Today’s Highlights

On March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War, U.S. Army soldiers hunting for Viet Cong fighters and sympathizers killed as many as 500 unarmed villagers in two hamlets of Son My village, in what became known as the My Lai massacre.

On this date

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

1972: In a nationally broadcast address, President Richard Nixon called for a moratorium on court-ordered school busing to achieve racial desegregation.

1994: Figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

2016: President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to take the seat of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died the previous month. Republicans who controlled the Senate would stick to their pledge to leave the seat empty until after the presidential election; they confirmed Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch in April 2017.

2020: Global stocks plunged amid coronavirus concerns, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 2,997 points (12.9%), the largest point drop decline in history.

Today’s birthdays

Business executive Sanford Weill is 92. Actor Erik Estrada is 76. Football Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure is 74. Actor Isabelle Huppert is 72. Rock musician Nancy Wilson is 71.