Roman Emperor Tiberius dies on March 16, 37 AD and is succeeded by Caligula, his grand-nephew and adopted grandson.
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On This Day in History: March 16
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on March 16th. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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c. 597 BCE
The Babylonian army, led by Nebuchadnezzar II, captures Jerusalem c. 597 BCE and deposes King Jehoiachin exiling him to Babylon. In his place, the Babylonians installed Mattaniah, as a puppet king, changing his name to Zedekiah, a vassal king meant to be loyal to Babylon. Zedekiah would later rebel against Babylon, leading to the final destruction of Jerusalem in 587/586 BCE.
Although there are other dates quoted, this date comes from the Babylonian Chronicle BM 21946, a cuneiform tablet recording the campaigns of Babylonian kings. The chronicle states that:Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and the city surrendered on the 2nd day of the month Adar in Nebuchadnezzar’s 7th regnal year. When converted from the Babylonian calendar to the modern calendar, that date corresponds to March 16, 597 BC.
A mob of rioters, driven by religious intolerance against the Jewish community and greed, massacre on March 16, 1190. an estimated one hundred and fifty Jewish people in York, England More
Edward II of England defeats the rebellious barons at the Battle of Boroughbridge,, on March 16, 1322, capturing his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, who was later executed on the King's orders.
Samoset, an Abenaki leader was the first American Indian known to make contact with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in New England. He walked into the Plymouth Colony on March 16, 1621, and startled them by greeting them in English, saying "Welcome, Englishmen!.
Samoset was visiting from modern-day Maine where he had learned English from fishermen. He went on to become a crucial interpreter, facilitating a peace treaty with the Wampanoag leader Massasoit, and introducing them to Squanto. He went on to help with and provided critical information about the local area, before returning home.
King Gustav III of Sweden is shot by Count Jacob Johan Anckarström on March 16, 1792 during a masked ball at the Opera; motivated by political opposition to the King. He died on March 29.
The U.S. Military Academy is established by Congress at West Point on March 16, 1802, at the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack.
The "Lancet" publishes the first of a series of articles by Doctor Joseph Lister on March 16, 1867; outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery. Lister was a prominent British surgeon and medical scientist who established the study of antisepsis by applying Louis Pasteur's germ theory of fermentation on wound putrefaction.
He promoted the idea of sterilization in surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic. Lister had performed the first antiseptic surgery on August 12, 1865. Before the methods promoted by Lister, mortality rates for major operations were roughly 45-50%; dropping to approximately 15% following the introduction of his antiseptic system in his wards at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Despite the demonstrated results, Lister faced significant skepticism from the medical community for years, with critics arguing his methods were too complex and "fussy". However, his work eventually laid the foundation for modern sterile (aseptic) surgery. More
American Physicist Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts. The 10-foot rocket used gasoline and liquid oxygen to reach an altitude of 41 feet and flew for 2.5 seconds, proving the feasibility of liquid propulsion for future space travel.
Adolf Hitler, orders the rearmament of the country on March 16, 1935, using the justification that Germany needed to be able to defend itself. The order included army, air force and navy expansions and conscription, all in violation of The Treaty of Versailles, which had limited the German army to 100,000 men and did not allowed a draft. More
Vietnamese villagers including women and children are killed by U.S. soldiers in the village of My Lai by members of an army platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley. On September 5, 1969, he was charged with the premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.
His court-martial began on November 1970 and he was convicted on March 1971 of the premeditated murder of twenty-two infants, children, women, and old men, and assault with intent to murder a child of about two years. He was sentenced to be dismissed from the Army and to be confined at hard labor for life. On August 1971, Lieutenant General Albert O. Connor, commanding general of Third U.S. Army, reduced Calley’s sentence to twenty years confinement. In April 1974, the Secretary of the Army, Howard H. Callaway, further reduced Calley’s sentence to ten years confinement, making Calley eligible for parole in 6 months. He was pardoned by President Richard Nixon in 1974 after serving about a third of his 10-year sentence and was released in November 1974 having served three years of house arrest for the murders. More
A referendum was conducted on March 16, 2014 in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (both subdivisions of Ukraine) , after the Russian forces seized control of Crimea. A reported 97 percent of voters in Crimea chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.
The referendum's available choices did not include keeping the status quo of Crimea and Sevastopol as they were at the moment the referendum was hel, not accounting for the fact that The 1992 constitution already granted special powers to the State Council of Crimea, including full sovereign powers to establish relations with other states. The voting was also believed to have been influenced by the presence of the Russian troops.
The referendum was not recognized by the Ukrainian government in Kiev, and only a handful of countries recognized Russia's subsequent annexation of the region.
A gunman attacks massage parlors in the Atlanta area on March 16, 2021, killing eight people, including six Asian women.