February 16 facts for kids

2024 Calendar

February 16 in recent years

February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 318 days remain until the end of the year (319 in leap years).

Events
Births
Deaths
Holidays and observances
See also

Events

Pre-1600

1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
1270 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.

1601–1900

1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.
1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the First English Civil War.
1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.
1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
1796 – Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) falls to the British, completing their invasion of Ceylon.
1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
1899 – Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.
1900 – The Southern Cross expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink achieved a new Farthest South of 78° 50'S, making the first landing at the Great Ice Barrier.

1901–present

1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.
1936 – The Popular Front wins the 1936 Spanish general election.
1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.
1940 – World War II: Altmark incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. A total of 299 British prisoners are freed.
1942 – World War II: In Athens, the Greek People's Liberation Army is established
1942 – World War II: Attack on Aruba, first World War II German shots fired on a land based object in the Americas.
1943 – World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city.
1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
1945 – The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law.
1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
1962 – The Great Sheffield Gale impacts the United Kingdom, killing nine people; the city of Sheffield is devastated, with 150,000 homes damaged.
1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs.
2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
2021 – Five thousand people gathered in the town of Kherrata, Bejaia Province to mark the two year anniversary of the Hirak protest movement. Demonstrations had been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria.

Births

Pre-1600

1222 – Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
1304 – Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür, Chinese emperor (d. 1332)
1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian political leader (d. 1406)
1419 – John I, Duke of Cleves (d. 1481)
1470 – Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1540)
1471 – Krishnadevaraya, emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (d. 1529)
1497 – Philip Melanchthon, German astronomer, theologian, and academic (d. 1560)
1514 – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian cartographer and instrument maker (d. 1574)
1519 – Gaspard II de Coligny, French admiral (d. 1572)
1543 – Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (d. 1590)

1601–1900

1620 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1688)
1643 – John Sharp, English archbishop (d. 1714)
1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (d. 1758)
1727 – Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian botanist, chemist, and mycologist (d. 1817)
1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)
1761 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (d. 1804)
1774 – Pierre Rode, French violinist and composer (d. 1830)
1786 – Maria Pavlovna, Russian Grand Duchess (d. 1859)
1802 – Phineas Quimby, American mystic and philosopher (d. 1866)
1804 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (d. 1885)
1812 – Henry Wilson, American colonel and politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer and scholar (d. 1865)
1822 – Francis Galton, English biologist and statistician (d. 1911)
1824 – Peter Kosler, Slovenian lawyer, geographer, and cartographer (d. 1879)
1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet and author (d. 1886)
1830 – Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter (d. 1902)
1831 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (d. 1895)
1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, physician, and philosopher (d. 1919)
1838 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (d. 1918)
1841 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (d. 1927)
1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932)
1845 – George Kennan, American journalist and explorer (d. 1924)
1848 – Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist, geneticist, and academic (d. 1935)
1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (d. 1917)
1856 – Ossian Everett Mills, American academic, founded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (d. 1920)
1866 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player and manager (d. 1940)
1873 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian journalist and author (d. 1908)
1876 – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian and academic (d. 1962)
1877 – Tom Crean, Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer (d. 1938)
1878 – Pamela Colman Smith, English occultist and illustrator (d. 1951)
1878 – James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1920)
1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, American director and producer (d. 1951)
1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
1891 – Hans F. K. Günther, German eugenicist and academic (d. 1968)
1893 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (d. 1974)
1896 – Eugénie Blanchard, French super-centenarian (d. 2010)

1901–present

1901 – Wayne King, American singer-songwriter and conductor (d. 1985)
1901 – Chester Morris, American actor (d. 1970)
1902 – Cyril Vincent, South African cricketer (d. 1968)
1903 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist and actor (d. 1978)
1904 – James Baskett, American actor and singer (d. 1948)
1904 – George F. Kennan, American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (d. 2005)
1905 – Henrietta Barnett, English Women's Royal Air Force officer (d. 1985)
1906 – Vera Menchik, Russian-Czechoslovak-British chess player (d. 1944)
1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (d. 1982)
1909 – Richard McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (d. 1998)
1914 – Jimmy Wakely, American country music singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1982)
1916 – Bill Doggett, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
1919 – Georges Ulmer, Danish-French actor and composer (d. 1989)
1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American general (d. 2018)
1921 – Jean Behra, French race car driver (d. 1959)
1921 – John Galbraith Graham, English priest and academic (d. 2013)
1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1981)
1922 – Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, German soldier and pilot (d. 1950)
1923 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2016)
1925 – Ed Emshwiller, American illustrator and experiment film maker (d. 1990)
1926 – Margot Frank, German-Dutch holocaust victim (d. 1945)
1926 – John Schlesinger, English actor and director (d. 2003)
1927 – June Brown, English actress (d. 2022)
1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer and architect (d. 1980)
1929 – Peter Porter, Australian-English poet and educator (d. 2010)
1931 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002)
1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2006)
1931 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor and singer (d. 2014)
1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean economist, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of Sierra Leone (d. 2014)
1932 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2007)
1934 – August Coppola, American author and academic (d. 2009)
1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer (d. 2023)
1935 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (d. 2016)
1934 – Ken Brown, English footballer and manager
1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (d. 1998)
1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (d. 2014)
1935 – Bradford Parkinson, American colonel and engineer
1935 – Kenneth Price, American painter and sculptor (d. 2012)
1936 – Carl Icahn, American businessman and investor
1937 – Paul Bailey, British novelist, critic, and biographer
1937 – Valentin Bondarenko, Soviet aviator and cosmonaut (d. 1961)
1937 – Yuri Manin, Russian-German mathematician and academic (d. 2023)
1938 – John Corigliano, American composer and academic
1939 – Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino lawyer and judge
1940 – Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (d. 1979)
1941 – Kim Jong Il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 2011)
1944 – Glyn Davies, Welsh farmer and politician
1944 – Richard Ford, American novelist and short story writer
1944 – António Mascarenhas Monteiro, Cape Verdean politician, 2nd President of Cape Verde (d. 2016)
1947 – Jaroslav Kubera, Czech politician (d. 2020)
1948 – Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler and coach (d. 2014)
1950 – Peter Hain, Welsh politician, Secretary of State for Wales
1951 – William Katt, American actor
1952 – James Ingram, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2019)
1952 – Peter Kitchen, English footballer
1953 – John Bradbury, English musician, songwriter, and producer (d. 2015)
1953 – Lanny McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1953 – Roberta Williams, American video game designer, co-founded Sierra Entertainment
1954 – Iain Banks, Scottish author and playwright (d. 2013)
1954 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (d. 1996)
1954 – Michael Holding, Jamaican cricketer and sportscaster
1956 – Vincent Ward, New Zealand director and screenwriter
1957 – LeVar Burton, American actor, director, and producer
1958 – Natalie Angier, American author
1958 – Ice-T, American rapper and actor
1958 – Oscar Schmidt, Brazilian basketball player
1958 – Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach
1959 – John McEnroe, American tennis player and sportscaster
1959 – Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player and sportscaster
1960 – Pete Willis, English guitarist and songwriter
1961 – Liu Kang, Chinese footballer and manager (d. 2013)
1961 – Niko Nirvi, Finnish journalist
1961 – Andy Taylor, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1962 – John Balance, English singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
1964 – Bebeto, Brazilian footballer and manager
1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor
1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban-American musician and songwriter
1967 – Keith Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1968 – Warren Ellis, English author and screenwriter
1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian footballer and manager
1971 – Michael Avenatti, American attorney and pundit
1971 – Craig Laundy, Australian politician
1972 – Jerome Bettis, American football player
1972 – Zoran Čampara, Bosnian football player
1972 – Sarah Clarke, American actress
1972 – Naomi Nishida, Japanese actress
1973 – Cathy Freeman, Australian sprinter
1974 – Mahershala Ali, American actor
1974 – José Dominguez, Portuguese footballer and manager
1976 – Eric Byrnes, American baseball player and sportscaster
1976 – Kyo, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
1977 – Ian Clarke, Irish-American computer scientist, founded Freenet
1977 – Ahman Green, American football player
1977 – Alexei Morozov, Russian ice hockey player and executive
1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian high jumper and chemist
1978 – Wasim Jaffer, Indian cricketer
1978 – John Tartaglia, American actor, singer, and puppeteer
1979 – Stéphane Dalmat, French footballer
1979 – Eric Mun, American-South Korean singer and actor
1979 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
1980 – Longineu W. Parsons III, French-American musician and songwriter
1981 – Jay Howard, English race car driver
1981 – Susanna Kallur, Swedish sprint hurdler
1981 – Jerry Owens, American baseball player
1981 – Qyntel Woods, American basketball player
1982 – Manny Delcarmen, American baseball player
1982 – Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
1982 – Lupe Fiasco, American rapper
1982 – Rickie Lambert, English footballer
1983 – Agyness Deyn, English model, actress, and singer
1983 – Tuomo Ruutu, Finnish ice hockey player and coach
1984 – Sofia Arvidsson, Swedish tennis player
1984 – Oussama Mellouli, Tunisian swimmer
1985 – Simon Francis, English footballer
1985 – Stacy Lewis, American golfer
1985 – Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
1986 – Diego Godín, Uruguayan footballer
1986 – Shawne Williams, American basketball player
1987 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
1987 – Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
1987 – Tommy Milone, American baseball player
1987 – Jon Ossoff, American politician and filmmaker
1987 – Hasheem Thabeet, Tanzanian basketball player
1988 – Diego Capel, Spanish footballer
1988 – Denílson, Brazilian footballer
1988 – Korbinian Holzer, German ice hockey player
1988 – Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
1988 – Andrea Ranocchia, Italian footballer
1988 – Kim Soo-hyun, South Korean actor and singer
1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
1990 – The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
1991 – Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
1992 – Nicolai Boilesen, Danish footballer
1992 – Zsófia Susányi, Hungarian tennis player
1994 – Annika Beck, German tennis player
1994 – Federico Bernardeschi, Italian footballer
1994 – Ava Max, American singer and songwriter
1995 – Katy Dunne, English tennis player
1995 – Carina Witthöft, German tennis player
1997 – Jordan Greenway, American ice hockey player
1999 – Ignatius Ganago, Cameroonian footballer
1999 – Marie Ulven Ringheim, Norwegian singer, songwriter and music producer
2000 – Koffee, Jamaican singer, songwriter and rapper
2000 – Coby White, American basketball player
2001 – Yuki Naito, Japanese tennis player

Deaths

Pre-1600

549 – Zhu Yi, Chinese general (b. 483)
902 – Mary the Younger, Byzantine saint (b. 875)
1184 – Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
1247 – Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
1279 – Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
1281 – Gertrude of Hohenberg, queen consort of Germany (b. c. 1225)
1390 – Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
1391 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1332)
1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
1560 – Jean du Bellay, French cardinal and diplomat (b. 1493)
1579 – Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Spanish explorer (b. 1509)

1601–1900

1645 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and politician, 24th Governor of the Duchy of Milan (b. 1585)
1710 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (b. 1632)
1721 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1686)
1754 – Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1673)
1820 – Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (b. 1758)
1862 – William Pennington, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1796)
1898 – Thomas Bracken, Irish-New Zealand journalist, poet, and politician (b. 1843)
1899 – Félix Faure, French merchant and politician, 7th President of France (b. 1841)

1901–present

1907 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
1912 – Nicholas of Japan, Russian-Japanese monk and saint (b. 1836)
1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (b. 1848)
1919 – Vera Kholodnaya, Ukrainian actress (b. 1893)
1928 – Eddie Foy Sr., American actor and dancer (b. 1856)
1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1841)
1932 – Edgar Speyer, American-English financier and philanthropist (b. 1862)
1944 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1870)
1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1876)
1961 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
1964 – James M. Canty, American educator, school administrator, and businessperson (b. 1865)
1967 – Smiley Burnette, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1911)
1974 – John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand Rifle (b. 1888)
1975 – Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (b. 1903)
1977 – Janani Luwum, bishop, Church of Uganda, martyr (b. c.1922)
1977 – Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1905)
1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (b. 1895)
1984 – M. A. G. Osmani, Bangladeshi general (b. 1918)
1988 – Ye Shengtao, Chinese writer, educator, and politician (b. 1894)
1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)
1991 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan lieutenant and engineer (b. 1932)
1992 – Angela Carter, English novelist, short story writer (b. 1940)
1992 – Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician, 22nd President of Brazil (b. 1917)
1992 – Herman Wold, Norwegian-Swedish economist and statistician (b. 1908)
1996 – Roberto Aizenberg, Argentinian painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor and author (b. 1932)
1996 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (b. 1905)
1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1915)
1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist and academic (b. 1912)
1998 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (b. 1908)
1998 – Sheu Yuan-dong, Taiwanese politician (b. 1927)
2000 – Marceline Day, American actress (b. 1908)
2000 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-French actress and singer
2000 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American businessman, founded PING (b. 1911)
2001 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (b. 1916)
2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist (b. 1915)
2002 – Walter Winterbottom, English footballer and manager (b. 1913)
2003 – Rusty Magee, American actor and composer (b. 1955)
2004 – Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
2006 – Johnny Grunge, American wrestler (b. 1966)
2006 – Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (b. 1925)
2009 – Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (b. 1921)
2011 – Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
2011 – Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet and playwright (b. 1930)
2012 – Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (b. 1954)
2012 – Elyse Knox, American model, actress, and fashion designer (b. 1917)
2012 – John Macionis, American swimmer and lieutenant (b. 1916)
2012 – Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
2013 – Colin Edwards, Guyanese footballer (b. 1991)
2013 – Grigory Pomerants, Russian philosopher and author (b. 1918)
2013 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
2014 – Ken Farragut, American football player (b. 1928)
2014 – Kralle Krawinkel, German guitarist (b. 1947)
2014 – Michael Shea, American author (b. 1946)
2015 – Lasse Braun, Algerian-Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1936)
2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
2015 – R. R. Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1957)
2015 – Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (b. 1971)
2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
2019 – Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor (b. 1941)
2021 – Gustavo Noboa, Ecuadorian politician, 42nd President of Ecuador (b. 1937)
2024 – Alexei Navalny, Russian activist (b. 1976)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:
- Abda of Edessa
- Elias and companions
- Juliana of Nicomedia (Catholic Church)
- Onesimus
- Charles Todd Quintard (Episcopal Church (USA))
- February 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong Il's birthday) (North Korea)
Restoration of Lithuania's Statehood Day, celebrate the independence of Lithuania from Russia and Germany in 1918 (Lithuania)
Elizabeth Peratrovich Day (Alaska)

February 16 facts for kids

Contents

Events

Pre-1600

1601–1900

1901–present

Births

Pre-1600

1601–1900

1901–present

Deaths

Pre-1600

1601–1900

1901–present

Holidays and observances

See also