 9 is launched. (*See Explorer program*).
* 1962 &ndash; Northern Germany is affected by major flooding in the night to February 17. In Hamburg alone, 300 lives are lost.
* 1964 &ndash; Willy Brandt succeeds Erich Ollenhauer  as leader of the SPD in West Germany.
* 1968 &ndash; In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
* 1970 &ndash; Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.
* 1972 &ndash; NBA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th point.
* 1978 &ndash; The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
* 1982 &ndash; Agatha Barbara becomes the first woman to be elected President of Malta.
* 1983 &ndash; The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
* 1985 &ndash; Hezbollah is founded.
* 1986 &ndash; The Soviet liner *Mikhail Lermontov* runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
* 1987 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio–cassette player.
* 1990 &ndash; Sam Nujoma is elected to become the first President of Namibia, which becomes independent on March 21.
* 1991 &ndash; Gulf War: U.S. and U.K. war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
* 1998 &ndash; 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 &ndash; In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
* 1999 &ndash; Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
* 1999 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
* 2005 &ndash; 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 &ndash; A bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan kills over 80 people.
* 2015 &ndash; 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 &ndash; At least 48 people are killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad.
* 2017 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Emperor Yingzong of Song of China (d. 1067)
* 1222 &ndash; Nichiren, monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
* 1304 &ndash; Jayaatu Khan, Emperor Wenzong of Yuan (d. 1332)
* 1331 &ndash; Coluccio Salutati, Italian humanist and politician (d. 1406)
* 1497 &ndash; Philipp Melanchthon, German humanist and reformer (d. 1560)
* 1519 &ndash; Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (d. 1572)
* 1620 &ndash; Friedrich Wilhelm, called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg–Ducal Prussia (d. 1688)
* 1665 &ndash; Queen Anne of Great Britain (d. 1714)
* 1698 &ndash; Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (d. 1758)
* 1727 &ndash; Nikolaus von Jacquin, Austrian botanist and chemist (d. 1817)
* 1740 &ndash; Giambattista Bodoni, Italian printmaker and publicist (d. 1813)
* 1786 &ndash; Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1859)
* 1791 &ndash; Claude Pouillet, French physicist (d. 1868)
* 1802 &ndash; Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, American philosopher (d. 1866)
* 1804 &ndash; Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (d. 1885)
* 1812 &ndash; Henry Wilson, Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
* 1821 &ndash; Heinrich Barth, German explorer (d. 1865)
* 1822 &ndash; Sir Francis Galton, English explorer, biologist (d. 1911)
* 1824 &ndash; Peter Kozler, Slovenian cartographer, geographer (d. 1879)
* 1826 &ndash; Joseph Victor von Scheffel, poet (d. 1886)
* 1826 &ndash; Julia Grant, First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant (d. 1902)
* 1831 &ndash; Nikolay Leskov, Russian writer (d. 1895)
* 1834 &ndash; Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (d. 1919)
* 1838 &ndash; Henry Adams, American historian and novelist (d. 1918)
* 1847 &ndash; Philipp Scharwenka, Polish–German composer (d. 1917) 
* 1848 &ndash; Octave Mirbeau, French writer (d. 1917)
* 1852 &ndash; Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses (d. 1916)
* 1856 &ndash; Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (d. 1944)
* 1856 &ndash; Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (d. 1934)
* 1876 &ndash; George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian (d. 1962)
* 1884 &ndash; Robert J. Flaherty, American movie maker (d. 1951)
* 1886 &ndash; Van Wyck Brooks, American historian, critic (d. 1963)
* 1887 &ndash; Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
* 1896 &ndash; Roberto Chery, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1919)
* 1896 &ndash; Eugenie Blanchard, French–Caribbean supercentenarian (d. 2010)

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

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

### From 1976 
* 1977 &ndash; Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet
* 1978 &ndash; Vala Flosadottir, Icelandic pole vaulter
* 1978 &ndash; Sam Salter, American singer
* 1978 &ndash; Tia Hellebaut, Belgian athlete
* 1978 &ndash; John Tartaglia, American actor
* 1979 &ndash; Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
* 1980 &ndash; Ashley Lelie, American football player
* 1981 &ndash; Susanna Kallur, Swedish athlete
* 1981 &ndash; Jenny Kallur, Swedish athlete
* 1982 &ndash; Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
* 1982 &ndash; Rickie Lambert, English footballer
* 1982 &ndash; Lee Min-jung, South Korean actress
* 1983 &ndash; Agyness Deyn, English model
* 1985 &ndash; Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
* 1986 &ndash; Josje Huisman, Dutch singer, actress and dancer
* 1986 &ndash; Diego Godin, Uruguayan footballer
* 1987 &ndash; Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
* 1987 &ndash; Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
* 1987 &ndash; Hasheem Thabeet, American basketball player
* 1988 &ndash; Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
* 1989 &ndash; Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
* 1990 &ndash; The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
* 1991 &ndash; Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg
* 1991 &ndash; Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
* 1993 &ndash; Mike Weinberg, American actor
* 1994 &ndash; Annika Beck, German tennis player
* 1995 &ndash; Carina Witthöft, German tennis player

## Deaths
### Up to 1900 
* 1184 &ndash; Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 1247 &ndash; Heinrich Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
* 1279 &ndash; King Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
* 1390 &ndash; Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
* 1391 &ndash; John V Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1332)
* 1531 &ndash; Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
* 1560 &ndash; Jean du Bellay, French Catholic cardinal and diplomat
* 1617 &ndash; Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist (b. 1553)
* 1645 &ndash; Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, Spanish military leader and politician (b. 1585)
* 1710 &ndash; Esprit Fléchier, French writer and Bishop of Nîmes (b. 1632)
* 1721 &ndash; James Craggs the Younger, English politician (b. 1686)
* 1754 &ndash; Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1763)
* 1892 &ndash; Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist, evolutionary biologist and entomologist (b. 1825)
* 1898 &ndash; Thomas Bracken, New Zealand poet (b. 1843)
* 1899 &ndash; Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)

### 1901 – 2000 
* 1907 &ndash; Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
* 1912 &ndash; St. Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox priest (b. 1836)
* 1917 &ndash; Octave Mirbeau, French writer (b. 1848)
* 1924 &ndash; John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (b. 1853)
* 1927 &ndash; Jonas Basanavicius, Lithuanian independence hero (b. 1851)
* 1928 &ndash; Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (b. 1856)
* 1932 &ndash; Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1841)
* 1944 &ndash; Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1870)
* 1957 &ndash; Josef Hofmann, Polish inventor, composer and pianist (b. 1876)
* 1957 &ndash; John Sealy, Irish physicist (b. 1868)
* 1961 &ndash; Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
* 1967 &ndash; Antonio Moreno, Spanish–born actor (b. 1887)
* 1967 &ndash; Smiley Burnette, American actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1911)
* 1974 &ndash; John Garand, Canadian rifle engineer and manufacturer (b. 1888)
* 1975 &ndash; Morgan Taylor, American athlete (b. 1903)
* 1977 &ndash; Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (b. 1897)
* 1978 &ndash; E. Roland Harriman, American financier (b. 1895)
* 1980 &ndash; Erich Hückel, German physicist (b. 1895)
* 1990 &ndash; Keith Haring, American artist (b. 1958)
* 1991 &ndash; Enrique Bermudez, leader of the Nicaraguan Contras (b. 1932)
* 1992 &ndash; Angela Carter, English writer (b. 1940)
* 1992 &ndash; Herman Wold, Swedish statistician (b. 1908)
* 1994 &ndash; Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (b. 1936)
* 1996 &ndash; Pat Brown, Governor of California (b. 1905)
* 1996 &ndash; Brownie McGhee, American singer (b. 1915)
* 1996 &ndash; Roger Bowen, American actor (b. 1932)
* 2000 &ndash; Karsten Solheim, engineer, inventor

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

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