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Today in History - JANUARY 16 Today is Thursday, January 16, the 16th day of 2003.  There are 349 days left in the year.  On this date: In 1547, Ivan the Terrible was crowned czar of Russia. In 1866, Everett Barney patented the _meta_l screw-and-clamp roller skate, which clamped on to the edges of the wearer's shoes and were tightened with a skate key. In 1883, the U.S. Civil Service Commission was established. In 1908, high-decibel performer and Musical Theater Hall-of-Famer Ethel Merman (Ethel Agnes Zimmerman) was born in Astoria, Queens, New York.  As the first lady of American musical comedy, Merman starred on Broadway in such productions as Girl Crazy, Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy and won a Tony Award for 1950's Call Me Madam.  Her film appearances include Anything Goes, Strike Me Pink, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Stage Door Canteen, Call Me Madam, There's No Business Like Show Business, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Journey Back to Oz (voice) and an amusing cameo appearance in Airplane!  One of her four marriages was a brief one (32 days) to actor Ernest Borgnine in 1964.  She died on February 15, 1984 at age 76 in New York City, ten months after undergoing surgery for the removal of a brain tumor. In 1910, pitching legend and _base_ball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean (Jay Hanna Dean) was born in Lucas, Arkansas.  Dean gained the reputation of being dizzy because of his malapropisms, which he spouted more frequently in his later years: The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing and He slud into third _base_, among many others.  He died on July 17, 1974. In 1919, Nebraska, Wyoming and Missouri became the 36th, 37th and 38th U.S. states to ratify Prohibition, which went into effect a year later. In 1920, Prohibition began as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect; it was later repealed by the 21st Amendment. In 1921, the film The Kid, starring Charlie Chaplin, opened in theaters; the movie featured a young actor soon to become a Hollywood favorite: Jackie Coogan. In 1939, I Love a Mystery was heard for the first time as the radio program debuted on NBC's West-Coast outlets. In 1942, popular actress Carole Lombard, 33; her mother, Mrs. Bessie Peters; and MGM Studios publicist Otto Winkler were among the 22 passengers and crew killed when their TWA DC-3 airliner smashed into Mt. Potosi, 32 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, while flying to Burbank, California.  Lombard, married to actor Clark Gable, was returning home to Los Angeles after completing a highly successful U.S. War Bonds promotional tour.  The ill-fated nighttime flight was nearly 7 miles off course due to navigational errors when it slammed into the peak, exploded and burned. In 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied Invasion Force in London, England. In 1957, three B-52s took off from Castle Air Force _base_ in California on the first non-stop, round-the-world flight by jet planes, which lasted 45 hours, 19 minutes. In 1961, _base_ball's Mickey Mantle signed a contract that made him the highest paid p_layer_ in the American League