16 March 1221

Natalia Kills and Willy Moon were fired as judges on the second series of The X Factor New Zealand, following public backlash over comments they made to a contestant during the first live show.

American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Forces armored bulldozer in Rafah while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house.

Sofia Gubaidulina's Johannes-Ostern was premiered in Hamburg, together with her Johannes-Passion, by soloists, choirs and orchestras from the Mariinsky Theatre and the NDR.

A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China, killed 108 people.

Iran–Iraq War: Iraqi forces began attacking the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons, killing up to 5,000 people.

Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.

William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.

Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro was kidnapped in Rome by Mario Moretti and the Red Brigades.

Vietnam War: American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the Sơn Mỹ village in the Sơn Tịnh District of South Vietnam.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a charter flight carrying U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers, disappeared without a trace, prompting one of the largest searches in the history of the Pacific.

African American civil rights activists in Savannah, Georgia, conducted a sit-in, commencing the Savannah Protest Movement.

World War II: Operation Appearance took place to re-establish British Somaliland in Africa.

Conscription was re-introduced in Germany by the Nazi regime, and the German military was renamed the Wehrmacht.

In the inaugural final of the FA Cup Wanderers defeated Royal Engineers 1–0 in London.

The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.

Congress passed the Military Peace Establishment Act, authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate the U.S. Military Academy (pictured) at West Point, New York.

American Revolutionary War: Spain captured the island of Roatán from England off the coast of what is now Honduras.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers, one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.

The Long Parliament, originally called by King Charles I of England in 1640 following the Bishops' Wars, dissolved itself.

Samoset, a member of the Abenaki tribe, walked into Plymouth Colony and greeted the Pilgrims in English.

Samoset, a member of the Abenaki tribe, walked into Plymouth Colony and greeted the Pilgrims in English (depicted).

Despenser War: A royalist army defeated troops loyal to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in the Battle of Boroughbridge, which allowed King Edward II of England to hold on to power for another five years.

Around 150 Jews died inside York Castle, the majority committing mass suicide to avoid being killed by a mob.

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.

Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and installed Zedekiah as King of Judah.