Today in History.....March 16

On this day in …

* 1802, Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

* 1915, the Federal Trade Commission was organized

* 1935, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, scrapped the Treaty of Versailles

* 1945, during World War II, Iwo Jima was declared secured by the Allies

* 1978, Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him

* 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen, practitioners of that "religion of peace"; he died in captivity

* 1985, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut by practitioners of that "religion of peace"; he was released in December 1991

* 1994, figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.

* 1996, for the first time, ordinary citizens were allowed inside the central archives of the former East German secret police, the hated Stasi security agency

* 1999, the Dow Jones industrial average briefly topped the 10,000 level, reaching a high of 10,001.78 before retreating. ALSO: The entire 20-member European Commission resigned following publication of a critical report on sloppy management and cronyism.

* 2005, a jury in Los Angeles acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, four years earlier. (A civil court jury later ordered Blake to pay $30 million to Bakley's four children; Blake has since filed for bankruptcy.)
ALSO: A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci. Norway's Robert Sorlie won his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in one of the closest races in years