16 February

1770 James Cook sights Banks 'Island'

Cook sighted Banks Peninsula from the Endeavour. The following day he decided it was an island, which he named for the expedition's botanist, Joseph Banks. Read more...

1986 Sinking of the Mikhail Lermontov

At 5.37 p.m. on 16 February 1986 the Soviet cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov hit rocks off Cape Jackson in the Marlborough Sounds. Read more...