On this day in History - Fev. 16

• 1222- Nichiren, was born, monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau was dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
• 1279 - Afonso III of Portugal dies. His son Denis succeeds the Portuguese throne.
• 1497 - Philipp Melanchthon, was born, humanist and reformer (d. 1560) .
• 1579 - Muere Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, conquistador español, fundador del Nuevo Reino de Granada (actual Colombia).
• 1595 - Fernando de Zárate comienza a levantar la fortaleza de Buenos Aires, lo que se considera la tercera fundación de la ciudad.
• 1620 - Friedrich Wilhelm, was born, called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Ducal Prussia (d. 1688) .
• 1742 - Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
• 1773 - São abolidas as distinções entre Cristãos Velhos e Cristãos Novos, mandando-se queimar os registos cadastrais dos cristãos-novos.
• 1794 - Nace en Suiza el grabador y litógrafo César Hipólito Bacle.
• 1804 - First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate Philadelphia.
• 1815 - Salen de Cádiz (España) las fuerzas realistas para luchar contra la rebelión en Colombia y Venezuela.
• 1821 - Proclamación de la independencia de México.
• 1822 - Sir Francis Galton, was born in Birmingham , England (d. 1911). English scientist, explorer, anthropologist, statistician and eugenicist, known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence.
• 1822 - James Patton Anderson, was born (d. 1872). Major General (Confederate Army).
• 1823 - El comandante Antonio López de Santa Anna proclama la República de México.
• 1823 - Muere el pintor Pierre Paul Proud'hon.
• 1826 - Joseph Victor von Scheffel, was born, poet (d. 1886) .
• 1826 - Julia Grant, was born, First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant (d. 1902) .
• 1834 - Ernst Haeckel, was born, zoologist and philosopher (d. 1919) .
• 1838 - Henry Adams, was born, historian and novelist (d. 1918) .
• 1838 - Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.
• 1840 - La República de Ecuador es reconocida por España.
• 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.
• 1868 - In New York City the Jolly Gorks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
• 1876 - George Macaulay Trevelyan, was born. Historian (d. 1962) .
• 1883 - Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
• 1892 - Henry Walter Bates, dies. Entomologist who discovered thiousands of new insect species during expeditions in the Amazon.
• 1898 - Thomas Bracken, NZ poet, author of God's Own Country.
• 1907 - Giosuè Carducci, muere, poeta italiano, premio Nobel de Literatura en 1906.
• 1899 - President Félix Faure of France dies in office ... suddenly, from apoplexy.
• 1901 - Wayne King, was born, band leader ("The Waltz King") .
• 1903 - Edgar Bergen, was born, ventriloquist (d. 1978) .
• 1912 - St. Nikolai of Japan, dies, monk priest of Eastern Orthodoxy (b. 1836).
• 1916 - Raf Vallone, Tropea Italy, was born, actor (El Cid, 2 Women, Greek Tycoon) .
• 1918 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
• 1918 - Joan Miró obtiene un estrepitoso fracaso en su primera exposición en Barcelona.
• 1922 - Primera sesión del Tribunal Permanente de Justicia de La Haya.
• 1923 - Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
• 1925 - Carlos Paredes, nascimento de, famoso guitarrista e compositor português.
• 1926 - John Schlesinger, was born, film director (d. 2003) .
• 1926 - Suzanne Lenglen defeated Helen Wills at Cannes, France to retain the women’s tennis championship title. It was the only meeting between the two tennis greats.
• 1927 - June Brown, was born, British actress .
• 1927 - Tom Kennedy, was born, game show host .
• 1928 - Eddie Foy, dies, vaudevillian, singer, dancer .
• 1931 - Otis Blackwell, was born, songwriter, singer .
• 1932 - Ferdinand Buisson, muere, pedagogo francés, premio Nobel de la Paz en 1927.
• 1933 - Fallece Domingo Martínez Luján, poeta peruano.
• 1935 - Nascimento de Eduardo Gageiro, fotógrafo português .
• 1935 - Sonny Bono, was born, singer, music producer, television producer, Congressman (d. 1998) .
• 1936 - Victoria electoral del Frente Popular en España.
• 1936 - 4th Winter Olympics 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 .
• 1940 - Altmark Incident: The German tanker 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.
• 1941 - España: el centro de Santander devorado por un devastador incendio.
• 1942 - Kim Jong Il,was born, North Korean leader .
• 1943 - World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov.
• 1944 - Richard Ford, was born, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. His work included “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day.”
• 1945 - Jeremy Bulloch, was born, actor .
• 1945 - World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
• 1945 - American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
• 1945 - Venezuela declares war on Nazi-Germany .
• 1948 - Pete Postlethwaite, was born actor .
• 1950 - Peter Hain, British politician .
• 1951- William Katt, was born, American actor .
• 1952 - Guillermo Vilas,was born, tennis player (1977 US Open).
• 1954 - Iain Banks, was born, author .
• 1956 - Britain abolishes the death penalty .
• 1957 - Começo da visita oficial da Rainha Isabel II de Inglaterra a Portugal. A visita prolongar-se-à até ao dia 20.
• 1957 - LeVar Burton, was born, actor .
• 1957 - James Ingram, was born, singer .
• 1958 - Ice-T, was born, singer, songwriter, actor .
• 1959 - John McEnroe, was born tennis player; tennis’ bad boy for his frequent outbursts on the tennis court: Wimbledon Men’s Singles Champion [1981, 1983, 1984]; U.S. Open Men’s Singles Champion: [1979, 1980, 1981, 1984]) .
• 1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
• 1960 - Pete Willis, was born, ex-Def Leppard guitarist .
• 1961 - Explorer 9 launched. (See Explorer program).
• 1962 - Jimmy Bostwick defeated his brother, Pete, to win the U.S. Open Court Tennis championships for the third time.
• 1964 - Christopher Eccleston, was born, actor (Our Friends in the North, Doctor WhoHaleyville, 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 - El ejército ecuatoriano derroca al presidente José María Velasco Ibarra .
• 1972 - NBA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th point.
• 1972 - Jerome Bettis, was born, American football player .
• 1973 - Cathy Freeman, was born, Australian athlete .
• 1974 - Valeria Mazza, Rosario Argentina, model (Cosmo-July 1995) .
• 1975 - Aikawa Nanase, was born, Japanese Musician .
• 1975 - Morgan Taylor, dies, American athlete .
• 1978 - E. Roland Harriman, dies, financier (b. 1895) .
• 1977 - Ian Clarke, was born, creator of Freenet .
• 1978 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
• 1980 - Ashley Lelie, was born, American football player .
• 1982 - Agatha Barbara elected as 1st female President of Malta .
• 1983 - A ONU reafirma o direito à autodeterminação do povo de Timor-Leste.
• 1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
• 1986 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
• 1986 - Mário Soares (Socialist) elected Portugal's 1st civilian president after 25 April 1974 .
• 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.
• 1989 - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market .
• 1991 - Gulf War: U.S. and U.K. war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
• 1992 - Angela Carter, dies, writer (b. 1940) .
• 1996 - Edmund G. Brown, dies, Governor of California (b. 1905) .
• 1996 - Brownie McGhee, dies, blues singer (b. 1915) .
• 1998 - A China Airlines Airbus A300-622R crashes on approach to airport, Taipei, Taiwan killing 203 including 6 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.
• 2001 - Bob Buhl, dies, Major League Baseball player (b. 1928) .
• 2002 - Walter Winterbottom, dies, the first England football manager (b. 1913) .
• 2003 - Alexander Tišma, dies, author .
• 2004 - Shirley Strickland, dies, Australian athlete, three-time Olympic champion .
• 2004 - Doris Troy, dies, R&B singer (b. 1937) .
• 2005 - The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect.