March 16

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

Events

• 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.
• 1900 - Sir Arthur Evans discovers 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.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre American troops kills scores of women and children.
• 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 - Iraq attacks the Kurdish town of Halabjah[?] with mix of poison gas and nerve agents killing 5000.
• 1993 - A blizzard on the east coast of the United States kills 184.
• 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[?]. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
• 2003 - Largest co-ordinated worldwide vigil, as part of the global protests against war on Iraq.

Births

• 1751 - James Madison, 4th President of the United States (+ 1836)
• 1789 - Georg Simon Ohm[?], physicist and discoverer of Ohm's law (+ 1854)
• 1829 - Rene Francois Prudhomme[?], laureate of the first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901
• 1878 - Clemens August Graf von Galen[?], archbishop of Münster and cardinal (+ 1946)
• 1902 - Leon Roppolo, jazz clarinetist (+ 1943)
• 1905 - Elisabeth Flickenschildt[?], actress (+ 1977)
• 1906 - Henny Youngman, comedian (+ 1998)
• 1911 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (+ 1979)
• 1912 - Pat Nixon[?], actress, First Lady (+ 1993)
• 1918 - Frederick Reines, physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics)
• 1920 - Leo McKern, actor (+ 2002)
• 1926 - Jerry Lewis, comedian
• 1927 - Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut
• 1927 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator from New York
• 1929 - Nadja Tiller[?], actress
• 1934 - Ray Hnatyshyn, former Governor-General of Canada
• 1941 - Bernardo Bertolucci, film director
• 1949 - Erik Estrada, actor
• 1953 - Isabelle Huppert, actress
• 1953 - Richard Stallman, Free software proponent
• 1954 - Nancy Wilson[?], guitarist, singer, actress
• 1955 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
• 1959 - Flavor Flav[?], rap musician

Deaths

• 455 - Valentinian III, Roman emperor
• 1736 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, composer
• 1903 - Judge Roy Bean[?], jurist, Old West pioneer
• 1940 - Selma Lagerlöf, writer
• 1957 - Constantin Brancusi, sculptor
• 1970 - Tammi Terrell[?], singer
• 1971 - Thomas Dewey, candidate for President of the United States in 1944 and 1948
• 1975 - T-Bone Walker, musician

Holidays and observances

• The first day of the Bacchanalia in ancient Rome

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