By Day: Historical Events on March 16th

Babylonians capture Jerusalem and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem begins, leading to the eventual destruction of the First Temple.

Maginulfo is elected as the Antipope Sylvester IV, challenging Pope Paschal II.

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: Christian forces decisively defeat the Almohads in Spain.

Louis X becomes King of France upon the death of his father, King Philip IV.

Battle of Boroughbridge: Edward II of England defeats rebellious barons, capturing Thomas of Lancaster.

Battle of Castagnaro: Verona is captured by Padua in a battle of the War of the Venetian Succession.

The Acts of Union 1707 are passed, uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

British privateers assault French and Spanish ships in Cartagena, Colombia, in the Battle of Cartagena.

King Gustav III of Sweden is shot by Count Jacob Johan Anckarström during a masked ball at the Opera; he died on March 29'.

The U.S. Military Academy established by Congress at West Point, the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack.

The "Lancet" publishes an article by Doctor Joseph Lister which outlined the discovery of antiseptic surgery. Lister was a prominent British surgeon and medical scientist who established the study of antisepsis. Applying Louis Pasteur's germ theory of fermentation on wound putrefaction. He promoted the idea of sterilization in surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic. Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery on August 12, 1865. More

Physicist Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.

Adolf Hitler orders the rearmament of Germany including military conscription in violation of The Treaty of Versailles. More

Vietnamese villagers including women and children are killed by U.S. soldiers in the village of My Lai by members of an army platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley. On September 1969, he was charged with the premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. His court-martial began on November 1970 and he was convicted on March 1971 of the premeditated murder of twenty-two infants, children, women, and old men, and assault with intent to murder a child of about two years. He was sentenced to be dismissed from the Army and to be confined at hard labor for life. On August 1971, Lieutenant General Albert O. Connor, commanding general of Third U.S. Army, reduced Calley’s sentence to twenty years confinement. In April 1974, the Secretary of the Army, Howard H. Callaway, further reduced Calley’s sentence to ten years confinement, making Calley eligible for parole in 6 months. He was released in November 1974 having served three years of house arrest for the murders. More

Israel officially withdraws from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation.

A gunman attacks massage parlors in the Atlanta area, killing eight people, including six Asian women