Today is February 16. Today in history, in the U.S. the state of Kentucky passes into law allowing women to attend school, conditionally (1838); American Charles Wilkes discovers the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica (1840); Franz Liszt’s symphony Orpheus premieres (1854); U.S. Fort Donelson is captured by General Ulysses S. Grant following the surrender of around 12,000 Confederate soldiers (1862); Russian troops conquer the Ottoman Empire city of Erzurum during World War I (1916); DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace Carothers (1937); The Swedish classic The Seventh Seal directed by Ingmar Bergman is released (1957); Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista (1959); France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria (1966); Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, premieres in Moscow after a limited release three years prior (1969); Agatha Barbara elected as 1st female president of Malta (1982); Hezbollah formally announced its existence in southern Lebanon with an open letter (1985); Dutch PPR, Political Party Radicals, disbands (1991); The Kyoto Protocol (later to be superseded by the Paris Agreement) goes into effect, the global warming pact ratified by nearly 200 countries excluding the United States (2005); Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is placed under investigation for campaign funds (2016); Donald Trump and Trump Organization are ordered to pay $354 million in fines in the New York civil fraud case (2024), Trump himself raking in over 30 felony convictions before beginning his second term in 2025.
Today is February 16. The U.S. celebrates President’s Day, officially Washington’s Birthday (observed 3rd Monday of February). On this day was born artist Franz West (1947), and died Italian writer and Nobel Prize Laureate Giosuè Carducci (1907).
Welcome to the 170th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our guide to current events in the arts.
