Today’s highlight in history:

On March 16, 1968, the My Lai massacre took place during the Vietnam War as U.S. Army soldiers hunting for Viet Cong fighters and sympathizers killed unarmed villagers in two hamlets of Son My (suhn mee) village; estimates of the death toll vary from 347 to 504.

On this date

1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew reached the Philippines, where Magellan was killed during a battle with natives the following month.

1802: President Thomas Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

1935: Adolf Hitler decided to break the military terms set by the Treaty of Versailles by ordering the rearming of Germany.

1968: Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1984: William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants (he was tortured by his captors and killed in 1985)

1994: Figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.