+ The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 19 February 2016 selected Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF Managing Director for a second five-year term starting on 5 July 2016.


Lagarde, the only candidate nominated for the post, was backed by the UK, Germany, China, and her home country, France, to stay on for another five years.

In her first term as MD of IMF, Lagarde has overseen an easing of Europe's sovereign debt crisis and has implemented changes to give greater influence in the Fund to emerging markets including China and Brazil.

+ Kalikho Pul on 19 February 2016 was sworn in as the ninth Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.


Pul was sworn in as the CM with the support of 18 rebel Congress MLAs, and two Independents and 11 BJP MLAs who gave outside support.

State Governor J P Rajkhowa administered the oath of office to Pul around 9.30 in the night.

+ Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, passed away on 19 February 2016 in Monroeville, Alabama, U.S. She was 89.


Lee was widely known for her debut novel To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature.

The author’s  second novel, Go Set a Watchman, was written in the mid-1950s and controversially published in July 2015 as a sequel, though it was later confirmed to be To Kill a Mockingbird's first draft.

Lee was also known for assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood. Capote was the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 2007, Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.