February 16 in Military History

Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a daring raid into Tripoli Harbor to destroy the captured frigate USS Philadelphia, preventing its use by Barbary pirates. Lord Nelson called it "the most bold and daring act of the age."

Confederate Fort Donelson surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant after his famous demand for "unconditional and immediate surrender." The victory opened the way into the Confederate heartland.

British forces employed Gatling guns during the Anglo-Ashanti War, one of the earliest combat deployments of rapid-fire weapons that would transform warfare.

Lithuania declared independence from both Germany and Russia, establishing a sovereign state that would face invasion and occupation by both powers during World War II before regaining independence in 1990.

The Red Army liberated Kharkov from German occupation, the third time the city changed hands. German Field Marshal von Manstein would recapture it within weeks in his famous "backhand blow" counteroffensive.

American and Filipino forces liberated the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, recapturing the territory where 76,000 Allied soldiers had surrendered in 1942 and endured the infamous Bataan Death March.

The world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, logged its 60,000th nautical mile, demonstrating the revolutionary endurance of nuclear propulsion that would transform submarine warfare forever.

Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba, beginning a communist revolution 90 miles from American shores that would define Cold War military tensions for decades, including the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.

An estimated 6 to 10 million people in over 600 cities worldwide protested the planned U.S. invasion of Iraq, the largest coordinated anti-war demonstration in history.

Anti-government protests erupted in Benghazi, Libya, beginning the civil war that would lead to NATO military intervention, the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, and years of instability.