Historical Events on March 16

On This Day in History: March 16

1. In 1079 Iran adopted the Solar Hijri calendar, which is still in use today.
2. In 1322, the Battle of Boroughbridge took place during the First War of Scottish Independence.
3. In 1527, the Mughal army led by Babur defeated the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga in the Battle of Khanwa, in which Mughal artillery played a decisive role. After the victory, Babur ordered a display of the heads of the enemies.
4. In 1690, French King Louis XIV sent troops to Ireland to support the Jacobite movement.
5. In 1792, Denmark became the first country to ban the transatlantic slave trade, although this ban came into effect in 1803, causing a boom in the slave trade. During this period, an estimated 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported to the West Indies under the Danish flag.
6. In 1827, the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the US, Freedom’s Journal, began publication in New York City.
7. In 1867, Joseph Lister’s revolutionary article on antiseptic surgery was first published in The Lancet.
8. In 1882, the U.S. Senate ratified the Geneva Convention of 1864, officially recognizing the International Red Cross and the American Red Cross.
9. In 1907 New South Wales and Western Australia played their first first-class cricket matches.
10. In 1921 Britain signed a trade agreement with the Soviet Union and sent a trade mission to Moscow, in defiance of the United States’ refusal to sign a similar agreement that same month.
11. In 1926, Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket, traveling 184 feet (56 m).
12. In 1941, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. officially opened.
13. In 1953, the American League rejected St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck’s request to move the team to Baltimore.
14. In 1966, Gemini 8, carrying Neil Armstrong and David R. Scott, performed the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit. The mission was aborted due to a critical system failure, but the crew returned safely to Earth.
15. In 1991, seven members of Reba McEntire’s band, her road manager, the pilot, and co-pilot died in a plane crash near San Diego, California, when the plane crashed into a mountain shortly after takeoff.