March 16
1520: Mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller dies. Waldseemüller produced a globular world map and a large 12-panel world wall map using the information from Columbus and Vespucci's travels (Universalis Cosmographia), both bearing the first use of the name "America".
1750: Astronomer Caroline Herschel born. Herschel will discover several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name.
1838: American captain and mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch dies. Bowditch was a founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S. Naval vessel.
1859: Physicist and academic Alexander Stepanovich Popov born. Popov will make pioneering contributions to the study of high frequency electrical phenomenoa; in Russia and some eastern European, he will be acclaimed as the inventor of radio.
1915: Mathematician and academic Kunihiko Kodaira born. Kodaira will make distinguished contributions algebraic geometry and the theory of complex manifolds, winning the Fields medal in 1954.