TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 16
37 The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
432 Saint Patrick, aged about 16 is captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date)
461 Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor.
1692 William Penn is deprived of his governing powers.
1762 The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City.
1863 Confederate women riot in Salisbury, NC to protest the lack of flour and salt in the South.
1865 The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
1874 Hawaii signs a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the United States.
1884 In Otay, California, John Joseph Montgomery made the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air glider flight in the United States.
1886 20 Blacks were killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi.
1905 Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper detailing his Quantum Theory of Light, one of the foundations of modern physics
1910 The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later.
1913 Greek King George I is killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeds him.
1922 Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India.
1931 Nevada Legalizes Gambling
1939 Georgia finally ratifies the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal government. Connecticut and Massachusetts, the only other states to hold out, also ratify the Bill of Rights in this year.
1941 The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington. D.C. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the gallery, which today houses one of the world’s finest art collections.
1942 Gen. Douglas MacArthur became supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.
1942 The third military draft begins in the United States.
1942 Bełżec Concentration Camp opens with the transport of 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews
1950 Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it “californium”. It is also known as element 98.
1965 Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to spacewalk when he exits his Voskhod 2 space capsule while in orbit around the Earth.
1970 The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
1972 U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
1973 The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1980 John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( also known as The Killer Clown ) found guilty of the murders of 33 boys and young men
1981 The United States discloses biological weapons tests in Texas in 1966.
1992 Apartheid in South Africa comes to an end In a referendum, 68.7% of white South Africans voted for an abolishment of racial segregation in the country.
1999 A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
2000 In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.
2003 President Bush delivered an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein: leave Iraq within 48 hours or face an attack.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
