On This Day - What happened 16 February

Saint Valentine was martyred by emperor Claudius II Gothicus and was buried in via falminia.

Throughout the winter of 1808, French agents became increasingly involved in Spanish internal affairs, attempting to incite discord between members of the Spanish royal family. On 16 February 1808, secret French machinations finally materialized when Napoleon announced that he would intervene to mediate between the rival political factions in the country.

The meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on 16 February.

After the ruling centre-right coalition collapsed amid the Straperlo corruption scandal, new elections were scheduled. Two wide coalitions formed: the Popular Front on the left, ranging from Republican Union to Communists, and the Frente Nacional on the right, ranging from the centre radicals to the conservative Carlists. On 16 February 1936, the left won by a narrow margin.

On 16 February 1940, Churchill personally ordered Captain Philip Vian of the destroyer HMS Cossack to board the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters and liberate some 300 British prisoners who had been captured by the Admiral Graf Spee. These actions, supplemented by his speeches, considerably enhanced Churchill's reputation.

The presidency fell to Castro's chosen candidate, the lawyer Manuel Urrutia Lleó, while members of the MR-26-7 took control of most positions in the cabinet. On 16 February 1959, Castro himself took on the role of Prime Minister. Dismissing the need for elections, Castro proclaimed the new administration an example of direct democracy, in which the Cuban populace could assemble en masse at demonstrations and express their democratic will to him personally. Critics instead condemned the new regime as un-democratic.

On 16 February 1959, Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba.

He was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces when it was founded in October 1959 and served in that capacity until February 2008.

The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

The first electoral test for Indira was the 1967 general elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The Congress Party won a reduced majority for the Lok Sabha in these elections owing to widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation and a food crisis. Gandhi herself was elected to Lok Sabha from the Raebareli constituency.

On 16 February 1982, two of the group—Swiss terrorist Bruno Breguet and Carlos' wife Magdalena Kopp—were arrested in Paris, in a car containing explosives. Following the arrest, a letter was sent to the French embassy in The Hague demanding their immediate release. Meanwhile, Carlos unsuccessfully lobbied the French government for their release.

The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar. In Victoria 47 people died. There were 28 deaths in South Australia. This included 14 CFA and 3 CFS volunteer fire-fighters who died across both states that day.

On 16 February 1991 several groups of Iraqi vehicles appeared to be performing reconnaissance on the Task Force and were driven away by fire from 4–3 FA.

Airbus A300B4-622R, China Airlines Flight 676, On February 16, 1998, en route from Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, Indonesia, to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport), Taiwan, crashed into a road and residential neighborhood in Taoyuan, Taiwan, killing 182 passengers, 14 crew, and 7 people on the ground. An investigation determined that when the control tower ordered the pilot to abort his landing and "go around" for a second attempt, the pilot, who had unintentionally released the plane's autopilot, did nothing to take control of the plane for 11 seconds as he apparently thought the autopilot would initiate the go-around. As the aircraft approached the airport, the pilot executed a sudden steep ascent that produced a stall and crash.

On 16 February 2013, aged 37, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she had an 87% risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene.

Release 0.10 of the software was made public on 16 February 2015. It introduced a consensus library which gave programmers easy access to the rules governing consensus on the network. In version, 0.11.2 developers added a new feature that allowed transactions to be made unspendable until a specific time in the future.

On 16 February, as the 38-year-old man's condition worsened, he went to Codogno Hospital, reporting respiratory problems. Initially, there was no suspicion of COVID-19, so no additional precautionary measures were taken, and the virus was able to infect other patients and health workers. Later, the patient, his pregnant wife, and a friend tested positive. Three more cases were confirmed on the same day after the patients reported symptoms of pneumonia. Thereafter, extensive screenings and checks were performed on everyone that had possibly been in contact or near the infected subjects.

On 16 February 2021, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital as a "precautionary measure" after feeling unwell.

Bitcoin price reached ATH $50,000.

On 16 February 2021, Durant replaced Mukhisa Kituyi at the head of the organization, becoming acting Secretary-General until June 2021.