March 16 is the 75th day of the year (76th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 290 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.

• 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

• 1861 – Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who has been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

• 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.

• 1912 – Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left the tent to die, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time."

• 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produced its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.

• 1968 – General Motors produced its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

• 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.

• 1988 – Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5000 people and injuring about 10000 people.

• 1995 – Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment is officially ratified in 1865.