Events on February 16 41
Year 116
Emperor Trajan sends laureatae to the Roman Senate at Rome on account of his victories and being conqueror of Parthia.
Year 1249
Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Year 1630
Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.
Year 1646
Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the first English Civil War.
Year 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.
Year 1804
First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
Year 1852
Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
Year 1866
Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
Year 1881
The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
Year 1918
The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
Year 1934
The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.
Year 1940
World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
Year 1943
World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city.
Year 1959
Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
Year 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.
Year 1962
Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
Year 1968
In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
Year 1986
The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
Year 1987
The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
Year 1996
A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people.
Year 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.
Year 2005
The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-05 regular season and playoffs.
Year 2006
The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
Year 2013
A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.