This Day In History — King Tut’s Tomb is Opened

February 16

1804
U.S. frigate Philadelphia, captured and held by Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the Tripolitan War, was set fire to and destroyed by a small group of men led by Stephen Decatur.

1918
Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.

1923
The tomb of King Tutankhamen, discovered in 1922, was opened.

1937
Nylon was patented.

1959
Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba after having ousted the right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.

1968
The country’s first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala.

1999
Turkish commandos captured Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya, sparking seizures of embassies in Europe by Kurds.

Birthdays

Henry Adams
1838–1918, American writer and historian.

Frederick William
the Great Elector (1620)

Heinrich Barth
explorer (1821)

Robert Flaherty
explorer and film producer (1884)

Katharine Cornell
actress (1898)

George F. Kennan
diplomat and historian (1904)

Sonny Bono
entertainer, politician (1935)

Richard Ford
novelist (1944)

LeVar Burton
actor (1957)

John McEnroe
tennis player (1959)