Sun · 27 SepMoon 99%Field Kp 4 · active Quote · Marcus Aurelius Riddle of the day Card of the dayHow today feels →

This day in history

This day in history: 16 March

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

Share

← Previous day15 Mar

Events54

Born on this day · Died on this day351 · 118

Next day →17 Mar

Key facts

523 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 16 March.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2026: A series of Boko Haram bombings leave 26 dead and 146 injured in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Blessed John Amias and Robert Dalby

Christian feast day: Eusebia of Hamage

Christian feast day: Finian Lobhar (Finian the Leper)

Christian feast day: Heribert of Cologne

Christian feast day: Hilarius of Aquileia

Christian feast day: Jean de Brébeuf

Christian feast day: Julian of Antioch

Christian feast day: March 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania)

Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires (Latvia)

Saint Urho's Day (Finnish Americans and Finnish Canadians)

Events

2026A series of Boko Haram bombings leave 26 dead and 146 injured in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

2025A fire breaks out in a nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia, killing at least 59 people and injuring 155 others.

2022A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

2022Mariupol theatre airstrike during the siege of Mariupol.

2021Atlanta 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.

2020The 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 announ

2016A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30.

2016Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18.

2014Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.

2012Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket.

2010The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed in a fire.

2005Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

2003American 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.

2002Sofia 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, conduct

2001A 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.

1995Mississippi 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.

1988Halabja 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.

1988Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

1988The 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.

1985Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991.

1984William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity.

1979Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war.

1978A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.

1978Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors.

1978Supertanker 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.

1977Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.

1969A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.

1968Vietnam War: My Lai massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers are killed by American troops.

1966Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

1962Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappears in the western Pacific Ocean with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.

1945World War II: Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths.

1945World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.

1941Operation Appearance takes place to re-establish British Somaliland.

1939From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

1936Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.

1935Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm itself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1926History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1925An earthquake (measuring around 7.0 magnitude) occurs in Dali, China, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

1924In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.

1918Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites execute 70–100 capitulated Reds.

Born on this day

2001Kyle Hamilton, American football player

2000Jalen Smith, American basketball player

1999Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Canadian baseball player

1997Dominic Calvert-Lewin, English footballer

1997Florian Neuhaus, German footballer

1997Tyrel Jackson Williams, American actor

1996Ajiona Alexus, American actress and singer

1996Ivan Toney, English footballer

1996Tim David, Singaporean-born Australian cricketer

1995Inga Janulevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater

1994Camilo, Colombian singer

1994Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player

1994Sierra McClain, American actress

1993George Ford, English rugby union player

1993Marine Lorphelin, French model and beauty queen, Miss France 2013

1992Brett Davern, American actor

1992Tim Hardaway Jr., American basketball player

1991Admir Mehmedi, Swiss footballer

1991Chris Boswell, American football player

1991Reggie Bullock, American basketball player

1991Wolfgang Van Halen, American bassist

1990Andre Young, American basketball player

1990Josh Johnson, American comedian and writer

1989Blake Griffin, American basketball player

1989Jung So-min, South Korean actress

1989Magalie Pottier, French racing cyclist

1989Theo Walcott, English footballer

1988Agustín Marchesín, Argentinian footballer

1988Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater

1988Jhené Aiko, American singer-songwriter and rapper

1988Jiří Tlustý, Czech ice hockey player

1988Patrick Herrmann, German footballer

1987Fabien Lemoine, French football player

1986Alexandra Daddario, American actress

1986Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer

1986Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater

1986Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler

1986T. J. Jordan, American basketball player

1986Toney Douglas, American basketball player

1985Aleksei Sokirskiy, Russian hammer thrower

Died on this day

2025Émilie Dequenne, Belgian actress (born 1981)

2025Jesse Colin Young, American singer and songwriter (born 1941)

2019Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (born 1937)

2018Louise Slaughter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York (born 1929)

2017Lewis Rowland, American neurologist (born 1925)

2016Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian-American mathematician and poet (born 1924)

2016Frank Sinatra Jr., American singer and actor (born 1944)

2015Don Robertson, American pianist and composer (born 1922)

2015Jack Haley, American basketball player and sportscaster (born 1964)

2014Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (born 1958)

2014Donald Crothers, American chemist and academic (born 1937)

2014Gary Bettenhausen, American race car driver (born 1941)

2014Steve Moore, English author and illustrator (born 1949)

2014Yulisa Pat Amadu Maddy, Sierra Leonean author, poet, and playwright (born 1936)

2013Frank Thornton, English actor (born 1921)

2013Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (born 1939)

2013José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentinian economist and politician, Minister of Economy of Argentina (born 1925)

2013Marina Solodkin, Russian-Israeli academic and politician (born 1952)

2013Ruchoma Shain, American-born teacher and author (born 1914)

2013Yadier Pedroso, Cuban pitcher (born 1986)

2012Donald E. Hillman, American colonel and pilot (born 1918)

2012Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, philosopher, and critic (born 1924)

2011Richard Wirthlin, American religious leader (born 1931)

2010Ksenija Pajčin, Serbian singer, dancer and model (born 1977)

2008Bill Brown, Australian cricketer and soldier (born 1912)

2008Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (born 1942)

2008Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (born 1931)

2007Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (born 1984)

2005Dick Radatz, American baseball player (born 1937)

2005Ralph Erskine, English architect, designed The London Ark (born 1914)

Quote of the day

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

This day in history

Every question has its own page

Journal

What you should know, before others do

Weekly insights. One article. One practice. No noise.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to run the platform. Analytics and marketing cookies are only turned on once you consent — you can change your choice at any time.