On This Day: February 16

This is the 47th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: tweed and worsted

Two simple mistakes gave tweed, a Scottish fabric, its name. A Scottish weaver offered London merchant James Locke some twilled (diagonally ribbed) cloth in 1832. But in his letter, he spelled 'twilled,' in its Scottish form of 'tweeled.' Locke misread 'tweeled' as 'tweed' - and the name stuck. Worsted (also known as wusted, worsett, wirsed, wossat) is a woolen fabric made from twisted yarn and originated in Worstead, Norfolk, England. Its origin is unknown but is attested to c 1293.

Holidays

Feast day of Flavian, St. Juliana of Cumae, St. Onesimus the Slave, St. Gilbert of Sempringham, and Saints Elias, Jeremy, and their Companions.

Lithuania: Independence Day.

Events

1804 - Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

1862 - During the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tennessee.

1868 - The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized, in New York City.

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence.

1923 - The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.

1932 - The first fruit tree patent was issued to James E. Markham, for a peach tree.

1937 - Dupont patented a new thread, nylon.

1948 - NBC-TV presented the first daily newsreel telecast: "20th Century Fox - Movietone News."

1959 - Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

1968 - The nation's first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Alabama.

1985 - Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin issued Hezbollah's manifesto.

2005 - The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-2005 regular season, becoming the first major sports league in North America to do so over a labor dispute.

Births

1893 - Katherine Cornell, the American stage actress who was called the "First Lady of the American Theater."

1903 - Edgar Bergen (born Edgar Bergren), American actor, ventriloquist, radio star.

1935 - Sonny Bono (born Salvatore Phillip Bono), American entertainer and congressman.

1959 - John McEnroe, American professional tennis player.

Deaths

1823 - Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, French painter.

2007 - Robert Adler, co-inventor of the TV remote control.