Today in History: Telephone Line Opened Between Turkey and the USA

February 16 is the 47nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 318.

Railways

• 16 February 1914 The construction of the Kagithane-Agacli Line started. The Şömendifer Regiment and Çorlu Labor Battalion were completed in July 1915.

Events

• 600 - Pope Gregory I decrees that "God bless you" can be said to anyone who sneezes.
• 1872 – Beyoğlu Telegraph Office workers went on strike.
• 1916 – Russian Empire occupied Erzurum.
• 1918 – Lithuania declares independence from both Russia (Soviet Union) and Germany.
• 1920 – The second Ahmet Anzavur revolt started in the Manyas and Gönen regions, in the north of Balıkesir. (The rebellion was suppressed on April 16.)
• 1925 – “Turkish Aircraft Society”, which would later be named “Turkish Aeronautical Association”, was established in order to support civil and military aviation in Turkey.
• 1926 – The delegation, including Mustafa Kemal, opened the new building of the Hâkimiyet-i Milliye newspaper in Ankara.
• 1937 - Wallace Carothers patented nylon.
• 1948 – Pertev Naili Boratav, Muzaffer Şerif Başoğlu and Niyazi Berkes were expelled from the university on the grounds that they were socialists. The Council of State reinstated him.
• 1949 – Religion lessons started to be taught in the fourth and fifth grades of primary schools in Turkey.
• 1950 – The new Election Law was accepted after being discussed for the second time. Accordingly, the elections will be held with the principles of single degree, general, equal and secret ballot, open classification, and will be conducted according to the majority system and under judicial guarantee.
• 1953 – A telephone line was opened between Turkey and the USA.
• 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba after Fulgencio Batista is removed from the Presidency on January 1 as a result of the Cuban Revolution.
• 1961 - Explorer 9 was launched into space by NASA.
• 1968 – The first “911” emergency telephone system goes into operation in Haleyville (Alabama, USA).
• 1969 – In the events that started with the right-wing militants attacking the demonstrators at the "Workers' Meeting Against American Imperialism" organized to protest the 6th Fleet, with the slogans of "Muslim Turkey"; Ali Turgut Aytaç and Duran Erdoğan were killed and nearly 200 injured. This event went down in history as "Bloody Sunday".
• 1973 – Rauf Denktaş was elected as the Vice President of Cyprus.
• 1974 – In Isparta, a person named Ahmet Mehmet Uluğbay killed his friend Fikri Tokgöz by shooting his head in order to get his money. He was executed on September 12.
• 1976 – Oktar Cirit, First Secretary of the Turkish Embassy in Beirut, was shot dead with a pistol. ASALA claimed responsibility for the attack. (See 1976 Beirut attack)
• 1977 – The decision of the Council of Ministers, which postponed the THY strike, was stopped by a majority vote of the Council of State.
• 1978 – The Council of State decided that İsmail Cem was the legal General Manager of TRT.
• 1978 – Minister of Finance Ziya Müezzinoğlu announced that the sale of foreign sourced goods was prohibited.
• 1979 – After the Iranian Islamic Revolution, opponents of Khomeini were executed one after the other in Iran.
• 1979 – Vakıf Gureba Hospital became the third medical faculty of Istanbul.
• 1980 – For the first time, 5 hours of television broadcast was made from the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
• 1981 – Behice Boran, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Turkey, was sentenced to 8 years and 9 months in prison. Behice Boran has been abroad since November 1980.
• 1981 – The General Staff Martial Law Military Services Coordination Presidency, which was established after the 12 September Coup, published a statement; He called for 45 people, including Abdullah Öcalan and Kemal Burkay, to return to their homeland by 19 March.
• 1986 – Elections were held in Portugal. Mario Soares became Portugal's first civilian President in 60 years.
• 1988 – A 65-year-old cancer patient in Turkey, affected by the "Cancer Treatment with Oleander" program on TRT, died by boiling the poisonous oleander plant in his garden and drinking it.
• 1989 – In the match held in Denmark, boxer Eyüp Can defeated Scottish rival Pat Clinton and became the European Professional Boxing Champion.
• 1990 – The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) was established. Yavuz Önen was elected as the chairman of the foundation.
• 1991 – 7 homosexuals held a large rally in London's Hyde Park.
• 1998 – The 7th term meeting of the Customs Union Joint Committee was held.
• 1998 – A China Airlines passenger plane crashes near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport: 202 people are killed.
• 1999 – Following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan by Turkish security forces in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, supporters of the organization launched embassy occupations and hostage-taking actions across Europe.
• 1999 – TCG Alçıtepe (D-346) (ex-USS Robert A. Owens (DD-827)) within the Turkish Navy, once the Navy shooting champion, was scrapped.
• 1999 – An attempt was made to assassinate President Islam Karimov in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Kerimov luckily survived the attack. But 15 Uzbek soldiers lost their lives and dozens were injured. Hizb ut-Tahrir claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 2001 – The General Assembly of the Administrative Lawsuit Department of the Council of State found the Aktaş Elektrik concession agreement unlawful.
• 2005 – Istanbul Independent Deputy Yaşar Nuri Öztürk founded the People's Rising Party.
• 2005 – Former Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz and former Minister of State Güneş Taner were tried before the Supreme Court for rigging the tender of the Turkish Commercial Bank.
• 2006 – The last of the tented Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) was decommissioned in the US Army.

Births

• 1222 – Nichiren, Japanese Buddhist monk and founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
• 1620 – Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia (d. 1688)
• 1727 – Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Dutch-Austrian physician, chemist, and botanist (d. 1817)
• 1731 – Marcello Bacciarelli, Italian painter (d. 1818)
• 1763 – Augustin Miletić, Bosnia and Herzegovina Franciscan Catholic priest and apostolic vicar (d. 1831)
• 1811 – Béla Wenckheim, Hungarian politician (d. 1879)
• 1812 – Henry Wilson, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
• 1816 – Kaspar Gottfried Schweizer, Swiss astronomer (d. 1873)
• 1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer and scientist (d. 1865)
• 1822 – Francis Galton, English scientist (d. 1911)
• 1826 – Julius Thomsen, Danish chemist and academic (d. 1909)
• 1831 – Nikolay Leskov, Russian journalist, novelist, and short story writer (d. 1895)
• 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist (proponent of the theory of evolution and founder of new theories of evolution) (d. 1919)
• 1841 – Armand Guillaumin, French impressionist painter and lithographer (d. 1927)
• 1847 Arthur Kinnaird, British football player (d. 1923)
• 1848 Octave Mirbeau, French writer (d. 1917)
• Charles Taze Russell, American restaurateur, author and pastor (d. 1916)
• Charles Webster Leadbeater, English writer (d. 1934)
• 1868 – Wilhelm Schmidt, Austrian linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist (d. 1954)
• 1873 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian writer, journalist, and teacher (d. 1908)
• 1876 ​​– GM Trevelyan, English historian and academic (d. 1962)
• 1876 ​​– Mack Swain, American stage and screen actor (d. 1935)
• 1884 – Robert Joseph Flaherty, American film director and producer (d. 1951)
• 1888 – Ferdinand Bie, Norwegian athlete (d. 1961)
• 1893 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Soviet field marshal (who modernized the Red Army before World War II) (d. 1937)
• 1913 – Keriman Halis, Turkish pianist, model and Turkey's first Miss World (d. 2012)
• 1918 – Patty Andrews, American singer and actress (d. 2013)
• 1926 – John Schlesinger, English director (d. 2003)
• 1926 – Memet Fuat, Turkish critic, writer, educator and volleyball coach (d. 2002)
• 1929 – Zihni Küçümen, Turkish theater artist, translator and writer (d.1996)
• 1935 – Sonny Bono, American singer, actor, and politician (d. 1998)
• 1936 – Fernando Solanas, Argentine film director, screenwriter, and politician (d. 2020)
• 1938 - Claude Jorda, French judge
• 1941 – Kim Jong-il, former national leader of North Korea (d. 2011)
• 1949 – Marc de Jonge, French actor (d. 1996)
• 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (d. 1996)
• 1955 – Emine Erdogan, wife of the 12th President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
• 1958 – Ice-T, American rapper and actor
• 1959 – Hakan Oruçkaptan, Turkish neurosurgeon specialist (d. 2017)
• 1962 – Levent İnanır, Turkish cinema and TV series actor
• 1970 – Serdar Ortaç, Turkish singer
• 1978 – Faik Ergin, Turkish actor and model
• 1979 - Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
• 1983 – Aslıhan Gürbüz, Turkish theater artist
• 1986 – Colonel Efendi, Azerbaijani rap artist
• 1986 – Nevin Answer, Turkish athlete
• 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
• 1989 – Ida Ehre, Austrian-German actress, educator and theater director
• 1990 – Abel Makkonen “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Canadian R&B and pop singer
• 1996 - Nana Komatsu, Japanese actress and model

Deaths

• 1279 – III. Afonso, King of Portugal (b. 1210)
• 1391 – John V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1332)
• 1459 – Akşemseddin, Turkish scholar and II. Mehmed's teacher (b. 1389)
• 1659 – Sarı Kenan Pasha, Ottoman statesman (b. ?)
• 1665 – Stefan Czarniecki, Polish nobleman, general, and military commander (b. 1599)
• 1868 – Adamo Tadolini, Italian sculptor (b. 1788)
• 1892 – Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist and explorer (b. 1825)
• 1899 – Félix Faure, sixth president of the Third Republic in France (b. 1841)
• 1901 – Édouard Delamare-Deboutteville, French industrialist and engineer (b. 1856)
• 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (b. 1848)
• 1919 – Mark Sykes, English author, diplomat, soldier, and traveler (b. 1879)
• 1934 – Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey, Turkish lyricist and composer (b. 1881)
• 1963 – Salih Tozan, Turkish actor (b. 1914)
• 1991 – Bülent Tarcan, Turkish neurosurgeon and composer (b. 1914)
• 1993 – Mahir Canova, Turkish theater director (b. 1914)
• 1999 – Necil Kazım Akses, Turkish symphonic music composer (b. 1908)
• 2000 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-French actress (b. 1918)
• 2001 – Ali Artuner, Turkish football player (b. 1944)
• 2013 – John Ayldon, English opera singer (b. 1943)
• 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Fikret Şeneş, Turkish songwriter (b. 1921)
• 2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian diplomat and 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
• 2017 – Josef Augusta, Czech former ice hockey player and coach (b. 1946)
• 2017 – Dick Bruna, Dutch writer, animator and graphic artist (b. 1927)
• 2017 – Jannis Kounellis, Greek-Italian contemporary artist (b. 1936)
• 2017 – George Steele, American professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Jim Bridwell, American mountain rock climber and author (b. 1944)
• 2019 – Sam Bass, American illustrator (b. 1961)
• 2019 – Don Bragg, American former track and field athlete (b. 1935)
• 2019 – Patrick Caddell, American consultant, author, and political commentator (b. 1950)
• 2019 – Bruno Ganz is a famous Swiss film actor (b. 1941)
• 2019 – Richard N. Gardner, American politician, lawyer, and diplomat (b. 1927)
• 2019 – Serge Merlin, French actor and film director (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Graeme Allwright, New Zealand-born French singer-songwriter (b. 1926)
• 2020 – Zoe Caldwell, Australian veteran actress (b. 1933)
• 2020 – Pearl Carr, English singer (b. 1921)
• 2020 – Jason Davis, American actor (b. 1984)
• 2020 – Corinne Lahaye, French actress (b. 1947)
• 2020 – Kellye Nakahara, American actress and painter (b. 1948)
• 2020 – Larry Tesler, American computer scientist (b. 1945)
• 2021 – Irit Amiel, Israeli poet, writer, and translator (b. 1931)
• 2021 – Carman, American gospel singer, songwriter, television host, life coach, actor, and evangelist (b. 1956)
• 2021 – Doğan Cüceloğlu, Turkish psychologist and communication psychologist (b. 1938)
• 2021 – Jan Sokol, Czech philosopher, translator and politician (b. 1936)

Holidays and special occasions

• Liberation of Tatvan district of Bitlis from Russian and Armenian occupation (1918).