Historical Events and Current Affairs on February 16

1486 : Diet of Frankfort
1512 : Battle at Valeggio: French troops beat Venetianen
1559 : Pope Paul IV calls for deposition of sovereigns supporting heresy
1641 : English king Charles I accept Triennial Act
1655 : Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker
1659 : 1st known check (œ400) (on display at Westminster Abbey)
1666 : Netherlands & Brandenburg sign treaty
1677 : Earl of Shaftesbury arrested/confined in London Tower
1741 : Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine (2nd US Mag) begins publishing
1742 : Earl of Wilmington becomes British premier
1751 : 1st publication of Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"
1760 : Native American hostages killed in Ft Prince George SC
1771 : Messier presents his original list of 45 M-objects to French Academy
1777 : Messier adds M53 to his catalog (globular cluster in Coma Berenice)
1804 : "Philadelphia" after pirates seized it
1804 : Lt Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor & burns Navy frigate
1824 : Athenaeum founded
1832 : HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reaches St-Pauls (1øN, 29øW)
1838 : Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
1840 : American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1846 : Battle of Sobraon ends 1st Sikh War in India
1854 : Franz Liszts symphony "Orpheus," premieres
1857 : Gallaudet College (Natl Deaf Mute college) forms (Wash DC)
1860 : Dutch Rochussen/Van Bosse govt resigns
1862 : Ft Donelson captured by Gen Grant (1,400 confederates surrender)
1864 : Battle of Mobile, AL - operations by Union Army
1868 : Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks forms (NY)
1878 : Silver dollar became US legal tender
1880 : American Society of Mechanical Engineers forms (NYC)
1883 : "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing
1887 : 1st newspaper convention (Rochester NY)
1887 : Eduard Douwes Dekker writes his last text (Lf8-c5)
1892 : Opera "Werther," premieres in Vienna
1894 : British troops occupy Ilorin, Gold Coast
1900 : 1st Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes (Chung Sai Yat Po-SF)
1900 : Stanley Cup: Montreal Shamrocks beat Winnipeg Victorias, 3 games to 1
1905 : 1st US Esperanto club organizes in Boston
1909 : 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (NYC)
1909 : Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary
1912 : VSV soccer team forms in Ijmuiden
1913 : President Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico
1914 : 1st airplane flight (LA to SF)
1915 : dispute with Connie Mack. He sits out 1915 season
1915 : Frank Home Run Baker, 28, announces retirement following a contract
1916 : Russian troops conquer Erzurum Armenia
1917 : 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid
1918 : Lithuania declares independence from Russia & Germany (National Day)
1923 : Allies accept Latvia's occupation of Memel territory
1923 : Howard Carter finds Pharoah Tutankhamen
1923 : US female Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard
1923 : US male Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger
1927 : No‰l Coward's "Marquise," premieres in London
1927 : US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey
1929 : KID-AM in Idaho Falls ID begins radio transmissions
1931 : Extreme right wing Svinhufvud becomes president of Finland
1932 : 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree
1933 : Catholic newspaper Germania warns against nazis/communists
1933 : England regains the Ashes, thanks to bodyline tactics
1936 : #1448 Lindbladia & #1479 Inkeri
1936 : 4th Winter Olympic games close at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
1936 : Spanish Frente Popular (People's Front) wins elections
1937 : DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers
1937 : Jean Anouilh's "Le Voyageur Sans Baggage," premieres in Paris
1938 : US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
1940 : British search plane finds German Altmark off Norway
1942 : German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
1943 : -32øF (-36øC), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record)
1943 : British premier Winston Churchill gets pneumonia
1943 : by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
1943 : Red army conquers Kharkov
1943 : Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done
1943 : Withdrawing Africa Corps reaches Mareth-line in North-Africa
1945 : US forces land on Corregidor, complete conquest on March 3
1945 : Venezuela declares war on nazi-Germany
1946 : "Duchess Misbehaves" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 5 perfs
1946 : 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport Ct
1947 : Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres
1948 : 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News" shown on NBC
1948 : Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
1950 : Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS
1950 : Writers fail to elect anyone to Baseball's Hall of Fame
1951 : NYC passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing
1951 : SF City Hall dome fire
1952 : Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires; Pirates retire his #33
1954 : WNEM TV channel 5 in Bay City, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1956 : Britain abolishes death penalty
1959 : Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista
1959 : Leonard Spigelgass' "Majority of One," premieres in NYC
1960 : US nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip
1961 : 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Va
1961 : China uses it's 1st nuclear reactor
1961 : US satellite Explorer 9 is launched
1962 : Darius Milhaud's 12th Symphony, premieres
1963 : 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of US)
1963 : Beatles top British rock charts with "Please, Please Me"
1963 : C & A Building in Amsterdam burns down
1964 : "Foxy" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 72 performances
1964 : Beatles' 2nd appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show"
1965 : "Baker Street" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 313 performances
1965 : Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors
1966 : Bob Cowper makes 307 v England at the MCG, 727 mins, 20 fours
1966 : France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1967 : Red Ruffing selected to Hall of Fame
1968 : Beatles George Harrison & John Lennon & wives fly to India for
1968 : Country's 1st 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala
1968 : Elvis Presley receives gold record for "How Great Thou Art"
1968 : transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
1970 : Joe Frazier TKOs Jimmy Ellis in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1972 : 1st NBA to score 30,000 points (Wilt Chamberlain in 940 games)
1972 : German mass murderers "Three of Breda" freed
1972 : Wilt Chamberlain hit 30,000 point mark during a game with Phoenix Suns
1973 : WI v Australia at Kingston, 1st time since 1955 without Sobers
1975 : Washington Capitals 1st NHL shutout, beating KC Scouts 3-0
1977 : USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
1978 : 1st Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward & Randy's CBBS, Chicago)
1979 : George Harrison releases "Blow Away"
1979 : USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1980 : Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France
1980 : Eric Heiden skates 5k in 7:02.29 (Olympic Record)
1982 : Agatha Barbara elected as 1st female president of Malta
1982 : Assembled STS-3 vehicle moves from Vandenberg AFB to launch pad
1982 : Lee Majors & Farrah Fawcett Majors divorce
1984 : Bill Johnson becomes 1st American to win Olympic downhill skiing gold
1984 : NJ Devils 1st OT goal, Jan Ludvig beats Hartford Whalers 6-5
1985 : Largest NBA crowd to date, 43,816, sees Phila at Detroit
1985 : Livingston Bramble defeats Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini to win WBA champ
1985 : NJ Devils score their fastest hat trick in 42 seconds
1986 : "Uptown... It's Hot!" closes at Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 24 perfs
1986 : French air force bombs Ouadi Doum airport in Chad
1986 : Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater
1986 : Karlstad skates world record 10 km (14:12.14)
1986 : Mario Soares (Socialist) elected Portugal's 1st civilian pres
1987 : John Demjanjuk, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible" trial begins
1988 : 1st documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador
1989 : Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market
1989 : Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden separate after 16 years of marriage
1989 : Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs $7.9M-3 year contract
1989 : Roger Clemens, Red Sox pitcher signs $7.5M-3 year contract
1989 : William Hayden becomes governor-general of Australia
1991 : Dutch PPR, Political Party Radicals, disbands
1991 : US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding
1992 : Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow & blue
1992 : LA Lakers retire Magic Johnson's #32 uniform
1993 : Sandra V"lker swims world record 50m backstroke (28.33 sec)
1994 : 6.5 earthquake strikes SE Sumatra, kills 200
1994 : Johann Olav Koss skates world record 1500m (1:51.29)
1994 : Premier Alfonso Bustamente ends govt in Peru
1996 : Gary Kirsten scores 188* for S Africa v UAE at Rawalpindi
1997 : At age 25, Jeff Gordon is youngest winner in Daytona 500 history
1997 : Terry-Jo Myers wins LPGA Los Angeles Women's Championship
1998 : Tellabs Inc acquires Coherent Communications Systems for $670 million

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