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“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
~ Henry Brooks Adams
Wikiquote (Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918; normally called Henry Adams) an American journalist, historian, academic and novelist. He was the grandson and great-grandson of John Quincy Adams and John Adams, respectively.)
February 16th, 116
Roman Empire:
116 - Emperor Trajan sends laureatae to the Roman Senate at Rome on account of his victories and being conqueror of Parthia.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
February 16th, 1249
Mongol Empire:
1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his and the ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Wikipedia Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
February 16th, 1646
English Civil War:
1646 - Battle of Torrington; Devon - the last major battle of the first English Civil War.
Wikipedia Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica;
Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army;
Battle of Marston Moor, 1644;
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck;
"And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.
February 16th, 1804
First Barbary War:
1804 - Stephen Decatur is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his and the ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Wikipedia Painting: First Barbary War; "The most bold and daring act of the age." - Horatio Nelson ● Preble's squadron during the afternoon of August 3, 1804, Michele Felice Cornè (1752–1845) ● "Barbary Pirates" by John Bentham-Dinsdale ● USS Constellation, the first U.S. Navy vessel to put to sea ● Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat, by Dennis M. Carter.
February 16th, 1852
Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
Wikipedia Photo: Studebaker Brothers: The five Studebaker brothers—founders of the Studebaker Corporation. Left to right, (standing) Peter and Jacob; (seated) Clem, Henry, and John M. ● Salt Lake City, 1908; Studebaker Brothers carriage on display in the Studebaker show room. ● 1908 Studebaker-Garford B limousine.
February 16th, 1862
American Civil War:
1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
February 16th, 1866
Spencer Compton Cavendish becomes British Secretary of State for War.
Wikipedi Painting: Spencer Compton Cavendish, National Portrait Gallery.
February 16th, 1918
The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence declaring Lithuania an independent state.
Wikipedia Image: Lithuania (Republic of Lithuania) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. ● Trakai Island Castle Photo: ● Hill of Crosses (more than 50,000 crosses, not a cemetery) ● Vilnius ● Battle of Grunwald and Vytautas the Great in the centre.
February 16th, 1934
Pre World War II:
1934 - Austrian Civil War; ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
1936 - Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.
World War II:
1940 - Altmark Incident; The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack 299 British prisoners are freed.
1943 - Red Army troops re-enter Kharkovo.
1945 - Battle of Corregidor: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943;
Invasion of Leyte, October 1944 - General Douglas MacArthur (right) and Philippine President Sergio Osmeña (center) on board a landing craft en route to the Leyte landing beaches, October 20-23, 1944. credit History.navy.mil
February 16th, 1959
Cuban Revolution:
1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
Wikipedia Photo / Map: The leadership of the Cuban revolution; Fidel Castro played the leading role in the Cuban revolution against Fulgencio Batista (1957) AFP; Fidel Castro leads men in a cheer, Cuba, 1957, Bettmann/ Corbis; Cuban Airlift to the United States (1959 and 1962); Resiste Cuba, homenaje a la revolución cubana y sus héroes música: Protesta-Por Cuba; Che Guevara and Fidel Castro ; Official caption: "Off loading Cuban refugees at the Miami sea buoy", photo dated 4 May 1964; Photo No. 7CGD-050464 #12; Guerrillero Heroico - Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara; The popularized cropped version.
February 16th, 1960
The nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
Wikipedia Photo: USS Triton, credit Navalhistory.org
February 16th, 1961
Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
Wikipedia Photo: The launch of Explorer 6; designed for photographing the Earth's cloud cover, and transmitted the first pictures of Earth from orbit.
February 16th, 1962
North Sea flood of 1962: Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
Wikipedia Photo: North Sea flood of 1962; was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 February to 17 February 1962.
February 16th, 1987
World War II: Holocaust;
1987 - The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
February 16th, 2005
Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
Wikipedia Photo: Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) that set binding obligations on the industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
February 16th, 2005
The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-2005 regular season and playoffs.
Wikipedia Photo: National Hockey League Logos; Montreal Canadiens.
February 16th, 2006
The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
Wikipedia Photo: Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations.
February 16th, 2013
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2013 - Quetta bombing; A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)