Tuesday, March 16th
The 075th day of 2010.
There are 290 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
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On March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre was carried out by United States troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr. (Go to article.)
On March 16, 1868, Maxim Gorky, a Russian writer of short stories, novels and plays, was born. Following his death on June 14, 1936, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On March 16, 1872, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about a bank scandal in New York City. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.
1751 James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.
1802 Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
1836 The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
1850 "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne was published.
1935 Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.
1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen.
1985 Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut.
1998 The Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.
2003 Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people.
2003 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.
2005 A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.
2008 Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces; the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.
Current Birthdays
Lauren Graham turns 43 years old today.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello Actress Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls," "Parenthood") turns 43 years old today.
84 Jerry Lewis
Actor, comedian
69 Bernardo Bertolucci
Director
69 Chuck Woolery
Game show host
61 Erik Estrada
Actor ("CHiPS")
61 Victor Garber
Actor ("Alias")
56 Nancy Wilson
Rock singer (Heart)
55 Isabelle Huppert
Actress
54 Ozzie Newsome
Football Hall of Famer
51 Flavor Flav
Rapper (Public Enemy)
41 Judah Friedlander
Actor ("30 Rock")
39 Alan Tudyk
Actor ("Firefly")
19 Wolfgang Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen)
Historic Birthdays
Maxim Gorky
3/16/1868 (O.S.) - 6/14/1936
Russian novelist and short-story writer
(Go to obit.)
49 Hieronymus Emser
3/16/1478 - 11/8/1527
German theologian, lecturer, editor and essayist
82 Giuseppe Crespi
3/16/1665 - 7/16/1747
Italian Baroque painter
97 Caroline Herschel
3/16/1750 - 1/9/1848
German-born English astronomer
85 James Madison
3/16/1751 - 6/28/1836
4th president of the United States (1809-17)
64 Antoine-Jean Gros
3/16/1771 - 6/26/1835
French Romantic painter
82 Francis Chesney
3/16/1789 - 1/30/1872
English soldier, explorer and Middle East traveler
74 Francois-Emile Matthes
3/16/1874 - 6/21/1948
Dutch-born American geologist and topographer
66 Reza Khan Pahlavi
3/16/1878 - 7/26/1944
Iranian Shah (1925-41)
92 James Petrillo
3/16/1892 - 10/23/1984
American labor leader
78 Alberto Gainza Paz
3/16/1899 - 12/26/1977
Argentine newspaper editor of La Prensa
67 Josef Mengele
3/16/1911 - 2/7/1979
German Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp
40 Vladimir Komarov
3/16/1927 - 4/24/1967
Russian cosmonaut
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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