Just Plain Fun
This Day in History – February 16, 2011
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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.]]]]> ]]>