16 March

Events

• 597 BC – Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.
• 37 – Caligula becomes Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.
• 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York.
• 1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the First War of Scottish Independence.
• 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.
• 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
• 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
• 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
• 1812 – Battle of Badajoz (March 16 – April 6) – British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.
• 1815 – Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in theNetherlands.
• 1818 – Second Battle of Cancha Rayada – Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.
• 1861 – Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
• 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough begins as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
• 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. wins the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
• 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
• 1912 – Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
• 1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
• 1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.
• 1926 – History of Rocketry: 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. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
• 1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
• 1939 – Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
• 1942 – The first V-2 rocket test launch. It explodes at lift-off.
• 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
• 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killed.
• 1950 – Communist Czechoslovakia's ministry of foreign affairs asks nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.
• 1952 – In Cilaos, Réunion, 1,870 millimetres (74 in) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
• 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
• 1959 – EUROAVIA, the European Association of Aerospace students is founded, which is the very first initiative towards European cooperation in Aerospace.
• 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 missing.
• 1963 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing 11,000.
• 1966 – Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
• 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
• 1971 – Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway.
• 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
• 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
• 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and is later killed by his captors.
• 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.
• 1983 – Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
• 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 is 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 is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, killing 5000 people and injuring about 10000 people.
• 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
• 1997 – Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.
• 1998 – Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
• 2003 – The largest coordinated worldwide vigil takes place, as part of the global protests against Iraq war.
• 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
• 2007 – The first three-way tie occurs on Jeopardy!