On this day in history - March 16

What Happened On This Day – March 16

• 1988 A poison gas attack kills 5000 civilians in the Kurdish town of Halabjah

  The war crime was in all likelihood executed on the orders of Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein.

• 1988 In Northern Ireland, an Ulster loyalist kills 3 people at a Provisional IRA funeral

  Michael Stone was later convicted of the Milltown Cemetary attack, which was filmed by news crews.

• 1968 U.S. troops massacre hundreds of unarmed civilians in Vietnam

  The 504 victims of the My Lai Massacre included many children and infants.

• 1960 Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho is premiered

  The film starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is an all-time classic of the suspense movie genre.

• 1926 Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket

  The idea for this revolutionary rocket engine first appeared in a book by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.