This Day in History – February 16, 2011

1804 – U.S. frigate Philadelphia, captured and held by Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the Tripolitan War, was set fire to and destroyed by a small group of men led by Stephen Decatur.   1918 – Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.   1923 – The tomb of King Tutankhamen, discovered in 1922, was opened.   1937 – Nylon was patented.   1959 – Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba after having ousted the right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.   1968 – The country’s first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala.   1999 – Turkish commandos captured Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya, sparking seizures of embassies in Europe by Kurds.]]]]> ]]>