16 March on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

The first siege of Jerusalem by the Neo-Babylonian Empire ends with the city surrendering to king Nebuchadnezzar II.

Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated while practising on the Campus Martius on behalf of Petronius Maximus.

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.

Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York.

Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burnt to death after the Fall of Montségur.

Despenser War: A royalist army defeated troops loyal to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in the Battle of Boroughbridge, which allowed King Edward II of England to hold on to power for another five years.

Amidst the Red Turban Rebellions, Han Lin'er, a claimed descendant of Emperor Huizong of Song, is proclaimed emperor of the restored Song dynasty in Bozhou.

Samoset, an Abenaki, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."

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

The Royal Welch Fusiliers, one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.

The Dutch bombard Givet during the Nine Years' War.

American Revolutionary War: Spain captured the island of Roatán from England off the coast of what is now Honduras.

King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.

The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

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

The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.

The Wanderers F.C. win 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.

In Melbourne, the representatives of five colonies adopt a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.[page needed]

The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.

Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites execute 70–100 capitulated Reds.

In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.

An earthquake (measuring around 7.0 magnitude) occurs in Dali, China, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm itself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

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

From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

Operation Appearance takes place to re-establish British Somaliland.

World War II: Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths.

World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.

African American civil rights activists in Savannah, Georgia, conducted a sit-in, commencing the Savannah Protest Movement.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappears in the western Pacific Ocean with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.

Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

Vietnam War: My Lai massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers are killed by American troops.

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

Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.

A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.

Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors.

Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.

Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war.

William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity.

Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991.

Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.

Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA, are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.

Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China kill 108 people and injure 38 others, the biggest mass murder in China in decades.

Sofia Gubaidulina's Johannes-Ostern is premiered, together with her earlier Johannes-Passion, at Hamburg's Michaeliskirche, performed by soloists, choir and orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre combined with NDR choir and orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home.

Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed in a fire.

Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket.

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

Natalia Kills and Willy Moon were fired as judges on the second series of The X Factor New Zealand, following public backlash over comments they made to a contestant during the first live show.

A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30.

Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.

Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day.

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

Mariupol theatre airstrike during the siege of Mariupol.

A fire breaks out in a nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia, killing at least 59 people and injuring 155 others.

A series of Boko Haram bombings leave 26 dead and 146 injured in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (died 1836)

Richard Stallman, American computer scientist and programmer

Sully Prudhomme, French poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1907)

Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian economist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Norway, 13th Secretary General of NATO

Georg Ohm, German physicist and mathematician (died 1854)

Mark Carney, Canadian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Canada

Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (died 2017)

Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2018)

Josef Mengele, German physician, SS captain and mass-murderer (died 1979)

Alexandra Daddario, American actress

Isabelle Huppert, French actress

Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (died 1848)

Frederick Reines, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998)

Theo Walcott, English footballer

César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (died 1938)

Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and cosmonaut (died 1967)

Pat Nixon, American teacher, First Lady of the United States (died 1993)

Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and inventor (died 1906)

Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (died 1814)

Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and academic

Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (died 1899)

Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (died 2004)

Lauren Graham, American actress and producer

Traudl Junge, German secretary (died 2002)

Blake Griffin, American basketball player

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, English footballer

Zhu Chen, Qatari chess Grandmaster

Anna Atkins, English botanist and photographer (died 1871)

Emperor Ninkō of Japan (died 1846)

Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (died 1931)

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (died 2010)

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss lawyer and politician

Gore Verbinski, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Sienna Guillory, English model and actress

Admir Mehmedi, Swiss footballer

Carlos Bilardo, Argentinian footballer and manager

Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (died 1757)

Victor Garber, Canadian actor and singer

Alan Tudyk, American actor

The Xuande Emperor, ruler of Ming China (died 1435)

Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (died 1835)

Ivan Toney, English footballer

Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (died 1879)

Clemens August Graf von Galen, German cardinal (died 1946)

Francisco Ayala, Spanish sociologist, author, and translator (died 2009)

Aladár Gerevich, Hungarian fencer (died 1991)

Kunihiko Kodaira, Japanese mathematician (died 1997)

Walter Cunningham, American astronaut (died 2023)

Flavor Flav, American rapper and actor

Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player

Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (died 1927)

Teresa Berganza, Spanish soprano and actress (died 2022)

Jerome Flynn, English actor and singer

Florian Neuhaus, German footballer

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (died 2003)

Jhené Aiko, American singer-songwriter and rapper

Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1966)

Christa Ludwig, German opera singer (died 2021)

Raymond Vahan Damadian, Armenian-American inventor, invented the MRI (died 2022)

Amos Tversky, Israeli-American psychologist and academic (died 1996)