February 1916

[February 1], 1916 (Tuesday)

• A night raid by German Zeppelins on the West Midlands of England claimed 35 lives, with Tipton suffering the heaviest losses with 14 fatalities.
• The airship Zeppelin LZ 54 crashed in the North Sea on its return from bombing the English midlands. All 16 crew drowned when the crew of a British fishing boat refused to rescue them.
• British troop ship SS Empress Queen ran aground off the Isle of Wight and had to be abandoned.
• The Royal Flying Corps established the No. 35 Squadron.
• The new German cruiser SMS Emden, taking the legacy name from its famous predecessor, was launched by AG Weser in Bremen. She would survive the war but would be scuttled along with many ships with the Imperial German Navy in 1919.
• Danish composer Carl Nielsen conducted the première of his Symphony No. 4, the Inextinguishable, in Copenhagen.
• The secondary school Lycée Moulay Youssef opened in Rabat, Morocco and received its charter on February 17.
• New South Wales Department of Education and Communities in Australia published the first edition of School Magazine, a literary publication for schoolchildren. It remains the longest-running children's magazine in the world.
• Born:
• * Bruce Gordon, American actor, best known for his gangster roles in the TV series The Untouchables; in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, United States
• * Jack Lyons, British finance executive, key figure in the Guinness share-trading fraud scandal in 1987; as Isidore Jack Lyons, in Leeds, England

  [February 2], 1916 (Wednesday)

• Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition - British Antarctic expedition commander Ernest Shackleton sent a larger party to bring back the third lifeboat from the sunken polar ship Endurance in anticipation of crossing open water during the Antarctic summer thaw. The crew had been on the open ice for close to three months, with seal meat being the primary staple to preserve packaged meals. Their teams of dogs were also reduced to two teams, with the others being shot to ensure more seal meat for expedition members.
• A German zeppelin that disappeared on the air raid to Liverpool four days earlier was spotted by the British naval trawler King Stephen floating in the North Sea. After briefly speaking with Zeppelin Captain Odo Löwe and the crew, the trawler left the German air crew to their fate.
• The 3rd Australian Division was established and would become the longest serving Australian division in the country's military history.
• Two dioceses were established in Honduras - the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pedro Sula and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán.
• Born: Al McWilliams, American cartoonist, artist for Dateline: Danger! which featured Danny Raven, the first leading African-American character in a comic strip; as Alden Spurr McWilliams, in New York City, United States

  [February 3], 1916 (Thursday)

• A fire killed seven people and destroyed most of the Centre Block, the home of the Parliament of Canada, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. The fire, which started in the House of Commons reading room while Parliament was in session, was likely caused from an improperly extinguished cigar or faulty electrical wiring, although an investigating commission also put forth the theory sabotage could have also been a likely cause.
• The Patna High Court was established in Patna, Bihar, India.
• The Roman Catholic Diocese of Guaxupé was established in Guaxupé, Brazil.
• A solar eclipse occurred over the northern tip of South America.
• Born: Daniel Canónico, Venezuelan baseball player, pitcher of the Venezuela national baseball team for the 1941 Baseball World Cup; in Barquisimeto, Venezuela

  [February 4], 1916 (Friday)

• The Banaras Hindu University was established in Varanasi, India by education leader Madan Mohan Malaviya.
• Born: Pudlo Pudlat, Canadian Inuk artist, noted sketching and prints included Shores of the Settlement, In Celebration and Aeroplane; on Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada

  [February 5], 1916 (Saturday)

• Trebizond Campaign - The Russian Empire launched a naval and land campaign to capture to port Trabzon, Turkey from the Ottoman Empire, where a large population of Armenians had been deported during the Armenian genocide.
• The British Fourth Army was established under command of General Henry Rawlinson and would be one of the key British forces during the Battle of the Somme.
• Royal Navy cruiser HMS Courageous was launched at Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and would serve out World War I. It was recommissioned for service as an aircraft carrier at the start of World War II but sunk by a German submarine in 1939.
• German poet Hugo Ball and his future wife Emmy Hennings opened the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, a gathering for poets and intellectuals who were associated with Dadaism, including Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp.
• Born: Daniel Santos, Puerto Rican singer, credited for popularizing the bolero style of singing in the United States; in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Died:
• * Francesco Marconi, 61-63, Italian opera singer, known for his performances at Teatro Real and La Scala
• * Alexander Wilson Drake, 72-73, American artist and author, best known for Three Midnight Stories collection

  [February 6], 1916 (Sunday)

• Aircraft from the Imperial Russian Navy sank the Ottoman collier Irmingard, the largest ship sunk by air attack in World War I.
• Born:
• * William H. Blanchard, American air force officer, Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1965 to 1966; in Boston, United States
• * Esther Figueiredo Ferraz, Brazilian politician, Minister of Education from 1982 to 1985, first woman in Brazil to hold a cabinet position; in São Paulo, Brazil
• Died: Rubén Darío, 49, Nicaraguan writer, credited as the "father of modernismo " in Spanish literature, author of Azul..., Prosas profanas y otros poemas and ''Cantos de vida y esperanza''

  [February 7], 1916 (Monday)

• Erzurum Offensive - The Russian offense succeeded in capturing the Turkish towns of Hınıs and Muş, the provincial capital of Muş Province in the Ottoman Empire.
• British destroyer HMS Nomad was launched by Alexander Stephen and Sons at Glasgow, but would be sunk at the Battle of Jutland five months later.
• Lady Hardinge Medical College was established in New Delhi. It was named after the late Winifred Sturt, also known as Lady Hardinge, wife of Charles Hardinge, Viceroy of India, who envisioned a college that provided women opportunities to study medicine.
• Born:
• * Joseph Stephen Crane, American business executive, owner of the Luau and Kon Tiki restaurant chain, former husband to Lana Turner; as Joseph Stephenson Crane, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, United States
• * Frank Hyde, Australian rugby player, player for the Newtown Bluebags,, Balmain Tigers, North Sydney Bears and New South Wales Rugby League; as Francis Patrick Aloysius Hyde, in Millers Point, New South Wales, Australia
• Died: William Peters Hepburn, 82, American politician, U.S. Representative from Iowa from 1881 to 1887, and from 1893 to 1909

  [February 8], 1916 (Tuesday)

• French cruiser Amiral Charner was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine SM U-21 off the coast of Egypt, killing 427 sailors.
• Louis Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa, presided over the official opening of the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The first classes commenced on February 22.
• Argentine tango composer Roberto Firpo was approached by Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez at a music cafe in Montevideo with sheet music for a new tango. Firpo added arrangements from his own work and recorded it in November "La cumparsita", now considered one of the world's most recognizable tango melodies.

  [February 9], 1916 (Wednesday)

• Battle for Lake Tanganyika - German steamship Hedwig von Wissmann was sunk by British gunboats HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou in Lake Tanganyika, Central Africa.
• British pilot Harry Hawker flew the Sopwith Pup in its first test run.
• Born: Tex Hughson, American baseball player, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox from 1941 to 1949; as Cecil Carlton Hughson, in Buda, Texas, United States
• Died: George Richardson, 29, Canadian hockey player and army officer, played left wing for Queen's University, recipient of the Legion of Honour; killed in action in France)

  [February 10], 1916 (Thursday)

• Battle of Dogger Bank - The Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy clashed at Dogger Bank for the second time, with German destroyers sinking minesweeper HMS Arabis and killing 56 of her crew.
• Enlisted Canadian servicemen rioted and vandalized two businesses owned and operated by German Canadians in Calgary over two days before the city restored order, following rumors a popular diner had been hiring "illegal aliens" instead of veterans.
• The orchestral composition Symphony No. 1 in F Major by Leevi Madetoja was first performed by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
• Born:
• * Edward R. Roybal, American politician, member of Los Angeles City Council from 1949 to 1962, U.S. Representative from California from 1963 to 1993; in Pecos, New Mexico, United States
• * Achiam, Franco-Israeli sculptor, recipient of the 1965 Grand Prix des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris; as Ahiam Shoshany, in Beit-Gan, Galilee