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Tuesday, March 16, 2010 | Serving New Braunfels and Comal County since 1852

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Today in History

Today in History: Tuesday, March 16, 2010

AP Highlight in History:
On March 16, 1850, "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne was published.

AP Photo/Christie's New York

On this date in:

1521

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.

1751

James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.

1802

Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

1836

The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

1935

Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.

1968

U.S. troops gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War.

1984

William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen.

1985

Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut.

AP photographer Donald Mell witnessed the abduction.

Read the original AP story

1998

The Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.

2003

Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people.

2003

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza.

2005

A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.

2008

Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces; the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.

Video

Highlights of This Day in History

Today's Birthdays:

Actress Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls," "Parenthood") turns 43 years old today.