History Of 16 March
1907 – The world’s largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.
1908 – China released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
1909 – Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.
1913 – The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.
1915 – The Federal Trade Commission began operation.
1917 – Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne.
1918 – Tallulah Bankhead made her New York acting debut with a role in “The Squab Farm.”
1926 – Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.
1928 – The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.
1935 – Adolf Hitler ordered German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.
1939 – Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
1945 – Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.
1946 – Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas was freed after spending a year in jail.
1946 – India called British Premier Attlee’s independence off contradictory and a propaganda move.
1947 – Martial law was withdrawn in Tel Aviv.
1950 – Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine.
1964 – Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were reinstated to the NFL after an 11-month suspension for betting on football games.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.
1968 – U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.
1978 – Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas. Moro was later murdered by the group.
1982 – Russia announced they would halt their deployment of new nuclear missiles in Western Europe.
1984 – Mozambique and South Africa signed a pact banning the support for one another’s internal enemies.
1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.
1985 – “A Chorus Line” played its 4,000 performance.
1985 – Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken a hostage in Beirut. He was released on December 4, 1991.
1987 – “Bostonia” magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card.
1988 – Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North, Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council, and two others for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
1988 – Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway. Thompson, known as the “Speed King,” set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.
1989 – In the U.S.S.R., the Central Committee approved Gorbachev’s agrarian reform plan.
1989 – The Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party’s 100 members to the Congress of People’s Deputies.
1993 – In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.
1994 – Tonya Harding pled guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.
1994 – Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.
1995 – NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.
1998 – Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.
1999 – The 20 members of the European Union’s European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.
2001 – A series of bomb blasts that took place in the city of Shijiazhuang, China killed 108 people and injured 38 others, was the biggest mass murder in China in decades.
2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah trying to obstruct the demolition of a home by being run over by a bulldozer.
2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.
2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54.
2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- 1981 – Curtis Granderson, American baseball player
- 1981 – Julien Mazet, French road bicycle racer
- 1981 – Fabiana Murer, Brazilian pole vaulter
- 1982 – Miguel Comminges, Guadeloupean footballer
- 1982 – Riley Cote, Canadian ice hockey player, and coach
- 1982 – Tommy Hansen, Czech actor
- 1982 – Jesús Del Nero, Spanish road bicycle racer
- 1982 – Brian Wilson, American baseball player
- 1983 – Stephen Drew, American baseball player
- 1983 – Brandon League, American baseball player
- 1983 – Nicolas Rousseau, French road bicycle racer
- 1983 – Tramon Williams, American football player
- 1984 – Levi Brown, American football player
- 1984 – Aisling Bea, Irish comedienne, and actress
- 1984 – Sharon Cherop, Kenyan long-distance runner
- 1984 – Michael Ennis, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Hosea Gear, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Brandon Prust, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Teddy Atine-Venel, the French athlete
- 1985 – Eddy Lover, Panamanian singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Aleksei Sokirskiy, Russian hammer thrower
- 1986 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
- 1986 – Toney Douglas, American basketball player
- 1986 – Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler
- 1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player
- 1986 – Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
- 1986 – Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater
- 1987 – Fabien Lemoine, French football player
- 1988 – Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater
- 1988 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1989 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
- 1989 – Jung So-min, South Korean actress
- 1989 – Magalie Pottier, French racing cyclist
- 1989 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
- 1990 – Andre Young, American basketball player
- 1991 – Reggie Bullock, American basketball player
- 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bassist
- 1993 – George Ford, English rugby union player
- 1993 – Marine Lorphelin, Miss France
- 1994 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player
- 1995 – Inga Janulevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater
- 1997 – Florian Neuhaus, German football player
- 1999 – Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Canadian-born Dominican baseball player