Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 16
- 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines.
- 1815 - William I proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
- 1900 - The ruins of Knossos, a major centre of the Minoan civilization and the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, were purchased by Sir Arthur Evans for excavations.
- 1968 - Vietnam War: American soldiers killed 347 civilians in My Lai, Vietnam.
- 1978 - Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro was kidnapped in Rome by the Red Brigades.