What Happened on March 16?

March 16 is Freedom of Information Day — honoring James Madison and the public's right to know — and National Panda Day, on the same calendar page as the first liquid-fueled rocket and the first space docking.

• 1751 — James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," is born

  Future president James Madison was born in Virginia on March 16, 1751 — the Founding Father who drafted the Constitution and championed the Bill of Rights. Read the full story →

• 1802 — Congress establishes the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

  President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation creating West Point — America's first military academy — on a strategic Hudson River fortress George Washington once called indispensable. Read the full story →

• 1827 — Freedom's Journal, the first Black-owned U.S. newspaper, is published

  Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm printed the first issue of Freedom's Journal in New York City — a weekly paper declaring it would 'plead our own cause' in a nation that often misrepresented Black Americans. Read the full story →

• 1926 — Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket

  On a snowy farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, physicist Robert Goddard's tiny rocket rose 41 feet in 2.5 seconds — the flight that launched modern space travel. Read the full story →

• 1966 — Gemini VIII achieves the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit

  Neil Armstrong and David Scott linked their Gemini capsule to an Agena target vehicle — then fought a terrifying spin that forced an emergency splashdown. Read the full story →

Famous birthdays

James Madison (1751–1836) · Jerry Lewis (1926–2017) · Pat Nixon (1912–1993) · Flavor Flav (1959)

Days & observances

National Freedom of Information Day · National Panda Day · National Everything You Do Is Right Day · Black Press Day · National Artichoke Hearts Day