On this day in History - Feb. 16

• 0600 - Pope Gregory I decreed that "God bless you" was the correct response to a sneeze.
• 1032 - Emperor Yingzong of China was born (d. 1067)
• 1222 - Nichiren was born. Monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1247 - Heinrich Raspe dies (b. 1204). Landgrave of Thuringia.
• 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 (b. 1210). His son Denis succeeds the Portuguese throne.
• 1391 - John V Palaeologus dies (b. 1332). Byzantine Emperor.
• 1497 - Philipp Melanchthon was born (d. 1560). German humanist and reformer.
• 1519 - Gaspard de Coligny was born (d. 1572). French Huguenot leader.
• 1531 - Johannes Stöffler dies (b. 1452). German mathematician and astronomer.
• 1543 - Kano Eitoku was born (d. 1590). Japanese painter.
• 1560 - Jean du Bellay dies. French Catholic cardinal and diplomat.
• 1568 - The entire population of the Netherlands - three million people - was sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy; see Eighty Years' War.
• 1579 - Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada dies. Spanish conqueror, founder of the Nuevo Reino de Granada (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 (d. 1688). Called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Ducal Prussia.
• 1643 - John Sharp was born (d. 1714). English Archbishop of York.
• 1710 - King Louis XV of France was born (d. 1774).
• 1710 - Esprit Fléchier dies (b. 1632). French writer and Bishop of Nîmes.
• 1721 - James Craggs the Younger dies (b. 1686). English politician.
• 1727 - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin was born (d. 1817). Austrian scientist.
• 1742 - Spencer Compton Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
• 1754 - Richard Mead dies (b. 1763). English physician.
• 1761 - Charles Pichegru was born (d. 1804). French general.
• 1773 - São abolidas as distinções entre Cristãos Velhos e Cristãos Novos, mandando-se queimar os registos cadastrais dos cristãos-novos.
• 1794 - César Hipólito Bacle was born. Swiss engraver and litographer
• 1804 - First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate Philadelphia.
• 1804 - Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold was born (d. 1885). German physiologist.
• 1815 - Salen de Cádiz (España) las fuerzas realistas para luchar contra la rebelión en Colombia y Venezuela.
• 1821 - México independency is proclaimed.
• 1821 - Heinrich Barth was born († 25 Nov 1865). German explorer.
• 1822 - Sir Francis Galton was born in Birmingham (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 - Pierre Paul Proud'hon dies. Painter.
• 1824 - Peter Kozler was born (d. 1879). Slovenian cartographer and geographer.
• 1826 - Joseph Victor von Scheffel was born (d. 1886). Poet.
• 1826 - Julia Grant was born (d. 1902). First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant.
• 1831 - Nikolai Leskov was born (d. 1895). Russian writer.
• 1834 - Ernst Haeckel was born (d. 1919). Zoologist and philosopher.
• 1838 - Henry Adams was born (d. 1918). Historian and novelist.
• 1838 - Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.
• 1840 - La República de Ecuador es reconocida por España.
• 1844 - Joseph Crosfield dies (b. 1792). English soap and alkali manufacturer.
• 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.
• 1859 - The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
• 1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1866 - Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War
• 1866 - Phineas Parkhurst Quimby dies (b. 1802). 19th Century Philosopher.
• 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 (d. 1962). Historian.
• 1883 - Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
• 1889 - António Soares dos Reis dies (b. 1847). Portuguese sculptor.
• 1892 - Henry Walter Bates dies. Entomologist who discovered thiousands of new insect species during expeditions in the Amazon.
• 1898 - Thomas Bracken dies (b. 1843). New Zealand poet, author of God's Own Country.
• 1899 - Félix Faure dies in office (b. 1841). President of France.
• 1901 - Wayne King was born. Band leader ("The Waltz King") .
• 1903 - Edgar Bergen was born (d. 1978). Ventriloquist.
• 1907 - Giosuè Carducci dies (b. 1835). Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate in 1906
• 1912 - St. Nikolai of Japan dies (b. 1836). Monk priest of Eastern Orthodoxy.
• 1916 - Raf Vallone was born in Tropea Italy. Actor (El Cid, 2 Women, Greek Tycoon) .
• 1917 - Octave Mirbeau dies (b. 1848). French writer.
• 1918 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
• 1918 - Joan Miró obtiene un estrepitoso fracaso en su primera exposición en Barcelona.
• 1919 - Vera Kholodnaya dies (b. 1893). Russian film star.
• 1922 - Primera sesión del Tribunal Permanente de Justicia de La Haya.
• 1923 - Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
• 1925 - Carlos Paredes was born. Portuguese guitarist and composer.
• 1926 - John Schlesinger was born (d. 2003). English film director.
• 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. American game show host .
• 1928 - Eddie Foy dies (b. 1856). American singer and dancer.
• 1929 - Gerhard Hanappi was born (d. 1980). Austrian footballer.
• 1931 - Otis Blackwell was born (d. 2002). American songwriter and singer .
• 1932 - Harry Goz was born (d. 2003). American actor.
• 1932 - Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born. President of Sierra Leone
• 1932 - Ferdinand Buisson dies (b. 1841). French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1933 - Domingo Martínez Luján dies. Peruvian poet.
• 1934 - Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
• 1934 - Commission of Government sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.
• 1935 - Eduardo Gageiro was born. Portuguese photographer.
• 1935 - Sonny Bono was born (d. 1998). Singer, music producer, television producer, Congressman.
• 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.
• 1936 - Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
• 1936 - Jill Kinmont was born. American skier.
• 1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
• 1937 - DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers .
• 1937 - Yuri Manin was born. Russian mathematician.
• 1938 - John Corigliano was born. American composer.
• 1938 - Barry Primus was born. American actor.
• 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.
• 1941 - Kim Jong Il was born. North Korean leader .
• 1943 - World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov.
• 1943 - Marilina Ross was born. Argentine singer and actress.
• 1944 - Richard Ford was born. American Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. His work included “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day.”
• 1945 - Frank Welker was born. American voice actor.
• 1945 - Jeremy Bulloch was born. English 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.
• 1945 - World War II: First American Aircraft carrier strikes on Tokyo.
• 1948 - Pete Postlethwaite was born. Actor .
• 1950 - Peter Hain was born. British politician .
• 1951 - William Katt was born. American actor .
• 1952 - Guillermo Vilas was born. Argentine tennis player (1977 US Open).
• 1953 - Lanny McDonald was born. Canadian ice hockey player
• 1954 - Michael Holding was born. West Indian fast bowler cricket
• 1954 - Iain Banks was born. Scotish author .
• 1955 - Margaux Hemingway was born (d. 1996). American actress and model.
• 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 - The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television closedown between 6.00pm and 7.00pm was abolished in the United Kingdom
• 1957 - LeVar Burton was born. American actor .
• 1957 - James Ingram was born. Americabn singer .
• 1958 - Ice-T was born. American singer, songwriter and actor .
• 1958 - Lisa Loring was born. American actress.
• 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 - Kelly Tripucka was born. American basketball player
• 1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
• 1960 - Pete Willis was born. English guitarist (Def Leppard).
• 1961 - Explorer 9 launched. (See Explorer program).
• 1961 - Andy TaylorAndy Taylor was born. Musician (Duran Duran).
• 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. English actor (Our Friends in the North, Doctor Who
• 1964 - Bebeto [Jose Roberto Oliveira] was born. Brazilian soccer player.
• 1966 - Vítor Paneira was born. Portuguese soccer player.
• 1967 - John Valentin was born. Baseball player.
• 1967 - Antonio Moreno dies (b. 1887). Spanish-born actor.
• 1967 - Smiley Burnette dies (b. 1911). American actor, singer and songwriter.
• 1968 - In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
• 1968 - Warren Ellis was born. Comic book writer
• 1969 - Dimas was born. Portuguese soccer player.
• 1970 - Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.
• 1970 - DJ Wallis was born. Fitness competitor.
• 1970 - Francis Peyton Rous dies (b. 1879). American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 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.
• 1972 - Taylor Hawkins was born. American musician (Foo Fighters)
• 1973 - Cathy Freeman was born. Australian athlete.
• 1974 - John Garand dies (b. 1888). Canadian rifle engineer and manufacturer.
• 1975 - Aikawa Nanase was born. Japanese Musician.
• 1975 - Morgan Taylor dies (b. 1903). American athlete.
• 1976 - Kyo was born. Japanese singer (Dir en grey).
• 1977 - Ian Clarke was born. Irish computer programmer.
• 1977 - Ahman Green was born. American football player.
• 1977 - Carlos Pellicer dies (b. 1897). Mexican poet.
• 1978 - E. Roland Harriman dies (b. 1895). American financier.
• 1978 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
• 1979 - Valentino Rossi was born. Italian motorcycle racer.
• 1980 - Ashley Lelie was born. American football player.
• 1980 - Nutty begins publication.
• 1980 - Erich Hückel dies (b. 1895). German physicist.
• 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.
• 1985 - The founding of Hezbollah.
• 1986 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
• 1986 - Mário Soares (Socialist Party) is 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.
• 1988 - Rosa Mota, Portuguese athlete, is considered by Track and Fields , the best marathonist of the world in 1988.
• 1988 - The Comedy Company debuts on Network 0-10 Ten.
• 1988 - Jean Carignan dies (b. 1916). French Canadian fiddler.
• 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.
• 1990 - Keith Haring dies (b. 1958). American artist.
• 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 (b. 1940). English writer.
• 1992 - Jânio Quadros dies in São Paulo (b. 1917). Brazilian politician.
• 1992 - Herman Wold dies (b. 1908). Swedish statistician.
• 1994 - Andrei Chikatilo dies (b. 1936). Russian serial killer.
• 1996 - Roger Bowen dies (b. 1932). American actor.
• 1996 - Edmund G. Brown dies (b. 1905). Governor of California.
• 1996 - Brownie McGhee dies (b. 1915). American singer.
• 1997 - Chien-Shiung Wu dies (b. 1912). Chinese-American Physicist.
• 1998 - A China Airlines Airbus A300-622R crashes on approach to airport, Taipei, Taiwan killing 203 including 6 on the ground .
• 1998 - Christina Anyanawu, Nigerian journalist, wins The UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
• 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.
• 1999 - Michael Larson dies. Press Your Luck Big-winning contestant
• 2000 - Karsten Solheim dies (b. 1911). Norwegian-born engineer and inventor.
• 2000 - Marceline Day dies (b. 1908). American actress.
• 2000 - Lila Kedrova dies (b. 1918). Russian-born actress.
• 2001 - William Masters dies (b. 1915). American gynecologist and sexologist.
• 2001 - Bob Buhl dies (b. 1928). Major League Baseball player.
• 2002 - Walter Winterbottom dies (b. 1913). The first England football manager.
• 2003 - Eleanor "Sis" Daley dies (b. 1907). Wife of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley
• 2003 - Alexander Tišma dies. Author .
• 2004 - Shirley Strickland dies. Australian athlete, three-time Olympic champion .
• 2004 - Doris Troy dies (b. 1937). American R&B singer.
• 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.
• 2005 - Nicole DeHuff dies (b. 1975). American actress.
• 2006 - The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
• 2006 - Johnny Grunge dies (b. 1966). American professional wrestler.
• 2006 - Ernie Stautner dies (b. 1925). German-born American football player.
• Lithuania - Independence Day (1918)
• Kyoto Protocol Day (2005)