This Day in History: Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions came into force, but rejected by U.S.

The following are some of the events to have occurred on February 16:

1899 – French President Felix Francois Faure died.

1936 – Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Germany.

1944 – Allied aircraft bombed the Japanese naval base at Truk, Caroline Islands, destroying 201 planes.

1960 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Triton began its underwater round-the-world trip.

1998 – A China Airlines Airbus crashed at Taipei’s international airport, killing 203 people.

1999 – Turkish special forces flew Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to Turkey after spiriting him out of Kenya; his capture ignited a Europe-wide wave of Kurdish demonstrations.

2002 – Sir Walter Winterbottom, the England football team’s first and longest-serving manager, died. He was 89. He took charge in 1947 and presided over the England team at four World Cups before being replaced by Alf Ramsey in 1962.

2002 – Dutch speed skater Gerard van Velde sets new world record in 1000 m event at Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

2005 – The Kyoto Protocol on curbing human emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012 came into force, but was rejected as an economic straitjacket by the United States, the world’s top polluter.

2006 – Islamist group Hamas chose Ismail Haniyeh to be the next Palestinian prime minister.

2009 – South Korean Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephen Kim, also known as Kim Sou-hwan, who used his pulpit as a platform to help bring down the country’s authoritarian leaders and instil democracy, died.

(Reuters)