16th March

[chenrezig]

1190 The Crusades began the massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York. Some committed mass suicide rather than submit to baptism and they set the castle on fire to prevent their bodies being mutilated after their deaths. A few Jews did surrender, promising to convert to Christianity, but they were killed by the angry crowd. In all 150 were killed.

1647 Harlech Castle surrendered in the English Civil War. It was a Royalist stronghold and the last Welsh castle to be taken by Parliament.

1689 The 23rd Regiment of Foot (later known as the Royal Welch Fusiliers) was founded to oppose James II and the imminent war with France.

1774 The birth of Matthew Flinders, English explorer who circumnavigated Australia. The Flinders River in Queensland and the Flinders Range in South Australia are named after him.

1872 The Wanderers Football Club, based in London, beat the Royal Engineers 1–0 in the first English FA Cup Final, at Kennington Oval. The number of spectators was 2000 and the winning goal was scored by Morton Betts.

1935 The first driving test pass slip was presented to Mr. R. Beene of Kensington, a pupil of the British School of Motoring. Tests were introduced on a voluntary basis and became compulsory in June.

1940 World War II: James Isbister became the first person killed in a German bombing raid; on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

1942 The first German V-2 rocket test launch. It exploded at lift-off but eventually over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the Germans against Allied targets during the war, mostly London and later Antwerp. The attacks resulted in the death of an estimated 7,000+ military personnel and civilians, whilst 12,000 forced labourers were killed producing the weapons.

1971 The British heavyweight boxing champion Henry Cooper announced his retirement after being defeated by Joe Bugner.

1973 Queen Elizabeth II opened the new London Bridge. The old one was sold to an American oil tycoon for £1m and transported to the United States.

1976 Harold Wilson, Prime Minister for almost eight years, and leader of the Labour Party for 13 years, resigned. He insisted that there were no hidden reasons for his resignation although it was suggested that he might already have been aware of the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which was to cause both his formerly excellent memory and his powers of concentration to fail dramatically.

1988 A gunman killed 3 mourners and injured at least 50 who had been attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar.

1993 Britain's Chancellor, Norman Lamont, announced the imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on domestic fuel.

1998 Sir George Martin (producer of The Beatles in the 1960s and 70s) announced his retirement, aged 73.

2001 According to a health survey, 16th March 2001 was the only day between 1993 and 2002 when nobody in the United Kingdom killed themselves.

[annie]

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[wendy]