February 16
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Featured Event
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (S/NPG.67.233)
Abraham Lincoln meets a pen pal
On this day in 1861, as he was traveling to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration as president, Abraham Lincoln stopped at Westfield, New York. âI have a little correspondent in this place,â he called out, âand if she is present will she please come forward?â That pen pal, 12-year-old Grace Bedell, made herself known. Lincoln remembered Bedell because, in an 1860 letter to him, she suggested that he grow a beard. She thought it would help him win the presidency. Late in 1860, he did. And he won. No one can say whether Bedell was actually the cause of Lincolnâs beard, but in Westfield he gave her the credit: âYou see,â he said, pointing to his face, âI let these whiskers grow for you, Grace.â [Read todayâs edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Jonas EkstromerâAFP/Getty Images
Kim Jong Il, son of North Korean communist dictator Kim Il-Sung and his successor as head of the Korean Workersâ Party and ruler of North Korea, was born in Siberia in the Soviet Union this day in 1941.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 16
Nikolay Vinokurov/Alamy
2024
Aleksey Navalny, who achieved international recognition as one of the most prominent Russian critics of President Vladimir Putin, died at age 47 while in a Siberian penal colony. [Read more about the history of dissent in the U.S.S.R. and Russia.]
© Vincent AlmavyâAFP/Getty Images
2016
Boutros Boutros-Ghaliâwho, as UN secretary-general from 1992 to 1996, vigorously supported UN mediation in post-Cold War strife and oversaw lengthy and difficult peacekeeping operations in several countriesâdied at age 93. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]
Katsumi Kasahara/AP Images
2005
The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at reducing the emission of gases that contribute to global warming, went into effect, eight years after its adoption. It was widely hailed as the most significant environmental treaty ever negotiated, though some critics questioned its effectiveness. [Whatâs the difference between global warming and climate change?]
© Vaclav Volrab/Dreamstime.com
2005
The National Hockey League became the first North American professional sports league to cancel an entire season. Its 2004â05 season was canceled after the collective-bargaining agreement between the owners and the playersâ union ran out. [How much do you know about hockey?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1959
After defeating the forces of dictator General Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba and transformed the island country into the Western Hemisphereâs first communist state.
Steve Powell/Allsport
1959
American tennis player John McEnroe, who established himself as a leading competitor in the late 1970s and the â80s while also becoming known for his unruly behavior on court, was born in West Germany. [Test your knowledge of tennis.]
Frank MartinâHulton Archive/Getty Images
1957
The British TV broadcasters BBC and ITV ended a postwar policy that prevented any programming between 6:00 and 7:00 at night; known as the âtoddlerâs truce,â the break was designed to help parents put children to bed. [Take our pop culture quiz.]
Ya'acov Sa'ar/© The State of Israel Government Press Office
1949
The first Knesset (Hebrew: âAssemblyâ), the unicameral parliament of Israel and supreme authority of that state, opened in Jerusalem. [Sort fact from fiction in our structures of government quiz.]
U.S. Army photograph
1945
American paratroopers landed on Corregidor Island, at the mouth of Manila Bay in the Philippines, during World War II. Within two weeks they recaptured it from the Japanese, helping the Allies in their efforts to recapture the Philippines and end fighting in the Pacific theater. [Sort fact from fiction in our World War II quiz.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1938
Under pressure from Adolf Hitler, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg admitted an Austrian Nazi leader to his cabinet, believed to be the first step in Nazi Germanyâs annexation of Austria. [Take our quiz about Nazi officials.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1937
DuPont chemist Wallace Hume Carothers patented nylon. [Test your knowledge of inventors and inventions.]
© Lee Boltin
1923
The burial chamber of King Tutankhamun was unsealed by British archaeologist Howard Carter. His discovery of the tomb in 1922 was one of the most-celebrated contributions to Egyptology. [How much do you know about Egyptian history?]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1918
The 20-member Taryba (council) of Lithuanian delegates proclaimed their country an independent state. [Test your knowledge of European history.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1903
Ventriloquist and radio comedian Edgar Bergen was born in Chicago. [Take our quiz about American personalities.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; neg. no. LC USZ 62 67721
1893
Katharine Cornell, one of the most-celebrated American stage actresses from the 1920s to the 1950s, was born in Germany. [Test your knowledge of theatrical history.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1620
Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg in 1640â88, who restored the Hohenzollern dominions after the devastation of the Thirty Yearsâ War, was born.