February 16 facts for kids

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).

February 16th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from ancient battles and important discoveries to the birth of famous people and the start of new traditions. Let's explore some of the key moments that happened on this day!

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Events

Important Moments in History

• 1249 – Louis IX of France sent a special messenger, Andrew of Longjumeau, to meet with the leader of the powerful Mongol Empire.
• 1270 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania won a big battle against the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
• 1630 – Dutch forces, led by Hendrick Lonck, captured the city of Olinda in Brazil. This area later became known as Dutch Brazil.
• 1646 – The Battle of Torrington in England was the last major fight of the First English Civil War.
• 1699 – The Holy Roman Emperor issued the first Leopoldine Diploma. This document gave Greek Catholic priests the same rights as Roman Catholic priests in a region called Transylvania.
• 1742 – Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, became the Prime Minister of Britain.
• 1796 – The city of Colombo in Ceylon (which is now Sri Lanka) was taken over by the British, completing their takeover of Ceylon.
• 1804 – During the First Barbary War, a brave American naval officer named Stephen Decatur led a daring mission to burn a ship called the USS Philadelphia. This ship had been captured by pirates.
• 1862 – In the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant successfully captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee.
• 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway company was officially started by a special law in Canada. This railway would connect the country from east to west.
• 1899 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the very first football (soccer) club in Iceland, was founded.
• 1900 – The Southern Cross Expedition, led by Carsten Borchgrevink, reached a new "Farthest South" point at 78° 50'S. They were the first to land on the huge ice wall known as the Great Ice Barrier.

The 20th and 21st Centuries

• 1918 – The leaders of Lithuania officially signed the Act of Independence. This declared Lithuania a free and independent country.
• 1923 – The famous archaeologist Howard Carter opened the secret burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
• 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joined FIFA, the international organization that governs football.
• 1934 – The Austrian Civil War ended. This conflict was between different political groups in Austria.
• 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers received a special paper from the United States that officially recognized his invention of nylon.
• 1940 – During World War II, British sailors boarded the German ship Altmark and freed 299 British prisoners. This event is known as the Altmark incident.
• 1942 – Also during World War II, the Greek People's Liberation Army was formed in Athens, Greece.
• 1942 – German forces fired shots at a land target in the Americas for the first time during World War II, in an Attack on Aruba.
• 1943 – In the early stages of the Third Battle of Kharkov during World War II, Red Army troops re-entered the city of Kharkov.
• 1945 – American forces landed on Corregidor Island in the Philippines during World War II. This was part of the Battle of Corregidor.
• 1945 – The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945 was signed into law. This was the first law in the United States to fight against unfair treatment based on race.
• 1959 – Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba after the previous ruler, Fulgencio Batista, was overthrown.
• 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton began Operation Sandblast. This was the first time a submarine traveled all the way around the world underwater.
• 1961 – The Explorer program launched Explorer 9 (S-56a), a satellite designed to study Earth's atmosphere.
• 1962 – The Great Sheffield Gale hit the United Kingdom, causing a lot of damage and sadly, nine people lost their lives. About 150,000 homes were damaged in the city of Sheffield.
• 1962 – Terrible flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany killed 315 people and destroyed the homes of about 60,000 others.
• 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the very first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system was put into service, allowing people to quickly call for help.
• 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system (CBBS) was created in Chicago. This was an early way for people to share information online.
• 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia caused a lot of destruction and killed 75 people.
• 1985 – The group Hezbollah was founded.
• 1986 – The Soviet ship Mikhail Lermontov ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand.
• 1991 – Enrique Bermúdez, a leader of the Nicaraguan Contras group, was sadly killed in Managua.
• 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashed near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan. All 196 people on board and seven people on the ground died.
• 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to fight climate change, officially came into force after Russia agreed to it.
• 2005 – The National Hockey League (NHL) canceled its entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs due to a player dispute, known as the 2004–05 NHL lockout.
• 2006 – The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit was officially closed by the United States Army.
• 2013 – A terrible bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan, killed more than 80 people and injured 190 others.
• 2021 – Five thousand people gathered in Kherrata, Bejaia Province, to mark two years since the start of the Hirak protest movement. These demonstrations had been paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria.

Births

Famous People Born Before 1900

• 1222 – Nichiren, who started a type of Buddhism called Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1304 – Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür, an emperor of China.
• 1471 – Krishnadevaraya, a powerful emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire.
• 1497 – Philip Melanchthon, a German astronomer and thinker.
• 1519 – Gaspard II de Coligny, a French admiral.
• 1543 – Kanō Eitoku, a famous Japanese painter.
• 1620 – Frederick William, a powerful ruler in Germany.
• 1698 – Pierre Bouguer, a French mathematician and astronomer.
• 1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, an Italian publisher known for his beautiful typefaces.
• 1761 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, a French general.
• 1802 – Phineas Quimby, an American philosopher.
• 1812 – Henry Wilson, who became the 18th Vice President of the United States.
• 1821 – Heinrich Barth, a German explorer.
• 1822 – Francis Galton, an English biologist and statistician.
• 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher.
• 1838 – Henry Adams, an American journalist and historian.
• 1843 – Henry M. Leland, an American engineer who founded the car companies Cadillac and Lincoln.
• 1848 – Hugo de Vries, a Dutch botanist who studied genetics.
• 1877 – Tom Crean, an Irish sailor and explorer of the Antarctic.
• 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, an American director and producer, known for documentaries.
• 1893 – Katharine Cornell, a famous American actress.

People Born in the 20th and 21st Centuries

• 1903 – Edgar Bergen, an American ventriloquist and actor.
• 1904 – George F. Kennan, an American historian and diplomat.
• 1909 – Richard McDonald, who helped start the famous fast-food chain McDonald's.
• 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, an American general.
• 1921 – Vera-Ellen, a German-American actress, singer, and dancer.
• 1926 – Margot Frank, the older sister of Anne Frank, who was a victim of the Holocaust.
• 1926 – John Schlesinger, an English actor and director.
• 1927 – June Brown, an English actress.
• 1931 – Otis Blackwell, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1931 – Ken Takakura, a Japanese actor.
• 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who became the 3rd President of Sierra Leone.
• 1935 – Sonny Bono, an American actor, singer, and politician.
• 1935 – Bradford Parkinson, an American engineer who helped develop GPS.
• 1936 – Carl Icahn, a famous American businessman and investor.
• 1941 – Kim Jong Il, who was the 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea.
• 1944 – Richard Ford, an American novelist.
• 1947 – Jaroslav Kubera, a Czech politician.
• 1950 – Peter Hain, a Welsh politician.
• 1951 – William Katt, an American actor.
• 1952 – James Ingram, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1953 – Roberta Williams, an American video game designer who co-founded Sierra Entertainment.
• 1954 – Iain Banks, a Scottish author.
• 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, an American model and actress.
• 1957 – LeVar Burton, an American actor, director, and producer, known for Reading Rainbow.
• 1958 – Ice-T, an American rapper and actor.
• 1958 – Oscar Schmidt, a famous Brazilian basketball player.
• 1959 – John McEnroe, a well-known American tennis player.
• 1964 – Bebeto, a Brazilian footballer.
• 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, an English actor.
• 1973 – Cathy Freeman, an Australian sprinter and Olympic gold medalist.
• 1974 – Mahershala Ali, an American actor.
• 1979 – Valentino Rossi, an Italian motorcycle racer.
• 1982 – Lupe Fiasco, an American rapper.
• 1983 – Agyness Deyn, an English model and actress.
• 1986 – Diego Godín, a Uruguayan footballer.
• 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, an American actress.
• 1990 – The Weeknd, a Canadian singer-songwriter and producer.
• 1994 – Ava Max, an American singer and songwriter.
• 2000 – Koffee, a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and rapper.

Deaths

People Who Passed Away on This Day

• 1279 – Afonso III of Portugal, a king of Portugal.
• 1391 – John V Palaiologos, a Byzantine emperor.
• 1531 – Johannes Stöffler, a German mathematician and astronomer.
• 1579 – Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, a Spanish explorer.
• 1899 – Félix Faure, who was the 7th President of France.
• 1907 – Giosuè Carducci, an Italian poet who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, a French academic and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1944 – Dadasaheb Phalke, an Indian director and producer, often called the "father of Indian cinema."
• 1961 – Dazzy Vance, an American baseball player.
• 1974 – John Garand, a Canadian-American engineer who designed the famous M1 Garand Rifle.
• 1980 – Erich Hückel, a German physicist and chemist.
• 1990 – Keith Haring, an American painter and activist known for his unique art style.
• 1992 – Angela Carter, an English novelist.
• 1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, a Chinese-American physicist.
• 2000 – Lila Kedrova, a Russian-French actress who won an Oscar.
• 2001 – William Masters, an American gynecologist known for his research.
• 2012 – Gary Carter, an American baseball player.
• 2015 – Lesley Gore, an American singer-songwriter.
• 2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• 2019 – Bruno Ganz, a Swiss actor.
• 2021 – Gustavo Noboa, who was the 42nd President of Ecuador.

Holidays and observances

• Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong Il's birthday) is celebrated in North Korea.
• Restoration of Lithuania's Statehood Day is a holiday in Lithuania that celebrates their independence from Russia and Germany in 1918.
• Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is observed in Alaska.

See also

In Spanish: 16 de febrero para niños