'I am just going outside and may be some time....'

Upon the death of his great uncle Tiberius at the age of 78, Caligula became Emperor of Rome on this day in AD 37.

Caroline Herschel, the astronomer and sister of William, was born on March the 16th 1750. She worked closely alongside her brother and the C.Herschel crater on the moon is named after her. She, along with Mary Somerville, was one of the first women to be made Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835.

On this day in 1802 President Thomas Jefferson signed a measure authorising the creation of of the United States Military Academy at West  Point.   

This day in 1850 saw the publication of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

On March the 16th 1867 Joseph Lister the physician and medical pioneer, would publish his study Antiseptic Principle of the Practices of Surgery. Infection was the primary post surgical cause of death and Lister, having used carbolic soap ( phenol ) in the practice of sterile surgery, revolutionised surgical practice.

On their return journey from the South Pole, it was on March 16th 1912 that, as Captain Scott writes, Lawrence Oates, known as Titus, said to his camp 'I am just going outside and may be some time.' He was born on March the 17th 1880.

On March the 16th 1926 the American physicist and inventor Robert Goddard would launch the first liquid fuelled rocket in Massachusetts.

Bernando Bertolucci celebrates a birthday today, he was born in 1940. 

On this day in 1976 the Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns. 

Today is the Feast Day, amongst others, of Saint Abban.

I can think of no particularly valid link here but I spent the summer perfecting risotto and have numerous requests for asparagus risotto for supper. Highly recommended.