Friday, March 16, 2012

16th of March

Today is the 75th day of the year, with only 290 days remaining.

37 - Eccentric ruler, Caligula, becomes Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.

1621 - Samoset, a Mohegan Indian, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome Englishmen! My name is Samoset!"

1802 - The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

1861 -Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

1865 - The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the American Civil War.

1916 - John J. Pershing's 7th and 10th cavalry regiments, crossed the border and join the hunt for Pancho Villa.

1926 - Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1935 - Adolf Hitler orders Germany, to rearm herself in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.  Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht,

1940 - James Isbister, is the first person killed in a German bombing raid during World War II.  It occurs during a raid on Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands.

1942 - The first V-2 rocket test launch.  It explodes at lift-off.

1945 - The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.

1945 - In only 20 minutes, 90% of Wurzberg, Germany is destroyed by RAF bombers.  It is estimated that 5,000 people are killed.

1958 - The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.

1963 - Mount Agung erupts on Bai, killing 11,000 inhabitants.

1968 - In the My Lai Massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers are killed by American troops.

1968 - General motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut.  He is released five years, eight months, and eighteen days later.

1988 - Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

1998 - The Kurdish town of Halbjah in Iraq, is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5000 people and injuring nearly 10,000.

1995 - Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.

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