February 16
February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 319 days remain until the year's end. It falls in winter (northern hemisphere) and under the astrological sign of Aquarius.
External references
Curated jump-off points to the major almanacs, encyclopaedias and primary sources for this date.
Astronomy
On February 16 the Sun's declination is approximately -12.9°. At this latitude the Sun is south of the celestial equator, giving the Northern Hemisphere shorter days than nights.
For specific rise/set times at your location, see the U.S. Naval Observatory, or the NASA APOD archive for any imagery published on a February 16.
Position in the year
Holidays & observances
No widely-observed holidays catalogued for this day in our base set. See the external almanacs above for region-specific observances.
Events
A selection of widely-documented historical events that took place on this date. Years marked BCE follow standard astronomical convention.
1923 — Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt. ↗(103 years ago)more
Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, was the antepenultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of ancient Egyptian religion, undoing a previous shift to the religion known as Atenism.
1937 — Wallace H. Carothers received a U.S. patent for nylon. ↗(89 years ago)more
Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterized by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or semi-aromatic groups.
1959 — Fidel Castro became Premier of Cuba. ↗(67 years ago)more
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as prime minister from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011.
1968 — The first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system in the United States went into service. ↗(58 years ago)more
911, sometimes written 9-1-1, is an emergency telephone number in Canada and the United States, one of eight N11 codes of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). Like other emergency numbers, dialing 911 for purposes other than reporting an emergency is a crime in most jurisdictions.
Notable births
1822 — Francis Galton, English statistician and eugenicist. ↗(204 years ago)more
Sir Francis Galton was an English polymath and the originator of eugenics during the Victorian era; his ideas later became the basis of behavioural genetics.
1959 — John McEnroe, American tennis player. ↗(67 years ago)more
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 170 weeks, and as world No. 1 in men's doubles for 269 weeks. He is one of two male players to have held both No. 1 rankings, and the only one to hold both simultaneously.
Notable deaths
1907 — Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and Nobel laureate. ↗(119 years ago)more
Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Numerical & calendrical curiosities
| Day-of-year (47) | 47 · prime |
|---|---|
| Days remaining (319) | 11 × 29 |
| Date code DDMMYYYY | 16022026 · next palindrome year: 2061 |
| Sun declination | -12.95° (Cooper approximation) |
| Distance from solstice | 58 days |