16th March |
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| 37 The Roman Emperor Tiberius, having retired to Capri, died on a visit to the mainland near the Bay of Naples. | ||
| 1079 Iran adopts solar Hijrah calendar | ||
| 1190 Crusades begin massacre of Jews of York England | ||
| 1190 Jews of York England commit mass sucide rather than submit to baptism | ||
| 1345 Holy spirit glides above fire: "the miracle of Amsterdam" (legend) | ||
| 1517 Pope Leo X signs 5th Council of Lateranen | ||
| 1521 Magelhaes' fleet discovers Zamal (Samar) | ||
| 1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches Philippines | ||
| 1527 Battle at Khanua: Mogol Emperor Babur beats Rajputen | ||
| 1621 Native American chief visits colony of Plymouth Mass | ||
| 1641 General court declares RI a democracy & adopts new constitution | ||
| 1660 English Long Parliament disbands | ||
| 1690 French king Louis XIV sends troops to Ireland | ||
| 1730 Willem Charles Henry Friso installed as viceroy of Drenthe | ||
| 1731 Treaty of Vienna: Emperor Charles VI of England & Netherlands | ||
| 1751 James Madison, American statesman and fourth U.S. president (1809-1817), born; he was the first and only president to exercise his rank as commander-in-chief in an actual battle. | ||
| 1787 Georg Ohm, German physicist, born. He gave his name to the unit which measures electrical resistance. | ||
| 1792 Gustavus III of Sweden was shot by Captain Anckarstroem at a masked ball and died on March 29. His rule was known as the "Gustavian Enlightenment" and he was a great patron of the arts. | ||
| 1802 Law signed to establish US Milt Academy (West Point, NY) | ||
| 1802 US army Corps of Engineers established (2nd time) | ||
| 1802 The United States Congress passed an act establishing a military academy at West Point, New York. | ||
| 1815 Willem I proclaimed king of the Netherlands, including Belgium | ||
| 1822 Composer Gioacchino Rossini marries Spanish soprano | ||
| 1827 Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper for blacks in the United States, was published in New York. | ||
| 1830 London's re-organised police force (Scotland Yard) | ||
| 1833 Susan Hayhurst becomes 1st US woman grad of a pharmacy college | ||
| 1834 HMS Beagle anchors at Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands | ||
| 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" published | ||
| 1851 Spain signed a concordat with the Papacy under which Roman Catholicism became the only authorized faith. It also gave control of education and the press to the Church. | ||
| 1861 Confederate government appoints commissioners to Britain | ||
| 1862 Battle at Pound Gap Kentucky: Confederates separate battles | ||
| 1865 Battle of Averasboro NC (1,500 casualities) | ||
| 1871 1st fertilizer law enacted | ||
| 1872 The first English Football Association (F.A.) Cup final was played at the Kennington Oval in London; the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0. | ||
| 1881 Barnum & Bailey Circus debuts | ||
| 1898 Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British artist and illustrator, died of consumption at age 25. Together with Oscar Wilde, he was prominent in the "Aesthetic" movement toward the end of the century. | ||
| 1900 Sir Arthur Evans finds old city of Knossus | ||
| 1910 Barney Oldfield sets land speed record of 131.7 mph at Daytona | ||
| 1917 Grand Duke Michael, brother of former Czar Nicholas II who had abdicated the day before, refused to take the Russian throne; the provisional government under Prince Georgi Lvov then formally took office. | ||
| 1922 Sultan Fuad I crowned king of Egypt, England recognizes Egypt | ||
| 1926 The first liquid-fuel rocket was successfully launched by Prof. Robert Goddard at Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket traveled 184 feet in 2.5 seconds | ||
| 1926 Jerry Lewis, American star of more than 60 films including "The Nutty Professor" and "The King of Comedy," born. | ||
| 1930 Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, Marques de Estella, general and dictator of Spain (1923-30), died. He was forced to resign in January 1930 after losing the support of the army. | ||
| 1930 USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) floated out to become a natl shrine | ||
| 1933 Hitler names Hjalmar Shaft, president of Bank of Germany | ||
| 1934 Congress passes Migratory Bird Conservation Act | ||
| 1935 Hitler orders German rearmament, violating Versailles Treaty | ||
| 1935 German leader Adolf Hitler renounced the disarmament clauses in the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription. | ||
| 1937 Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, British statesman, died. As British foreign secretary he negotiated the Locarno Pact (1925) and together with U.S. Vice Pres ident Charles Gates Dawes, he won the 1925 Nobel peace prize. | ||
| 1939 Germany occupies Czechoslovakia | ||
| 1939 Hungary annexes republic of Karpato-Ukraine | ||
| 1940 German air raid on British fleet base Scapa Flow | ||
| 1941 Blizzard hits North Dakota & Minnesota killing 60 | ||
| 1941 National Gallery of Art opens in Wash DC | ||
| 1945 Allies secure Iwo Jima | ||
| 1955 President Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war | ||
| 1959 Iraq & USSR sign economic/technical treaty | ||
| 1962 US Super-Constellation disappears above Pacific Ocean, kills 167 | ||
| 1968 My Lai massacre occurs (Vietnam War); 450 die | ||
| 1969 Viasa DC-9 crashes at Maracaibo's Grano de Oro airport, killing 155 | ||
| 1970 New English Bible published | ||
| 1978 Amoco Cadiz spills 223,000 tons of crude oil off French coast | ||
| 1978 Red Brigade kidnaps former premier Aldo Moro in Italy, 5 killed | ||
| 1978 Soyuz 26 returns to Earth | ||
| 1984 Gunmen kidnap William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut | ||
| 1984 South-Africa & Mozambique sign non attack treaty | ||
| 1985 Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson taken hostage in Beirut | ||