Get To Know: February 16

February 16 is a rich day for historical events; some significant, some, not so much.

600 AD: Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze
Previously, the standard response to a sneeze was "What the hell was that?"

1659 1st known check (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey)
Written in the supermarket checkout line by a 90-year-old woman while my English ancestor stood behind her and seethed.

1677 Earl of Shaftesbury arrested/confined in London Tower
He's a complicated man, and no one understands him but his woman, Earl of Shaft.

1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions.
February 17, 1838. First case of cooties reported in Kentucky.

1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Reportedly, there was a half-eaten Ben and Jerry's and some Bagel Bites on the shelf.

1852 Charles Taze Russell born. Founded Jehovah's Witnesses
His father went from house-to-house to share the good news, but nobody answered their door.

1878 Silver dollar became US legal tender
Pepsi machine at the saloon was jammed up all day.

1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (New York NY)
Roof riders relieved.

1927 US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey
Tensions continued with roast duck.

1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers
Carothers swooshed out of the patent office proudly.

1948 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
Other moons of Uranus would be photographed several times in college.

1958 Ice-T born. rap singer/actor (New Jack City, Tank Girl, Crazy Six)
It's a motherf*cking boy!

1959 Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista
Smoke em if you got em.

1962 US Open Tennis Jimmy Bostwick defeats brother Pete to win
Mrs. Bostwick admits she loves Jimmy more than Pete.

1965 Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors
Mini-Bruce Willis and Mini-Ben Affleck put on standby.

1968 Country's 1st 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville AL
First call came in 3 days later from some teenagers asking for Al Coholic.

1972 1st NBA to score 30,000 points (Wilt Chamberlain in 940 games)
A few years later, Wilt would set another scoring mark.

1982 Lee Majors & Farrah Fawcett Majors divorce
Farrah asked for half: $3 million and one bionic eye.

1991 US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding
Whatever happened to her? She just kinda faded away after that.