Historical timeline for March 16

A series of Boko Haram bombings leave 26 dead and 146 injured in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

A fire breaks out in a nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia, killing at least 59 people and injuring 155 others.

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

Mariupol theatre airstrike during the siege of Mariupol.

Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.

A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30.

Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18.

Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.

Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket.

The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed in a fire.

Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home.

Sofia Gubaidulina's Johannes-Ostern is premiered, together with her earlier Johannes-Passion, at Hamburg's Michaeliskirche, performed by soloists, choir and orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre combined with NDR choir and orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China kill 108 people and injure 38 others, the biggest mass murder in China in decades.

Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.

Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA, are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.

Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991.