This Day in History Feb. 16

Feb. 16

1659 1st known check (?400) (on display at Westminster Abbey)
1741 Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine (2nd US Magazine) begins publishing
1804 Lieutenant Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor & burns Navy frigate "Philadelphia"
1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1852 Studebaker Brothers wagon company, is established (precursor to their auto co.)
1862 Ft Donelson captured by General Grant
1864 Battle of Mobile, AL - operations by Union Army
1878 Silver dollar became US legal tender
1881 The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa
1883 "Ladies Home Journal" begins publication
1894 British troops occupy Ilorin, Gold Coast
1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (New York NY)
1913 President Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico
1916 Russian troops conquer Erzurum Armenia
1923 Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun
1932 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree
1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
1940 British search plane finds German Altmark off Norway
1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
1943 Red army conquers Kharkov
1943 Withdrawing Africa Corps reaches Mareth-line in North-Africa
1945 US forces land on Corregidor, complete conquest on March 3
1945 American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines
1945 Venezuela declares war on Nazi-Germany
1946 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport CT
1959 Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista
1960 US nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip
1961 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island VA
1961 US satellite Explorer 9 is launched
1978 1st Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward & Randy's CBBS, Chicago)

I was taught art at school by Howard Carter's cousin Harry, he was a great artist and wood carver. Howard lived in Swaffham in Norfolk and there are displays on his discovery in Swaffham Museum.

My understanding is that Studebaker wagons were big sellers in the 19th century.

KEH