597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king
1190 - Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York; many Jews commit suicide rather than submit to baptism.
1249 - The Servite Order is officially approved by Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany.
1322 - Battle of Boroughbridge 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 United States Military Academy West Point is established.
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 proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
1818 - Battle of Cancha Rayada - Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.
1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is first published.
1855 - Bates College in Lewiston, Maine is founded.
1861 - Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
1867 - First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet.
1872 - The Wanderers F.C. won 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, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
1914 - Henriette Caillaux, wife of French minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmet, the editor of Le Figaro.
1916 - 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border to join the hunt of Pancho Villa.
1924 - The free port of Fiume formally annexed by Mussolini's fascist regime.
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 was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
1939 - From Prague Castle Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
1939 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran
1942 - History of Rocketry: First V-2 rocket test launch (exploded at liftoff)
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.
1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
1956 - St. Urho's Day is first celebrated.
1958 - Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 people missing.
1963 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali - 11,000 dead
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 releases its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
1969 - A Venezuelan Airlines DC-9 crashes shortly after takeoff in Maracaibo, Venezuela killing 155
1970 - Publication of complete New English Bible.
1971 - Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway
1972 - The first building of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex is demolished.
1976 - UK Prime Minister, Harold Wilson resigns.
1978 - Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists in Italy and is later killed by his captors.
1978 - Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on 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 radio tower in Germany built of wood.
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).
1995 - Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.
1996 - Göran Persson is elected leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.
1997 - Sandline affair - On Bougainville, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International
1998 - Pope John Paul II apologises for inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
2001 - The only day between 1993 and 2002 when nobody in the United Kingdom killed themselves, according to a health survey.
2003 - Largest coordinated worldwide vigil, as part of the global protests against Iraq war.
2005 - Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control
2005 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, accused of the bombing of the Air India Flight 182 in 1985, are found not guilty on all counts.
2006 - The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.
2007 - Red Nose Day is held in the UK in aid of Comic Relief.

Births

1338 - Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (d. 1401)
1445 - Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss-born preacher (d. 1510)
1473 - Henry IV the Pious, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)
1581 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and writer (d. 1647)
1585 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (d. 1618)
1631 - René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)
1654 - Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (d. 1704)
1750 - Caroline Herschel, German-born English astronomer (d. 1848)
1751 - James Madison, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)
1773 - Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (d. 1836)
1774 - Captain Matthew Flinders, English explorer of the coasts of Australia (d. 1814)
1789 - Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist (d. 1854)
1794 - Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (d. 1881)
1800 - Emperor Ninko of Japan (d. 1846)
1805 - Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philosopher and writer (d. 1861)
1822 - Rosa Bonheur, French realist painter and sculptor (d. 1899)
1834 - James Hector, Scottish geologist (d. 1907)
1839 - René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
1839 - John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (d. 1922)
1840 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (d. 1931)
1846 - Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician (d. 1927)
1851 - Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)
1856 - Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, called Napoleon IV, the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France (d. 1879)
1857 - Charles Harding Firth, British historian (d. 1936)
1859 - Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1906)
1865 - Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player (d. 1953)
1877 - Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1941)
1878 - Clemens August Graf von Galen, German archbishop and cardinal (d. 1946)
1889 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
1890 - Solomon Mikhoels, Soviet actor and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (d. 1948)
1892 - César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (d. 1938)
1892 - James Petrillo, leader of the U.S. musicians union (d. 1984)
1897 - Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)
1883 - Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (d. 1958)
1898 - Viktor Chaim Blerot, French/Swedish philosopher (d. 1972)
1901 - Edward Pawley, American actor (d. 1988)
1902 - Leon Roppolo, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1943)
1903 - Mike Mansfield, American politician, and diplomat (d. 2001)
1905 - Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress (d. 1977)
1905 - Marlin Perkins, American naturalist (d. 1986)
1906 - Henny Youngman, American comedian (d. 1998)
1906 - Francisco Ayala, Spanish writer
1908 - René Daumal, French Surrealist writer (d. 1944)
1908 - Robert Rossen, American film director, screenwriter and producer (d. 1966)
1911 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (d. 1979)
1911 - Pierre Harmel, Belgian politician
1912 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
1916 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
1917 - Samael Aun Weor, Colombian writer (d. 1977)
1918 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
1920 - Leo McKern, Australian actor (d. 2002)
1920 - Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary (d. 2002)
1920 - John Addison, British composer (d. 1998)
1922 - Harding Lemay, American television scriptwriter and playwright
1925 - Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist, co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill (d. 2004)
1926 - Charles Goodell, American politician (d. 1987)
1926 - Jerry Lewis, American comedian
1927 - Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1967)
1927 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York (d. 2003)
1927 - Olga San Juan, American comedian
1928 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
1928 - Karlheinz Böhm, Austrian actor
1929 - Nadja Tiller, Austrian actress
1930 - Tommy Flanagan, American jazz pianist (d. 2001)
1931 - Betty Johnson, American singer
1932 - Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
1932 - Walter Cunningham, American astronaut
1933 - Sandy Weill, American financier and philanthropist
1934 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor-General of Canada (d. 2002)
1936 - Fred Neil, American singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
1937 - Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist (d. 1996)
1939 - Carlos Bilardo, Argetinian football coach
1940 - Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian film director
1940 - Jan Pronk, Dutch politician
1941 - Robert Guéï, ruler of Côte d'Ivoire (d. 2002)
1941 - Chuck Woolery, American game show host
1942 - James Soong, Taiwanese politician
1942 - Jerry Jeff Walker, American musician
1942 - Roger Crozier, Canadian ice hockey goaltender (d. 1996)
1943 - Ursula Goodenough, Evolutionary Scholar, Cell Biologist
1946 - Michael Basman, English chess master
1946 - Hubert Soudant, Dutch conductor
1948 - Michael Bruce, American musician. Guitarist and keyboard player for Alice Cooper
1948 - Margaret Weis, American author
1948 - Richard Desjardins, Quebec singer, songwriter and film director
1949 - Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor
1949 - Victor Garber, Canadian actor
1950 - Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
1951 - Joe DeLamielleure, American football player
1952 - Philippe Kahn, French-American entrepreneur
1953 - Isabelle Huppert, French actress
1953 - Richard Stallman, American free software activist
1954 - Jimmy Nail, British actor and singer
1954 - Nancy Wilson, American guitarist, singer, and actress (Heart)
1955 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
1955 - Bruno Barreto, Brazilian film director
1958 - Jorge Ramos, Mexican TV anchor
1959 - Flavor Flav, American rapper
1959 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
1960 - Duane Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 - Todd McFarlane, Canadian cartoonist, comic book writer, artist, and media entrepreneur
1961 - Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league footballer
1963 - Jimmy Degrasso, American musician, drummer
1963 - Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (d. 2002)
1964 - Patty Griffin, American singer and songwriter
1964 - Gore Verbinski, American movie director
1964 - Pascal Richard, Swiss cyclist
1965 - Richard Daniel Roman, English songwriter and record producer
1967 - Lauren Graham, American actress
1971 - Alan Tudyk, American actor
1974 - Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer
1974 - Fotini Vavatsi, Greek archer
1976 - Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player
1977 - Donal Óg Cusack, Irish hurler
1979 - Edison Méndez, Ecuadorian footballer
1979 - Leena Peisa, Finnish musician (Lordi)
1980 - Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player
1980 - Todd Heap, American football player
1981 - Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
1985 - Nicole Trunfio, Australian supermodel
1986 - Ken Doane, American professional wrestler
1987 - Tiiu Kuik, Estonian model
1989 - Theo Walcott, English footballer
1990 - James Bulger, British murder victim (d. 1993)
1994 - Sierra McClain, American actress and singer

Deaths

37 - Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, Roman Emperor (b. 46 BC)
455 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (b. 419)
1021 - Heribert of Cologne, Archbishop of Cologne and Chancellor of Emperor Otto III
1037 - Robert I, Archbishop of Rouen
1072 - Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop
1322 - Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1276)
1410 - John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (b. 1373)
1457 - László Hunyadi, Hungarian statesman and warrior (b. 1433)
1485 - Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (b. 1456)
1559 - Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)
1649 - Jean de Brébeuf, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)
1679 - John Leverett, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)
1721 - James Craggs the Elder, English politician (b. 1657)
1736 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (b. 1710)
1737 - Benjamin Wadsworth, President of Harvard University (b. 1670)
1738 - George Bähr, German architect (b. 1666)
1747 - Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (b. 1690)
1888 - Hippolyte Carnot, French statesman (b. 1801)
1890 - Zorka of Montenegro, Princess of Serbia (b. 1864)
1898 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (b. 1872)
1899 - Joseph Medill, mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
1903 - Roy Bean, American jurist
1914 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)
1926 - Sergeant Stubby, decorated World War I dog
1930 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish dictator (b. 1870)
1935 - John James Richard Macleod, Scottish-born physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
1935 - Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-born chess player (b. 1886)
1936 - Marguerite Durand, French journalist and feminist (b. 1864)
1940 - Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
1945 - Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
1955 - Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter (b. 1914)
1957 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (b. 1876)
1968 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (b. 1895)
1970 - Tammi Terrell, American singer (b. 1946)
1971 - Thomas Dewey, American presidential candidate (b. 1902)
1975 - Richard W. DeKorte, American politician (b. 1936)
1975 - T-Bone Walker, American musician (b. 1910)
1977 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (b. 1917)
1979 - Jean Monnet, French politician (b. 1888)
1980 - Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (b. 1898)
1983 - Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)
1983 - Fred Rose, Canadian politician (b. 1907)
1984 - John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)
1985 - Eddie Shore, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
1992 - Yves Rocard, French physicist (b. 1903)
1992 - Roger Lemelin, Quebec novelist and television writer (b. 1919)
1993 - Johnny Cymbal, American singer and producer (b. 1945)
1996 - Charlie Barnett, American actor (b. 1954)
1998 -

March 16

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths