March 16 - Definition and Overview

March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). There are 290 days remaining.

Events

up to 19th century

• 1190 - Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York, England.
• 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
• 1621 - Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
• 1660 - The Long Parliament disbands.
• 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
• 1802 - West Point is established.
• 1815 - Willem I becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is published for the first time.

20th century

1900s-1980s

• 1900 - Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos on Crete.
• 1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
• 1935 - Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
• 1945 - World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
• 1945 - Wuerzburg, was destroyed to 90% by British bombers in only 20 minutes (5000 died)
• 1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean killing 107
• 1968 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre American troops kill scores of women and children.
• 1969 - A Venezuelan Airlines DC-9 crashes shortly after takeoff in Maracaibo, Venezuela killing 155
• 1972 - Pruitt-Igoe housing complex is demolished.
• 1978 - Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas in Italy and is later killed by his captors.
• 1984 - CIA station chief stationed in Beirut, William Buckley, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.
• 1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He would later be released on December 4, 1991.
• 1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
• 1988 - Kurdish town of Halabjah attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents killing 5000

1990s

• 1993 - A blizzard on the east coast of the United States kills 184 (see Great Blizzard of 1993).
• 1994 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan.

21st century

• 2002- Closing ceremonies of the Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• 2003 - Largest coordinated worldwide vigil, as part of the global protests against war on Iraq.

29th century

• 2880 - The Near-Earth object 1950 DA approaches Earth, and there is concern that it might impact Earth.

Births

up to 19th century

• 1585 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
• 1751 - James Madison, 4th President of the United States, (d. 1836)
• 1789 - Georg Simon Ohm, physicist and discoverer of Ohm's law, (d. 1854)
• 1829 - René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme, laureate of the first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, (d. 1907)
• 1834 - James Hector, geologist, (d. 1907)
• 1878 - Clemens August Graf von Galen, archbishop of Münster and cardinal, (d. 1946)
• 1878 - Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran (d. 1941)
• 1889 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)

20th century

1900s-1940s

• 1901 - Edward Pawley, Broadway/Movie/Radio actor. Played Steve Wilson on radio's popular Big Town show.
• 1902 - Leon Roppolo, jazz clarinetist, (d. 1943)
• 1905 - Elisabeth Flickenschildt, actress, (d. 1977)
• 1906 - Henny Youngman, comedian, (d. 1998)
• 1911 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal, (d. 1979)
• 1912 - Pat Nixon, actress, First Lady, (d. 1993)
• 1918 - Frederick Reines, physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics), (d. 1998)
• 1920 - Leo McKern, actor, (d. 2002)
• 1926 - Jerry Lewis, comedian
• 1926 - James N. Miller, microbiologist
• 1928 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
• 1927 - Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut, (d. 1967)
• 1927 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator from New York, (d. 2003)
• 1929 - Nadja Tiller, actress
• 1934 - Ray Hnatyshyn, former Governor-General of Canada, (d. 2002)
• 1940 - Chuck Woolery, game show host
• 1941 - Bernardo Bertolucci, film director
• 1942 - James Soong, politician
• 1949 - Erik Estrada, actor
• 1949 - Victor Garber, actor

1950s-1990s

• 1952 - Philippe Kahn, entrepreneur
• 1953 - Isabelle Huppert, actress
• 1953 - Richard Stallman, Free Software activist & founder of GNU
• 1954 - Nancy Wilson, guitarist, singer, actress
• 1955 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
• 1959 - Flavor Flav, rap musician
• 1959 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
• 1980 - Todd Heap, American football player
• 1990 - James Bulger, abduction/murder victim, (d. 1993)
• 1992 - Carlie Brucia, kidnap/murder victim, (d. 2004)

Deaths

• 455 - Valentinian III, Roman emperor, (b. 419)
• 1736 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composer, (b. 1710)
• 1747 - Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (b. 1690)
• 1898 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist, (b. 1872)
• 1903 - Judge Roy Bean, jurist, Old West pioneer, (b. c. 1825)
• 1940 - Selma Lagerlöf, writer, (b. 1858)
• 1957 - Constantin Brancusi, sculptor, (b. 1876)
• 1970 - Tammi Terrell, singer
• 1971 - Thomas Dewey, candidate for President of the United States in 1944 and 1948, (b. 1902)
• 1975 - T-Bone Walker, musician, (b. 1910)
• 1977 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze, (b. 1917)
• 1988 - Edward Pawley, Broadway/Movie/Radio Actor. Played Steve Wilson on radio's Big Town show. (b. 1901)
• 2003 - Rachel Corrie, International Solidarity Movement member, (b. 1979)
• 2003 - Major Ronald Ferguson, father of Sarah, Duchess of York

Holidays and observances

• The first day of the Bacchanalia in ancient Rome
• The controversial Latvia Legions is celebrated in Latvia, where about 140,000 men joined the Waffen SS National Legions during World War II, trying to defend Latvia. Since February 23 2000 this day is no longer an official celebration day.

March 15 - March 17 - February 16 - April 16 -- listing of all days