Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 16

1978
First computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).  It opened to the public the following year.

1959
Fidel Castro is sworn in as leader of Cuba after forcing Pres. Fulgencio Batista into exile.

1948
Uranus: G.P. Kuiper discovers the planet's fifth moon. It was named Miranda.

1948
First daily TV news broadcast, by NBC.

1938
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation is established by Congress, to protect wheat growers against crop losses due to natural causes.

1937
Nylon is patented, by Dr. Wallace Carothers of the E.I. du Pont Co.

1923
King Tutankhamen: The boy king's burial chamber is unsealed by Howard Carter.

1918
Anti-Loafing Law: New Jersey enacts a law requiring all able-bodied males to be employed in some useful occupation.

1868
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.

1857
First U.S. school of higher education for the deaf: The Columbia Institute for the Deaf is founded.

1741
First issue of Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, the second magazine published in America.

1682
Gregorian calendar is adopted by Alsace (part of France at the time): Today's date would have been February 5.

1961
Andy Taylor, English singer, with Duran Duran. Music: Hungry Like the Wolf (1982), Rio (1982), Union of the Snake (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985).

1959
John McEnroe, American tennis player. Rated the number 1 player in the world four times (1981-84), he has won four U.S. Open singles titles (1979-81, 84) and three Wimbledons (1981, 83-84).

1958
Lisa Loring, American actress. TV: The Addams Family (Wednesday) and As the World Turns (Cricket).

1958
Ice-T (Tracy Marrow), American rap singer, actor, Cop Killer, New Jack City, Breakin', and Who's the Man.

1957
LeVar Burton (Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr.), actor. TV: Roots (Kunta Kinte), Star Trek: The Next Generation (Lt. La Forge), Reading Rainbow (host).

1935     d. 1998
Sonny Bono (Salvatore Bono), American singer with Cher, mayor, and U.S. Representative. Music: I Got You Babe (1965, #1).

1930
Ricou Browning, American actor, underwater cinemaphotographer. Film: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, the creature in the underwater scenes).  He also worked underwater sequence director on Island of the Lost (1967), Thunderball (1965) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

1926     d. 2003
John Schlesinger, English Oscar-winning director. Film: Midnight Cowboy (1969, Oscar), Marathon Man (1976), and Pacific Heights (1990).

1918
Patty Andrews, American singer, with the Andrews Sisters.

1909     d. 1982
Hugh Beaumont, American actor. TV: Leave It to Beaver (Ward Cleaver).

1903     d. 1978
Edgar Bergen (Edgar John Bergren), American ventriloquist with Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy.

1884     d. 1951
Robert Joseph Flaherty, American filmmaker, father of the film documentary. Film: Nanook of the North (1922), which was the first commercially successful feature length documentary.

1812     d. 1875
Henry Wilson, 18th U.S. Vice-President (1873-75), died in office making Thomas W. Ferry the acting Vice-President.

1967     b. 1911
Smiley Burnette (Lester Alvin Burnette), American actor. Film: He was Gene Autry's comic partner in 81 Western films. TV: Petticoat Junction (train engineer Charlie Pratt).

1924     b. 1866
Henry Bacon, American architect. He designed the Lincoln Memorial (1922).

1911     b. 1828
Edward Hitchcock, American physician, the first U.S. professor of physical education and hygiene (1861). He was appointed by Amherst College of Massachusetts.

1905     b. 1821
Jay Cooke, American banker, "Financier of the Civil War." He sold over $2.5 billion in Union bonds during the war. The collapse of his bank led to the Panic of 1873.

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