On This Day for March 16 - My Lai Massacre, Caroline Herschel is featured, and more

Created: 2020-03-16 10:03 Updated: 2020-03-16 10:03 Notebook: On this Day in History

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March 16

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

1750

Caroline Herschel

FEATURED EVENT

1968

My Lai Massacre

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2014: In a popular referendum, Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation; despite opposition from numerous countries, Russia later annexed the region.

1995: Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment—which abolished slavery—130 years after it was added to the U.S. Constitution; however, Mississippi's ratification was not made official until 2013, when the state notified the U.S. Archivist. [ Take our amendments to the U.S. Constitution quiz .]

1926: American comedian Jerry Lewis, whose unrestrained comic style made him one of the most popular performers of the 1950s and '60s, was born. [ Discover how much you know about actors .]

Colour guard of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, during morning exercises.

1802: The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York—one of the oldest service academies in the world—was originally founded as a training centre for the U.S. Corps of Engineers .

1751: James Madison, the fourth U.S. president and one of the Founding Fathers , was born in Virginia.

1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sailing under the Spanish flag on his circumnavigation of the globe, reached the Philippines, securing the first alliance in the Pacific Islands for Spain . [ Test your knowledge of human exploration .]

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1911

Josef Mengele
German physician

1926

Jerry Lewis
American comedian

1751

James Madison
president of United States

1927

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov
Soviet cosmonaut

1953

Richard Stallman
American computer programmer