March 16: Palm Sunday in Western Christianity (2008).
- 1660 – The Long Parliament, originally called by King Charles I of England in 1640 following the Bishops' Wars, dissolved itself.
- 1872 – In the first-ever final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest football (soccer) competition, Wanderers F.C. defeated Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1926 – At the then-Asa Ward Farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, American scientist Robert H. Goddard (pictured) launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, a 10-foot (3 m) cylinder that reached an altitude of about 41 feet (12 m) and flew for two-and-a-half seconds before falling to the ground.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the Sơn Mỹ village in the Sơn Tịnh district of South Vietnam.
- 1978 – The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz split in two after running aground on Portsall Rocks, about 3 miles (5 km) off the coast of Brittany, France, resulting in one of the largest oil spills ever.