Radio program host Yinka Bokinni

Events in 1989 and 16-2

Events in the world in the birth year of Yinka Bokinni

• US planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4).
• Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14).
• Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.).
• Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet President (May 25).
• P. W. Botha quits as South Africa's President (Aug. 14).
• Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership (Nov. 9).
• After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).
• Czech Parliament ends Communists' dominant role (Nov. 30).
• Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government (Dec. 15 et seq.); President Ceausescu and wife executed (Dec. 25).
• US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of General Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20).

Birthday Yinka Bokinni (16-2) in history

• Day 16-2 year 1804: U.S. frigate Philadelphia, captured and held by Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the Tripolitan War, was set fire to and destroyed by a small group of men led by Stephen Decatur.
• Day 16-2 year 1918: Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.
• Day 16-2 year 1923: The tomb of King Tutankhamen, discovered in 1922, was opened.
• Day 16-2 year 1937: Nylon was patented.
• Day 16-2 year 1959: Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba after having ousted the right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.
• Day 16-2 year 1968: The country's first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala.
• Day 16-2 year 1999: Turkish commandos captured Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya, sparking seizures of embassies in Europe by Kurds.