“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

– James Madison in 1788

Founding Father of The United States James Madison was born on March 16, 1751 near Port Conway, Virginia.

Cadets in Camp at West Point c. mid to late 1800s

On March 16, 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act which was to “organize and establish a Corps of Engineers…that shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York and shall constitute a military academy.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On March 16, 1621 Samoset, a subordinate chief of the Eastern Abenaki people became the first Native American to make contact with the people of the Plymouth Colony. Samoset had learned some English from fishermen off Maine’s coast and greeted the Pilgrims with “Welcome, Englishmen,” then asked for beer.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US. {PD-US}

On today’s date March 16, 1926, Joseph Levitch (Jerry Lewis) was born in Newark, New Jersey.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A photo of a tenement courtyard showing the crisscrossing of laundry lines in New York City on March 16, 1936.

Tenement dwellings were common in New York beginning in the mid 1800s and many were still in use in the 1930s.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Engineer Robert Goddard, on March 16, 1926, launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. When questioned about his prediction that rocket-powered vehicles could someday reach the moon he responded “Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace.”

LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Eleanor Roosevelt (standing, upper right center) addresses the crew of the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Omaha (CL-4) on 16 March 1944. Standing beside her, to the left, is Rear Admiral Oliver M. Read, USN, Commander Surface Patrol Force (Task Force 41), U.S. Fourth Fleet

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

“Gathering himself quickly up, he stood more erect, like a man taken by surprise in a mood to which he was reluctant to have witnesses. Throwing his eyes anxiously in the direction of the voice, he indistinctly beheld a form under the trees, clad in garments so sombre, and so little relieved from the gray twilight into which the clouded sky and the heavy foliage had darkened the noontide, that he knew not whether it were a woman or a shadow. It may be, that his pathway through life was haunted thus, by a spectre that had stolen out from among his thoughts. He made a step nigher, and discovered the scarlet letter. “Hester! Hester Prynne!” said he. “Is it thou? Art thou in life?” “Even so!” she answered. “In such life as has been mine these seven years past! And thou, Arthur Dimmesdale, dost thou yet live?”

On March 16, 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter was published.

Image Hester encounters Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Playing Tango, Las Vegas, Nevada (Postcard from the 1930s/1940s)

On March 16, 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Erik Estrada on roller skates at Flippers Roller Rink in 1978

On March 16, 1949, Erik Estrada was born in New York City.

Image via Alamy

Hall of Fame third baseman, Pie Traynor passed away on March 16, 1972.
Traynor is considered one of the greatest third basemen in baseball prior to 1950. During the 1925 season he had 41 double plays.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Rollin Thomas Chamberlin, a geologist and the son of the renowned American geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, during his Oriental Educational Investigation Commission’s exploratory trip through the Manchu Empire on March 16, 1909.

This initiative, supported by John D. Rockefeller, aimed to assess educational and cultural opportunities in the East.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and Russell J. Coles on a devil fish harpooning expedition on the coast of Florida. March 16, 1917

via LOC, no known restrictions