March 16

Babylonian forces end their first siege of Jerusalem after the city surrenders, part of the events leading to the later destruction of the First Temple.

After a prolonged siege, Jerusalem surrendered to Babylonian forces under Nebuchadnezzar II, who deported King Jehoiachin and much of the city's elite to Babylon. The event was an early step in a series of conflicts that culminated in the destruction of Solomon's Temple roughly a decade later.

Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, a foundational moment for modern rocketry.

American physicist Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket from his aunt's farm in Massachusetts, reaching a modest altitude of just over 40 feet. Though initially dismissed by some contemporaries, his pioneering work laid essential groundwork for the rocketry that later enabled spaceflight.

Adolf Hitler orders Germany to openly rearm, violating the disarmament terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

In direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler announced the reintroduction of compulsory military service and the expansion of the German army, formally beginning open German rearmament. The move drew only muted protest from Britain and France, emboldening further German aggression in subsequent years.

Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate, completing the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

Having already occupied the Sudetenland, Hitler proclaimed the remaining Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate, completing the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in violation of the Munich Agreement's assurances. The action demonstrated that appeasement had failed to satisfy Nazi territorial ambitions.

Organized Japanese resistance ends on Iwo Jima after over a month of brutal fighting, though isolated holdouts continue.

After more than a month of ferocious fighting that claimed roughly 7,000 American and nearly all of the 21,000 Japanese defenders, organized Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima came to an end, though isolated holdouts continued fighting for weeks. The battle's cost shaped American planning for the anticipated invasion of Japan.

Gemini 8, crewed by Neil Armstrong and David Scott, performs the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott piloted Gemini 8 to successfully dock with an unmanned Agena target vehicle in orbit, the first such docking in spaceflight history. A subsequent thruster malfunction sent the joined spacecraft into a dangerous spin, forcing an early, dramatic return to Earth.

American soldiers kill hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers in the My Lai massacre.

American soldiers killed several hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, in the hamlet of My Lai during the Vietnam War. The massacre, initially covered up, became public over a year later and profoundly damaged American public support for the war effort.

The supertanker Amoco Cadiz runs aground and splits apart off the coast of France, causing one of history's largest oil spills.

The supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France, after its steering mechanism failed in a storm, ultimately spilling its entire cargo of roughly 1.6 million barrels of crude oil. The spill devastated the Breton coastline and remains one of the largest oil spills in history.

Iraqi forces attack the Kurdish town of Halabja with poison gas, killing thousands of civilians.

Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons during the final stages of the Iran-Iraq War, killing thousands of civilians within hours. The attack stands as one of the largest chemical weapons assaults ever directed against a civilian population.

Crimea holds a controversial referendum on seceding from Ukraine to join Russia, a vote widely condemned as illegitimate internationally.

Crimean voters, under Russian military presence and international condemnation, approved a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russia annexed the peninsula days later in a move most of the international community refused to recognize, triggering years of sanctions and conflict.