Here are the anniversaries of Arsenal for 16 March.
The full index to what is on this site is here.
16 March 1896: Arsenal Reserves played Thames Ironworks at Canning Town in what is believed to have been Arsenal’s first floodlit game. Arsenal won 5-3. Gas lamps were strung over the pitch to provide light.
16 March 1896: Arsenal 1 Tottenham 3. Arsenal had beaten Tottenham 10-1 in September 1889, after which what had been a regular exchange of games between the two clubs ceased at Tottenham’s behest. This was the first game after a seven year gap.
16 March 1907: Only 6,000 showed for the home game with Manchester U; but the crowds returned at Easter when a total of 65,000 came to the three consecutive home matches.
16 March 1915: As the Football League agreed to close down for the duration of the war, after much criticism for having kept the 1914/15 season running, the Jockey Club announce they see no reason why horse racing should stop, war or no war. It was after all the sport of kings, and (although they didn’t say it) kings don’t actually fight wars – they just start them.
16 March 1917: The Csar of all the Russias abdicated effectively taking Russia out of the war.
16 March 1935: Goalkeeper Frank Moss was injured playing in goal, but continued to play on the wing, and scored, but the decision to play on virtually ended his career. Arsenal however won 0-2 and went on to win the league and Moss remains the only Arsenal keeper to score in the first division game.
16 March 1936: George Marks joined as an amateur from Salisbury Corinthians. He only played two league games and eventually moved onto Blackburn in 1946 – but he was the keeper in the “Arsenal Stadium Mystery” movie.
16 March 1956: Doug Lishman transferred to Nottingham Forest. In 226 league games for Arsenal he scored an extraordinary 125 goals. He later scored a hat-trick in the match that got Nottingham Forest promoted in 1956/7 but retired in the summer of 1957 to join his father-in law in a furniture retail business in Stoke on Trent, and later took over the business himself.
16 March 1961: Bill Dodgin sold back to Fulham. He had played 191 league games and 6 FA Cup games since transferring from Fulham in 1952. He later managed QPR, Fulham, Northampton and Brentford, winning promotion with the last two clubs.
16 March 1962: Billy Wright named as Arsenal manager. His signing ended the tradition which started with Joe Shaw of Arsenal appointing managers from within the club or men who had been at the club. It turned out to be a poor decision.
16 March 1963 Arsenal 1 Liverpool 2 FA Cup fifth round. On the anniversary of Billy Wright’s appointment Arsenal were knocked out of the Cup. In fact Wright never took the club further in the cup in four years as manager. John MacLeod grabbed a consolation goal four minutes from time but costly errors by Laurie Brown and John Barnwell contributed to their downfall.
16 March 1968: Arsenal 0 Wolverhampton 2. The result made it nine league games without a win. First and last league appearance of Roger Davidson. He moved to Portsmouth in May 1969.
16 March 1974: Ipswich 2 Arsenal 2. The draw made it just one win in seven, but thereafter only lost one more game to secure a mid-table finish. Kennedy and Simpson got the goals. See also here
16 March 1976: Arsenal 0 Newcastle 0. Five games unbeaten gave a tiny level of relief in Arsenal’s worst season since 1925, although the club still ended up 17th in the first division (as opposed to 20th in 1925).
16 March 1968. Roger Davidson made his first and last senior appearance for Arsenal.
16 March 1989: Theo Walcott born. He played 21 games for Southampton before moving to Arsenal in 2006. Ten years after his transfer he was still at Arsenal having played over 220 games for Arsenal and 42 for England.
16 March 1995: Auxerre 0 Arsenal 1. CWC quarter final 2nd leg. A goal by Ian Wright on 16 minutes gave Arsenal the away win they needed to overcome the 1-1 draw at Highbury.
16 March 2000: Arsenal 2 Werder Bremen 0. Uefa Cup. There were media suggestions this was not enough. Henry and Ljungburg scored. The second match was on the 23 March and Arsenal surprised even themselves.
16 March 2001: Alan Sugar as chairman of sacked George Graham for breach of contract as manager, bringing in Glenn Hoddle in his stead.
16 March 2013: Swansea 0 Arsenal 2: From here to the end of the season Arsenal won 8 drew 2 and lost 0. Monreal equalised on 74 minutes and Gervinho got the winner in added time.
16 March 2014: Tottenham 0 Arsenal 1 with a Rosicky screamer in 72 seconds being the only goal of the match.
Meanwhile, the latest episode in our series of articles about Henry Norris at the Arsenal is now published:
The 3rd Knighton allegation against Norris: did he sell much-needed Fred Pagnam just for profit?
Our books “Making the Arsenal” and “Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed history” are both available on Kindle.
