On This Day: Fidel Castro sworn in as Cuba's leader

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1923, archaeologists opened the treasure-laden inner tomb of Tutankhamen, "King Tut," in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

In 1933, a patent for the synthetic fiber nylon was awarded to the DuPont Co.

In 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuba's leader and set up a Communist regime.

In 1983, roaring summer brush fires fanned by 50 mph winds swept southern Australia, killing dozens of people and destroying at least 100 homes.

In 1984, Bill Johnson became the first American male downhill skier to win an Olympic gold medal. His mother, D.B. Johnson, told UPI, "I'm just so proud of him I could just burst."

In 1986, Mario Soares was elected Portugal's first civilian head of state in 60 years.

In 1992, the Los Angeles Lakers retired Magic Johnson's No. 32 jersey during a tearful ceremony.

File Photo by Steve Grayson/UPI

In 1999, Germany announced $1.7 billion would be set aside to compensate victims of the Holocaust.

In 2005, after a five-month lockout, the National Hockey League canceled its entire 2004-05 season.

In 2009, Japan reported its domestic product fell at a 12.7 percent annual rate in the last quarter of 2008, plunging the country into what experts say was its worst financial crisis since World War II.

In 2011, Borders, the 40-year-old retail book superstore chain that began as a used book shop in Ann Arbor, Mich., and rapidly expanded in the 1990s with 650 locations and 19,500 employees, filed for bankruptcy.

File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

In 2013, protesters in Quetta, Pakistan, threw rocks at police cars and set fires in the streets after a bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood killed more than 80 people and injured about 175.

In 2018, Swiss cross country skier Dario Cologna won his fourth career Olympic gold medal in the 15k freestyle and Austrian Matthias Mayer won a second Olympic gold medal in the super-G at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Gold medalist Austria's Matthias Mayer celebrates during the medal ceremony for men's alpine super-G at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea on February 16, 2018. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI