NOW & THEN
16 MARCH
1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached Philippine Islands.
1660: England’s Long Parliament was dissolved after sitting for 20 years.
1802: The United States Military Academy at West Point was established.
1834: HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, anchored at Berkeley Sound in the Falkland Islands.
1867: The Lancet published the first article by Joseph Lister, outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery.
1888: The first recorded sale of a manufactured motor car was to Emile Roger of Paris, who bought a petrol-driven Benz.
1900: Sir Arthur Evans uncovered the ancient city of Knossos, Crete.
1904: The first books of stamps were issued by the GPO. They cost two shillings-and-ahalfpenny for 24 penny stamps.
1926: The first liquid-fuelled rocket was demonstrated in America, by Doctor Robert H Goddard.
1935: Hitler renounced the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription.
1947: Almost 600,000 acres of farming land were submerged by floodwater on the Fens and a million sheep died as the River Ouse overflowed. Storm damage came to more than £20 million.
1972: John Lennon and Yoko Ono were issued with deportation papers by the US government.
1973: The Queen opened the new London Bridge. The old one was sold to an oil tycoon for £1 million, and rebuilt at Lake Havasu in America.
1976: Harold Wilson retired as prime minister after leading the Labour Party for 13 years.
1988: A Loyalist gunman opened fire indiscriminately and hurled grenades into a crowd of mourners at an IRA funeral for three people killed by the SAS in Gibraltar ten days before.
1998: Pope John Paul II asked God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
2005: Israel officially handed over Jericho to Palestinian control.
2009: Robin Barr revealed he was to retire as chairman of AG Barr, the makers of Irn-bru, after more than 50 years at the family business.
2010: Scotland approved ten marine energy projects in the Pentland Firth which would have the potential to power a third of the country’s homes.
2011: The world’s largest online child abuse ring, with up to 70,000 followers, was smashed, police revealed.
2012: Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became the first player to score 100 international centuries by compiling a ton in a one-day defeat by Bangladesh.
2012: Actor George Clooney was arrested during a demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington DC, protesting human rights abuse in Sudan.
2014: Following a referendum in Crimea, 97 per cent of voters backed a proposal to join Russia.
BIRTHDAYS
ISABELLE HUPPERT French actress, 67
Teresa Berganza, Spanish mezzo-soprano, 85; Graham Cole OBE, British actor, 68; Erik Estrada, US actor, 71; Jimmy Nail, British actor and singer, 66; Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress, 70; Sir Roger Norrington CBE, British conductor, 86; Anne Mather Smith, Lady Smith, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 65; Theo Walcott, English footballer, 31; Simon Zebo, Irish rugby union player, 30
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1750 Caroline Herschel, astronomer sister of Sir William Herschel, with whom she collaborated; 1774 Matthew Flinders, naval officer and navigator; 1787 Georg Ohm, physicist specialising in electricity; 1839 Modest Mussorgsky, composer; 1920 Leo Mckern, actor; 1941 Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian film director; 1969 Alexander Mcqueen CBE, British fashion designer.
Deaths: 1741 Jean Baptiste Rousseau, poet; 1898 Aubrey Beardsley, author and illustrator; 1935 John James Macleod, physiologist, pioneer of insulin and Nobel laureate (in Aberdeen); 1963 Lord Beveridge, social security pioneer; 1971 Thomas Dewey, Republican prematurely proclaimed victor over Harry Truman in 1948 US presidential election.