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THIS DAY IN HISTORY Saturday, 16 February 2019

	1881 Anna Pavlova (d. 1931), legendary Russian ballerina was born.

	1894 British troops occupied Ilorin on the Gold Coast or present-day Ghana in West Africa

	1923 Howard Carter opened the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, revealing an astounding collection of Egyptian treasures.

	1937 The Du Pont Corporation patented nylon which was developed by an employee Wallace H Carothers.

	1941 Kim Jong-il (d. 2011), the supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011, was born.

	1946 The first commercially designed helicopter was tested in Connecticut, USA.

	1948 Miranda, the famous moon of Uranus, was discovered by Gerard Kuiper at McDonald Observatory.

	1959 Fidel Castro named himself Cuba’s premier after overthrowing the dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

	1986 Mario Soares of the Socialist Party was elected Portugal’s first civilian president.

	2005 The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to combat global warming came into force.

	2011 Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion, officially announced his retirement from professional cycling.