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.
• 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 - The United States Military Academy West Point is established.
• 1815 - Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
• 1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is first published.
• 1872 - The first ever FA Cup Final is played and is won by Wanderers F.C.
• 1900 - Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site 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 - Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers.
• 1956 - St. Urho's Day is first celebrated.
• 1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 people missing.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers -- men, women, and children -- are killed by American troops.
• 1969 - A Venezuelan Airlines DC-9 crashes shortly after takeoff in Maracaibo, Venezuela killing 155
• 1972 - The first building of the 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 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.
• 1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He would 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 - Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq was attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, killing thousands of people.
• 1993 - A blizzard on the east coast of the United States kills 184 (see Great Blizzard of 1993).
• 1994 - Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan.
• 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.
• 2880 - The predicted closest approach to Earth of Near-Earth object 1950 DA which might impact Earth.

Births

• 1585 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
• 1750 - Caroline Herschel, a German-born English astronomer, (d. 1848)
• 1751 - James Madison, 4th President of the United States, (d. 1836)
• 1789 - Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist and discoverer of Ohm's law, (d. 1854)
• 1829 - René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme, French writer, laureate of the first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, (d. 1907)
• 1834 - James Hector, Scottish geologist, (d. 1907)
• 1878:
  • Clemens August Graf von Galen, German archbishop of Münster and cardinal, (d. 1946)
  • Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran (d. 1941)
• 1889 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
• 1901 - Edward Pawley, American actor (d. 1988)
• 1902 - Leon Roppolo, American jazz clarinetist, (d. 1943)
• 1903 - Mike Mansfield, American politician, diplomat (d. 2001)
• 1905:
  • Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress, (d. 1977)
  • Marlin Perkins, American naturalist (d. 1986)
• 1906 - Henny Youngman, American comedian, (d. 1998)
• 1911 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal, (d. 1979)
• 1912 - Pat Nixon, actress, First Lady, (d. 1993)
• 1916 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
• 1918 - Frederick Reines, American physicist (1995 Nobel Prize in Physics), (d. 1998)
• 1920 - Leo McKern, British actor (d. 2002)
• 1926 - Jerry Lewis, American comedian
• 1928 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
• 1927:
  • Vladimir Komarov, Russian cosmonaut, (d. 1967)
  • Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator from New York, (d. 2003)
• 1929 - Nadja Tiller , German actress
• 1932:
  • Don Blasingame, a MLB All-Star and Japanese baseball manager (d. 2005)
  • Walter Cunningham, astronaut
• 1934 - Ray Hnatyshyn, former Governor-General of Canada, (d. 2002)
• 1940:
  • Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian film director
  • Chuck Woolery, game show host
• 1942:
  • James Soong, Taiwanese politician
  • Jerry Jeff Walker, American country musician
• 1943 - Arnold Raphel , American diplomat (d. 1988)
• 1948 - Margaret Weis, science fiction author
• 1949:
  • Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor
  • Victor Garber, Canadian actor
• 1950 - Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
• 1952 - Philippe Kahn, French/American entrepreneur
• 1953:
  • Isabelle Huppert, French actress
  • Richard Stallman, Free Software activist & founder of GNU
• 1954 - Nancy Wilson, guitarist, singer, actress (Heart)
• 1955 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
• 1959:
  • Flavor Flav, rap musician
  • Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
• 1963 - Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (d. 2002)
• 1964 - Patty Griffin, American singer, songrwriter
• 1967 - Lauren Graham, American actress
• 1980 - Todd Heap, American football player
• 1990 - James Bulger, abduction/murder victim, (d. 1993)
• 1992 - Carlie Brucia, kidnap/murder victim, (d. 2004)

Deaths

• 37 - Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar ,second Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (b. 46 B.C.E.)
• 455 - Valentinian III, Roman emperor, (b. 419)
• 1736 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian 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, Swedish writer, (b. 1858)
• 1945 - Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
• 1957 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor, (b. 1876)
• 1970 - Tammi Terrell, American Motown 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)
• 1983 - Arthur Godfrey, American actor, television host
• 2000 - Durward Kirby , American television announcer
• 2001 - Norma MacMillan, American voice actress
• 2003 - Rachel Corrie, American political activist (b. 1979)
• 2003 - Major Ronald Ferguson, father of Sarah, Duchess of York

Holidays and observances

• Latvia - 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.
• St. Urho's Day - the fictional patron saint of Finnish immigrants to the US, created by Richard Mattson in 1956
• The first day of the Bacchanalia in ancient Rome

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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