Today in History: February 16, Castro sworn in as Cuban leader

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Today is Monday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2026. There are 318 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 16, 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as premier of Cuba, six weeks after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown and fled the country into exile. Castro's rise to power marked the start of Cuba's transformation into a communist nation.

Also on this date:

In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended with the surrender of some 12,000 Confederate soldiers; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”

In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

In 1960, the nuclear submarine USS Triton departed New London, Connecticut, on the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe by a vessel.

In 1996, 11 people were killed in a fiery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies on charges of staging an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election via a social media trolling campaign, aimed in part at helping Donald Trump win the presidency.

In 2024, Russia’s prison agency announced that Alexei Navalny, activist and Russian opposition leader, had died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism; Navalny's death brought outrage and criticism from world leaders toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Today’s birthdays: Businessman Carl Icahn is 90. Author Eckhart Tolle is 78. Actor William Katt is 75. Actor LeVar Burton is 69. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 68. Tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe is 67. Football Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis is 54. Olympic track and field gold medalist Cathy Freeman is 53. Actor Mahershala Ali is 52. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 44. Democratic Sen. John Ossoff of Georgia is 39. Actor Elizabeth Olsen is 37. Singer-actor The Weeknd is 36. Actor Chloe East is 25.