History of the Day for:
March 16
- 1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where natives killed him the following month.
- 1751: James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.
- 1802: Congress established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
- 1836: The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
- 1850: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" was first published.
- 1882: The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.
- 1915: The Federal Trade Commission was organized.
- 1916: The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
- 1935: Adolf Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by ordering German rearmament.
- 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.
- 1963: Peter, Paul and Mary released the single "Puff The Magic Dragon."
- 1968: The My Lai Massacre took place during the Vietnam War when U.S. troops commanded by Lt. William L. Calley Jr. killed as many as 400 Vietnamese men, women and children.
- 1984: William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in captivity.
- 1985: Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991.
- 1988: Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, White House aide Oliver L. North, retired Air Force Major General Richard V. Secord and Secord's business partner, Albert Hakim, were indicted on charges relating to the Iran-Contra affair.
- 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.