16 March 2026 (MIA)

597 BC – Babylonians capture Jerusalem, and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

455 – Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers while training with the bow on the Campus Martius (Rome).

934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.

1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford’s Tower, York.

1244 – Over 200 Cathars are burned after the Fall of Montségur.

1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge take place in the Despenser Wars.

1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.

1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”

1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.

1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.

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 besieged and defeated French garrison during Peninsular War.

1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

1818 – In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.

1861 – Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

1864 – American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.

1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.

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 purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.

1912 – Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott’s South Pole expedition, left his tent to die, 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 Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and lead to a major flood in Pittsburgh.

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.

1940 – First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister.

1942 – The first V-2 rocket test launch. It exploded at lift-off.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.

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.

1958 – The 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 all 107 aboard missing and presumed 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 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.

1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.

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 later killed by his captors.

1987 – The first train on electric power set off on the major section of Skopje – Gevgelija railroad from the Skopje railway station.

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.

1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People’s Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ends the war.

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 died in captivity.

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 on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5000 people and injuring about 10000 people.

1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 wounded. The attack was filmed by news crews.

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.

2003 – Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman involved with the International Solidarity Movement, is killed trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being destroyed by a bulldozer in Rafah.

2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia. 

2020 – COVID-19: France orders a national lockdown, US recommends meetings 10 or less, 6 counties in San Francisco and surrounding counties told to "shelter in place."

2021 – Declassified US intelligence report says Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized efforts to aid re-election of Donald Trump.

2022 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses US Congress remotely pleading for further aid against the Russian invasion

2023 – Emmanuel Macron’s government uses special powers to force through pension reform, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, amid widespread protests.

2025 – A fire caused by pyrotechnic devices at a nightclub hosting a concert in Kochani kills 63 people and injures over 200.