March 16

1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan tribal Sagamore, makes the first visit to the settlers of Plymouth Colony, surprising them when he greets them using the English he had learned from fishermen that sailed along the coast.

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

1916 – U.S. General John J. Pershing commanding the 7th and 10th US Cavalry regiments, crosses the border into Mexico to command the campaign against Pancho Villa.

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

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

1945 – On Iwo Jima, after 23 days of continuous combat, organized Japanese resistance ends, but small pockets of soldiers still fight on for a short time.

1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed Super Constellation, on a charter flight for the U.S. military to the Philippines, disappears in the western Pacific Ocean after a refueling stop on Guam, with all 107 passengers and crew aboard missing and presumed dead.

1966 – Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott, aboard Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first mission to dock with an Agena Target Vehicle, launch from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1968 – At Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khê hamlets of Sơn Mỹ village in Quảng Ngãi Province, Republic of Vietnam, between 300 and 500 men, women, and children are killed by U.S. troops of the 23rd Infantry Division before being stopped by other U.S. troops.

1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah.

1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut.

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

1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment which was officially ratified in 1865.

2003 – Pro-Palestinian American activist Rachel Corrie is run over and killed by a bulldozer while trying stop the demolition of a house in Rafah, Gaza Strip, used as a tunnel entrance for terrorists to enter Israel.

2020 – The 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 of 1929 following the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.

2021 – Robert Aaron Long shoots and kills 8 people and wounds another in attacks on 3 different spas in and around Atlanta, Georgia. At trial he pleads guilty and is sentenced to life without parole.