Friday 16 February 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Holidays and observances

• Commemoration of the fallen gendarmerie employees in France (anniversary of the adoption of the law of 1791 - the creation of the national gendarmerie)
• Day of Unity in Ukraine
• Day of restoration of the statehood of Lithuania
• Do a Grouch a Favor Day
• Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska
• Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Day in South Africa
• Innovation Day
• International Canadian Heritage Day
• Military Journalist Day in Ukraine
• National Almond Day in USA
• National Justice for Animals Week in USA
• Restoration of Lithuania's Statehood Day (celebrate the independence of Lithuania from Russia and Germany in 1918)
• World Logistics Day
• World Whale Day

Events

• 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
• 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
• 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
• 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
• 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.
• 1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
• 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.
• 1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
• 1899 – Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.
• 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
• 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.
• 1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the first English Civil War.

Births

• 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress. Her breakthrough came in 2011 when she starred in the independent thriller drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, among other awards.
• 1985 – Stacy Lewis, American golfer. Stacy Lewis (born February 16, 1985) is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.
• 1981 – Jerry Owens, American baseball player. His first start came on September 27, a game in which he collected both his first hit and stole his first base as a major leaguer.
• 1981 – Qyntel Woods, American basketball player. Qyntel Deon Woods (born February 16, 1981) is an American professional basketball player, who last played with AZS Koszalin of the Polish Basketball League.
• 1980 – Longineu W. Parsons III, French-American drummer. He is best known for being the former drummer for the American pop punk band Yellowcard.
• 1979 – Eric Mun, American-South Korean singer and actor. He is also well known for several dramas such as Phoenix (2004), Super Rookie (2005) and Another Oh Hae-young (2016).
• 1978 – John Tartaglia, American actor, singer, and puppeteer. John Nicholas Tartaglia (born February 16, 1978) is an American puppeteer, actor, singer and dancer.
• 1977 – Ahman Green, American football player. Ahman Rashad Green (/ɑːˈmɑːn/; born February 16, 1977) is a former American football running back who played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL).
• 1976 – Eric Byrnes, American baseball player and sportscaster. He retired from playing in 2010 and is now an analyst for MLB Network.
• 1972 – Jerome Bettis, American football player and sportscaster. Bettis is seventh on the list of NFL rushing yards leaders.
• 1972 – Sarah Clarke, American actress. Sarah Clarke (born February 16, 1972) is an American actress, best known for her role as Nina Myers on 24, and also for her roles as Renée Dwyer, Bella Swan's mother, in the 2008 film Twilight, Erin McGuire on the short-lived TV show Trust Me, and CIA Agent Lena Smith on the USA Network show Covert Affairs.
• 1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban American drummer. David Lombardo (born February 16, 1965) is a Cuban-American drummer, best known as a co-founding member of American thrash metal band Slayer.
• 1959 – John McEnroe, German-American tennis player and sportscaster. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, and for confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.
• 1959 – Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player and sportscaster. Tripucka played for the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and was a member of the Charlotte Hornets during their inaugural season in the NBA.
• 1958 – Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach. Williams (born February 16, 1958) is an American former basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eighteen seasons from 1981 to 1999.
• 1958 – Ice-T, American rapper and actor. Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician, rapper, songwriter, actor, record producer, and author.
• 1958 – Natalie Angier, American author. Natalie Angier /ænˈdʒɪər/ (born February 16, 1958 in the Bronx, New York City) is an American nonfiction writer and a science journalist for The New York Times.
• 1957 – LeVar Burton, German-American actor, director, and producer. In 1983 he became the host of the long-running PBS children's series Reading Rainbow, and again performed a lead role as Lt.
• 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (d. 1996), was an American fashion model and actress. Hemingway earned success as a supermodel in the mid-1970s appearing on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and TIME.
• 1953 – Roberta Williams, American video game designer, co-founded Sierra Entertainment. She is married to Ken Williams and retired in 1999.
• 1952 – James Ingram, American singer-songwriter and producer, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song.
• 1952 – William Katt, American actor, director, and screenwriter. William Theodore Katt (born February 16, 1951) is an American film and television actor, voice artist and musician best known as the star of the television series The Greatest American Hero.
• 1951 – Barry Foote, American baseball player and coach. Although he was highly regarded as a younger player, he suffered numerous injuries and played most of his baseball career as a reserve player.
• 1944 – Richard Ford, American novelist and short story writer. His novel Wildlife was adapted into a 2018 film of the same name.
• 1938 – John Corigliano, American composer and academic. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School.
• 1935 – Bradford Parkinson, American colonel and engineer. Bradford Parkinson (February 16, 1935) is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and recalled emeritus Professor at Stanford University.
• 1935 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (d. 2016), was an English actor. He appeared on the stage and in film, and he is known for both acting in and directing Shakespeare productions.
• 1935 – Kenneth Price, American painter and sculptor (d. 2012), was an American artist who made ceramic sculpture. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California in 1956.
• 1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (d. 1998), was an American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.
• 1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (d. 2014), was an American counterculture Hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual intentional community in Summertown, Tennessee. He was a Green Party presidential primary candidate in 2000 on a platform which included campaign finance reform, universal health care, and decriminalization of marijuana.
• 1934 – August Coppola, American author and academic (d. 2009), was an American academic, author, film executive and advocate for the arts. He was the father of actor Nicolas Cage.
• 1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer. She won one major championship and 26 LPGA Tour career events.
• 1932 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2007), was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection.
• 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002), was an African-American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock and roll. His compositions include "Fever", recorded by Little Willie John; "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless", recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis; "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender" (with Winfield Scott), recorded by Elvis Presley; and "Handy Man", recorded by Jimmy Jones.
• 1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1981), was an American dancer and actress. She is remembered for her solo performances as well as her work with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor.
• 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American general, was an American military officer who served as the 13th chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
• 1916 – Bill Doggett, African-American pianist and composer (d. 1996), was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his compositions "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with the Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.
• 1914 – Jimmy Wakely, American country music singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1982), was an American actor, songwriter, country Western music vocalist, and one of the last singing cowboys. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he released records, appeared in several B-Western movies with most of the major studios, appeared on radio and television and even had his own series of comic books.
• 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (d. 1982), was an American actor, television director, and writer. He was also an ordained Methodist minister.
• 1909 – Jeffrey Lynn, American actor (d. 1995), was an American stage-screen actor and film producer who worked primarily through the Golden Age of Hollywood establishing himself as one of the premier talents of his time. Throughout his acting career, both on stage and in film, he was typecast as "the attractive, reliable love interest of the heroine," or "the tall, stalwart hero."
• 1909 – Richard McDonald, Irish-American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (d. 1998). Richard James and Maurice James McDonald were American siblings who founded the McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California, and inventors of the "Speedee Service System," now commonly known as "fast food".
• 1904 – George F. Kennan, Scotch-Irish American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (d. 2005), was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War.
• 1904 – James Baskett, African-American actor and singer (d. 1948), was an American actor best known for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, singing the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" in the 1946 Disney feature film Song of the South. In recognition of his warm portrayal of the famous black storyteller he was given an Honorary Academy Award, making him the first black male performer to receive an Oscar.
• 1903 – Edgar Bergen, Swedish-American ventriloquist and actor (d. 1978), was an American actor, comedian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. He was the father of actress Candice Bergen.
• 1901 – Chester Morris, American actor (d. 1970), was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
• 1901 – Wayne King, American singer-songwriter and conductor (d. 1985), was an American musician, songwriter, singer and orchestra leader with a long association with both NBC and CBS. He was sometimes referred to as the Waltz King because much of his most popular music involved waltzes; "The Waltz You Saved for Me" was his standard set closing song in live performance and on numerous radio broadcasts at the height of his career.
• 1898 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (d. 1974), was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.
• 1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962), was an American vaudeville and Broadway stage and film actress of the early twentieth century. She was known for her skills as a male impersonator.
• 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, German-Irish American director and producer (d. 1951), was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, Nanook of the North (1922). The film made his reputation and nothing in his later life fully equaled its success, although he continued the development of this new genre of narrative documentary with Moana (1926), set in the South Seas, and Man of Aran (1934), filmed in Ireland's Aran Islands.
• 1878 – James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1920), was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who emigrated from Calabria, Italy, in 1895, and built a criminal empire in Chicago based on prostitution, gambling, and racketeering. He gained power through petty crime and by heading a chain of brothels.
• 1868 – Edward S. Curtis, American ethnologist and photographer (d. 1952), was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American peoples.
• 1856 – Ossian Everett Mills, American academic, founded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (d. 1920), was the founder of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 6, 1898.
• 1845 – George Kennan, American journalist and explorer (d. 1924), was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War.
• 1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932), was an American machinist, inventor, engineer and automotive entrepreneur. He founded the two premier American luxury automotive marques, Cadillac and Lincoln.
• 1838 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (d. 1918), was an American historian and member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
• 1812 – Henry Wilson, American colonel and politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875), was the 18th vice president of the United States (1873–75) and a senator from Massachusetts (1855–73). Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading Republican, and a strong opponent of slavery.
• 1802 – Phineas Quimby, American mystic and philosopher (d. 1866), was an American clockmaker, mentalist and mesmerist. His work is widely recognized as foundational to the New Thought movement.

Deaths

• 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
• 2014 – Ken Farragut, American football player (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
• 2012 – Elyse Knox, American model, actress, and fashion designer (b. 1917)
• 2012 – Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (b. 1954)
• 2012 – John Macionis, American swimmer and lieutenant (b. 1916)
• 2011 – Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
• 2006 – Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (b. 1925)
• 2006 – Johnny Grunge, American wrestler (b. 1966)
• 2004 – Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Rusty Magee, American actor and composer (b. 1955)
• 2001 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (b. 1916)
• 2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American businessman, founded PING (b. 1911)
• 2000 – Marceline Day, American actress (b. 1908)
• 1998 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (b. 1908)
• 1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist and academic (b. 1912)
• 1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1915)
• 1996 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (b. 1905)
• 1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor and author (b. 1932)
• 1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)
• 1975 – Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (b. 1903)
• 1974 – John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand Rifle(b. 1888)
• 1967 – Smiley Burnette, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1911)
• 1961 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
• 1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1876)
• 1932 – Edgar Speyer, American-English financier and philanthropist (b. 1862)