March 16th

Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces. the Dalai Lama decried what he called the 'cultural genocide' taking place in his homeland.

A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza.

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North and Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter of the National Security Council are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States for their role in the Iran-contra affair.

Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut.

Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped, and later murdered, by the Red Brigades.

U.S. troops gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War.

Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho is premiered. The film starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is an all-time classic of the suspense movie genre.

Adolf Hitler orders German rearmament in violation of The Treaty of Versailles.

The first liquid-fuel rocket was successfully launched by Prof. Robert Goddard at Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket traveled 184 feet in 2.5 seconds.

First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter was published.

The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

King Gustav III of Sweden is shot by Count Anckarström at a masked ball at the Opera; he dies on March 29.

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.