Today in History: Vakıf Gureba Hospital Became Istanbul's Third Faculty of Medicine

February 16 is the 47nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 318 days left until the end of the year (319 in leap years).

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.
• 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)
• 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.
• 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 – A China Airlines passenger plane crashes near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport: 202 people are killed.
• 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.
• 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol, the most comprehensive agreement prepared in the field of combating climate change, entered into force.^[1]
• 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)
• 1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian humanist (d. 1406)
• 1497 – Philipp Melanchthon, German philologist, philosopher, Humanist, theologian, textbook writer, and poet (d. 1560)
• 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)
• 1852 – Charles Taze Russell, American restaurateur, author, and pastor (d. 1916)
• 1852 – 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)
• 1920 – Anna Mae Hayes, American female soldier (d. 2018)
• 1926 – John Schlesinger, British director and Academy Award winner for Best 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)
• 1932 – Aharon Appelfeld, Israeli novelist and author (d. 2018)
• 1933 – Yoshishige Yoshida, Japanese film director (d. 2022)
• 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 – John McEnroe, American professional tennis player
• 1959 – Hakan Oruçkaptan, Turkish neurosurgeon specialist (d. 2017)
• 1962 – Levent İnanır, Turkish cinema and TV series actor
• 1963 – Dodë Gjergji, Albanian Catholic priest and administrator of the Prizren region
• 1964 – Bebeto, Former striker of Brazil national football team
• 1964 – Christopher Eccleston is an English actor.
• 1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban-American musician
• 1968 – Warren Ellis is an English writer.
• 1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian football goalkeeper
• 1970 – Serdar Ortaç, Turkish singer
• 1972 - Sarah Clarke, American actress
• 1973 - Cathy Freeman, Australian sprinter
• 1974 – Mahershala Ali, American actress
• 1978 – Faik Ergin, Turkish actor and model
• 1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian athlete
• 1979 – Stéphane Dalmat, French former football player
• 1979 - Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
• 1981 – Susanna Kallur, Swedish former athlete
• 1982 – Rickie Lambert, English former football player
• 1982 – Lupe Fiasco, American rapper
• 1983 – Aslıhan Gürbüz, Turkish theater artist
• 1985 – Simon Francis, former English football player
• 1986 – Diego Godín, Uruguayan international football player
• 1986 – Nevin Answer, Turkish athlete
• 1987 – Hasheem Thabeet, Tanzanian professional basketball player
• 1988 - Diego Capel, Spanish football player
• 1988 Denílson, Brazilian football player
• 1988 - Andrea Ranocchia, Italian football player
• 1988 – Kim Soo-hyun, South Korean actor
• 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
• 1990 – Abel Makkonen “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Canadian R&B and pop singer
• 1991 – Sergio Canales, Spanish football player
• 1994 – Federico Bernardeschi, Italian national football player
• 1994 – Ava Max, Albanian-American singer-songwriter
• 1996 - Nana Komatsu, Japanese actress and model
• 1999 – Girl in Red, Norwegian singer

Deaths

• 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)
• 1907 – ‎Giosuè Carducci‎‎, Italian poet, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate in Literature (b. 1835)
• 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (b. 1848)
• 1919 – Mark Sykes, English author, diplomat, soldier, and traveler (b. 1879)
• 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French academic, education bureaucrat, pacifist, and Radical-Socialist (left liberal) politician (b. 1841)
• 1934 – Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey, Turkish lyricist and composer (b. 1881)
• 1963 – Salih Tozan, Turkish actor (b. 1914)
• 1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and physical chemist (b. 1896)
• 1989 – Ida Ehre, Austrian-German actress, educator and theater director (b. 1900)
• 1990 – Keith Haring, American painter, Graffiti artist, and social activist (b. 1958)
• 1991 – Bülent Tarcan, Turkish neurosurgeon and composer (b. 1914)
• 1992 – Janio Quadros, Brazilian lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
• 1993 – Mahir Canova, Turkish theater director (b. 1914)
• 1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American experimental physicist (b. 1912)
• 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)
• 2011 – Len Lesser, American theater, film and television actor, voice actor (b. 1922)
• 2011 – Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet, writer, playwright, translator (b. 1930)
• 2013 – John Ayldon, English opera singer (b. 1943)
• 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (b. 1971)
• 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, 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)
• 2022 – Pa Ko, Taiwanese actor (b. 1954)
• 2022 – Vasilis Botinos, Greek national football player (b. 1944)
• 2022 – Cristina Calderón, Chilean ethnographer, craftsman, writer, and cultural activist (b. 1928)
• 2022 – Jack Smethurst, English actor and comedian (b. 1932)

Holidays and special occasions

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