16/02/10

The Battle of Great Torrington took place in 1646.  Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavikur, was formed in 1899.  Howard Carter unsealed King Tutankhamen's burial chamber in 1923.  Canadians were granted Canadian citizenship in 1947, having spent the first 80 years of independence still being considered British subjects.  Fidel Castro became Premier of Cuba in 1959.

Not many interesting birthdays today.  Eugénie Blanchard of St. Barth's, France, celebrates her 114th birthday today.  The only other vaguely interesting birthdays:  John McEnroe (1959)*, Christopher Eccleston (1964), and Cathy Freeman (1973).

It is Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood Day in Lithuania, of all places.

*which means that Fidel Castro becoming Premier of Cuba wasn't the worst thing to happen on this day in 1959.