On This Day - February 16th

On this day in the year 1838 of common era (CE) the Sate of Kentucky passes a law permitting women to attend school under certain conditions; forty-five years later the Ladies Home Journal begins publishing in the United Sates. Forty-four years after that the DuPont Corporation patents nylon, a synthetic fabric developed by employee Wallace Carothers.

On this day in the year 1852 CE the Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company is established, it would later become the Studebaker automobile manufacturer; seventy-seven years later, in mysterious murder suicide Ned Doheny Jr., son of oil magnate Edward L. Doheny, dies along with secretary Hugh Plunkett at Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

On this day in 1859 CE the French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.

In 1932 CE the first patent for a tree issued to James Markham, it is a peach tree; six years later the United States Federal Crop Insurance program authorized. Twenty nine years after that the first 911 phone system goes into service in the United States, at Haleyville, Alabama.

In 1933 CE the Catholic newspaper Germania warns against nazis and communists; eighteen years later in New York, New York a bill is passed into law prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing. Eight years after that Fidel Castro becomes the sixteenth prime minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista.

In 1946 CE the first commercially designed helicopter is tested in Bridgeport, Connecticut; fourteen years later, a nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Triton sets off on underwater round-the-world trip. One year after that, in 1961 CE China brings its first nuclear reactor on-line; five years later France performs an underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria. Eleven years after that in 1977 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan; two years later they do it again Semipalatinsk testing facility in eastern Kazakhstan.

In 1972 CE Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the first player in NBA history to reach the career 30,000 point mark during a 110-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns; twenty years later, in Ethiopia the remains of former Emperor Haile Selassie (also known as Ras Tafari) is discovered on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, under the private lavatory of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who had overthrown the Emperor to end the ancient Solomonic Dynasty. Twenty-seven years after that pope Francis “The Good” defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, for sexually abusing minors and adults; he is the first Cardinal to be removed from his position in the Catholic Church on grounds of sexual abuse.