Today in history: On February 16, Fidel Castro becomes Prime Minister of Cuba

Today in History Today is Thursday, February 16th, day 47, 2023. There are 318 days until the end of the year. History Today: Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba on February 16, 1959, a month and a half after Fulgencio Batista was overthrown. , To date: , 1862 Civil War battle at Fort Donelson, Tennessee ended when approximately 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union General Ulysses S.

Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Grant Unconditional Surrender". In 1918 Lithuania declared its independence from the Russian Empire. (Lithuania, occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, then by Nazi Germany, and then again by the Soviet Union, regained its independence in 1990.) In 1923, English archaeologist Howard Carter opened the burial chamber of King Tutankhamun's newly discovered tomb in Egypt. In 1945, during World War II, American troops landed on Corregidor Island in the Philippines. In 1960, the nuclear-powered radar submarine USS Triton left New London, Connecticut for its first underwater circumnavigation. In 1961, the United States launched the Explorer 9 satellite. In 1996, eleven people died in a violent collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed while attempting to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, killing all 196 on board and seven on the ground. In 2001, the US and UK conducted airstrikes against radar stations and air defense command centers in Iraq. In 2009, in Stamford, Connecticut, a 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis rampaged, severely maiming his owner's girlfriend, Charla Nash; Travis was killed by the police.

In 2011, bookstore chain Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced it would close nearly a third of its stores. (Borders closed all remaining stores in September 2011.) Ten years ago: gunmen attacked a construction company warehouse in rural northern Nigeria, killing a guard and kidnapping seven workers from Lebanon, UK, Greece and Italy; The kidnappers later claimed to have killed the hostages.

Billy Hunter fired by NBA players as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Tony Sheridan, a 72-year-old British singer who performed with the Beatles in their early years in Germany, has died in Hamburg. Five years ago: In an indictment, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller accused 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt 2016Presidential election with a huge but covert social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Donald Trump.

The FBI said it received a tip in January that the suspect in the Parkland, Fla., shooting had a "murder lust" and access to a firearm, but agents were not investigating. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has officially launched his political comeback bid by announcing that he is running for a seat in the Utah Senate. (Romney would be elected in November, easily beating Democrat Jenny Wilson.)