Dashed left edge = started before February 2016 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond February 2016
Events in February 2016 9
1922 – 2016Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1922-2016)Died 16 February 2016, aged 93Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996. His tenure included the UN's response to the Rwandan genocide and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Somalia. He was the first UN chief from Africa and the Arab world.
1926 – 2016Harper Lee (1926-2016)Died 19 February 2016, aged 89Lee was an American author best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize and became a staple of school curricula worldwide. A long-awaited follow-up, Go Set a Watchman, was published in 2015. She rarely gave interviews after her early fame.
1932 – 2016Umberto EcoItalian novelist and philosopherEco wrote The Name of the Rose, combining mystery, semiotics, and historical fiction.
1936 – 2016Antonin Scalia (1936-2016)Died 13 February 2016, aged 79Scalia served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until his death, becoming the leading voice of originalist legal interpretation on the bench. His sudden death created a vacancy that became a major political flashpoint in the 2016 election. He was known for his sharp, often combative written opinions.
2016Zika Virus Health Emergency DeclaredWHO declares global emergency over birth defectsThe World Health Organization declared the Zika virus outbreak, linked to a surge in birth defects across the Americas, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The mosquito-borne virus was strongly associated with microcephaly in newborns. The declaration triggered a global research and public health response.
2016Wins Super Bowl 50 as Oldest Starting QB ChampionBroncos defeat the Carolina Panthers 24-10At age 39, Manning became the oldest starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl as the Denver Broncos' defense overwhelmed the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50. Manning played a limited but efficient role behind a dominant defensive performance, securing his second career championship in what would prove to be his final NFL game. The victory provided a storybook conclusion to a season in which his individual statistics had declined amid injury and age-related decline.
2016Gravitational waves detectedEinstein's 1916 prediction confirmedScientists at LIGO announced the first detection of gravitational waves on February 11, 2016, confirming Einstein's century-old prediction. The waves were produced by two merging black holes.
2016Gravitational waves detectedA hundred years after the predictionLIGO announced on 11 February 2016 that it had recorded the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away, detected the previous September. The signal matched general relativity's waveform precisely. Einstein had assumed the effect was too small ever to measure.
2016Amy documentary wins an OscarAsif KapadiaBest Documentary Feature.