On March 16, 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" was first published.
In 37, Roman emperor Tiberius died; he was succeeded by Caligula.
In 1521, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.
In 1751, James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.
In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
In 1827, Freedom's Journal, the first black newspaper in America, was published in New York.
In 1836, the Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
In 1915, the Federal Trade Commission began operations.
In 1926, rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler decided to break the military terms set by the Treaty of Versailles by ordering the rearming of Germany.
In 1966, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott docked their Gemini 8 space vehicle with an Agena craft, a first in orbital history.
In 1968, the My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians was carried out by U.S. Army troops; estimates of the death toll vary between 347 and 504. The same day, in Washington, D.C., Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1978, Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him. The U.S. Senate approved the first of two Panama Canal pacts, guaranteeing neutrality of the canal after Panama assumed control at the end of 1999.
In 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by terrorists (he was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985).
In 1985, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in Dec. 1991.
AP photographer Donald Mell witnessed the abduction.In 1991, Baghdad claimed its troops had crushed an uprising in southern Iraq that began in the wake of the Gulf War.
In 1994, the International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea barred its inspectors from checking one of the nation's seven nuclear sites.
In 1998, in a 14-page statement, the Vatican apologized for not doing more to prevent the killing of millions of Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
In 1999, The Dow Jones industrial average briefly topped the 10,000 level, reaching a high of 10,001.78 before retreating. The entire 20-member European Commission resigned following publication of a critical report on sloppy management and cronyism. The Nebraska Cornhuskers beat Chicago State 50-3 in an NCAA baseball game.
In 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray said he found no credible evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton or senior White House officials had sought FBI background files of Republicans. Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the Enola Gay bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died in Windermere, Fla. at age 81.
In 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people. Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza.
In 2004, Hans Blix, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector in Iraq, criticized the Bush administration for having "a set mind" about going to war with Iraq, calling the search for weapons of mass destruction an old-fashioned witch hunt. China declared victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had "stamped out" all its known cases. Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in nine days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 22 seconds. [How many of the dogs died? — Ed.]
In 2005, a judge in Redwood City, Calif. sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci. Norway's Robert Sorlie won his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in one of the closest races in years.
In 2006, Iraq's recently elected 275-member parliament convened for the first time in Baghdad but did little and adjourned after 30 minutes. [U.S. imposed democracy in action! — Ed.]
In 2007, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who admitted he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, revealed that he personally executed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl the following year in Pakistan. [He then confessed to the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, & being one of the "real killers" in the Nicole Brown Simpson-Ronald Goldman murder case. — Ed.]
In 2008, protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces; the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.
In 2009, joining a wave of public anger, President Barack Obama blistered insurance giant AIG for "recklessness and greed" for handing its executives $165 million in bonuses after taking billions in federal bailout money. Austrian Josef Fritzl pleaded guilty at the start of his trial to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children. (Two days later, Fritzl pleaded guilty to the remaining charges against him, including negligent homicide; he was sentenced to life in a psychiatric ward.)
Today's Birthdays: Comedian-director Jerry Lewis is 84. Country singer Ray Walker (The Jordanaires) is 76. Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci is 69. Game show host Chuck Woolery is 69. Singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker is 68. Country singer Robin Williams is 63. Actor Erik Estrada is 61. Actor Victor Garber is 61. Actress Kate Nelligan is 59. Country singer Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) is 59. Rock singer-musician Nancy Wilson (Heart) is 56. Golfer Hollis Stacy is 56. Actress Isabelle Huppert is 55. Actor Clifton Powell is 54. Football Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome is 54. Rapper-actor Flavor Flav (Public Enemy) is 51. Rock musician Jimmy DeGrasso is 47. Folk singer Patty Griffin is 46. Actress Lauren Graham is 43. Actor Judah Friedlander (TV: "30 Rock") is 41. Actor Alan Tudyk is 39. Actor Tim Kang (TV: "The Mentalist") is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Blu Cantrell is 34. Actress Brooke Burns is 32. Rock musician Wolfgang Van Halen is 19.
The Dead Born On This Date: German physicist Georg Ohm, a pioneer in the study of electricity (1789); naturalist Marlin Perkins (1905); comedian Henny Youngman (1906); former U.S. first lady Pat Nixon (1912); actors Mercedes McCambridge (1916) & Leo McKern (1920) former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. (1927).
March 16 In Entertainment
In 1969, "1776," a musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, opened on Broadway.
In 1970, singer Tammi Terrell died of a brain tumor in Philadelphia at age 24. The tumor was diagnosed three years earlier when she collapsed during a concert.
In 1971, Simon and Garfunkel were the first winners of the so-called "Triple Crown" of the Grammys. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was named song and record of the year, and the album by the same name won album of the year. It was also the first year the Grammys were televised live.
In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry moved from the Ryman Auditorium to a new facility at the Opryland complex.
In 1969, "1776," a musical about the Declaration of Independence, opened on Broadway.
In 1991, seven members of Reba McEntire's band and her road manager were killed when their plane crashed after taking off from an airport in San Diego.
In 1992, a state court in Los Angeles awarded humorist Art Buchwald and producer Alain Bernheim $900,000 from Paramount Studios for Buchwald's idea for the movie "Coming to America," which was a hit for comedian Eddie Murphy.
A thought for the day: Art Buchwald said: "People are broad-minded. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman but if a man doesn't drive, there's something wrong with him." [We're not a wife-beater, but the rest applies to us. — Ed.]
In 1993, the long-awaited collaboration between former Whitesnake singer David Coverdale and guitarist Jimmy Page was released by Geffen Records.
In 2005, a jury in Los Angeles acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, four years earlier. (A civil court jury later ordered Blake to pay Bakley's four children $30 million, an award that an appeals court subsequently cut in half; Blake has declared bankruptcy.)
In 2006, Michael Jackson paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to employees at his Neverland Ranch in California, then shut down the ranch. He paid them back wages to avoid a lawsuit threatened by California officials.
In 2008, actor Ivan Dixon died in Charlotte, N.C., at age 76.
In 2009, British actress Natasha Richardson, 45, was fatally injured in a skiing accident at a resort in Quebec; she died two days later at a Manhattan hospital.
Thought for Today: "Nearly all our disasters come from a few fools having the 'courage of their convictions.'" — Coventry Patmore, English poet (1823-1896). [We are in complete agreement w/ this — Ed.]
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