March 31
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March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining.
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[change] Events
- 307 – After divorcing his wife Minerva, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
- 1717 – A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.
- 1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.
- 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
- 1866 – Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile
- 1885 – The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland, present-day Botswana.
- 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.
- 1903 – Richard Pearse reportedly flies a heavier-than-air machine in powered flight near Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, New Zealand; some claim 1902.
- 1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United States.
- 1909 – Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- 1917 – The United States takes possession of the United States Virgin Islands after paying $25 million to Denmark.
- 1918 – Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
- 1930 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next forty years.
- 1931 – An earthquake destroys Managua Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
- 1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.
- 1949 – Newfoundland and Labrador joins Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
- 1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
- 1964 – The Dictatorship in Brazil, under the aegis of general Castello Branco, begins.
- 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the Moon.
- 1966 – In the United Kingdom the Labour Party under Harold Wilson is elected to a second consecutive term in government.
- 1967 – Jimi Hendrix burns his guitar for the first time at London's Astoria Theatre. He is sent to the hospital afterwards for burns on his hands.
- 1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.
- 1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere (after 12 years in orbit).
- 1970 – Eight terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 727 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.
- 1979 – In Jerusalem, Israel, Gali Atari & Milk and Honey win the twenth-fourth Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing "Hallelujah".
- 1979 – The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta is no longer a military base.
- 1985 – The first ever WrestleMania is held in New York City's Madison Square Garden.
- 1986 – A Mexicana Boeing 727 enroute to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166.
- 1986 – Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England.
- 1990 – Boxer Julio César Chávez defeats Meldrick Taylor to unify the boxing's world junior welterweight title in a very controversial fight known as "Thunder Meets Lightning".
- 1991 – The Warsaw Pact comes to an end.
- 1992 – The television news program Dateline NBC premieres.
- 1993 – Actor Brandon Lee is accidentally killed during the filming of The Crow.
- 1994 – The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).
- 1995 – Popular Tex-Mex singer Selena Quintanilla is murdered by her assistant Yolanda Saldivar in a Corpus Christi, Texas motel after a heated discussion where the latter was accused of ripping off the artist's fan club.
- 1998 – Netscape gives the code base of its browser under an open-source license agreement, thus creating Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation to oversee the development of Mozilla.
- 2004 – Google announces Gmail, the first web-based mail service to offer 1 gigabyte of storage.
- 2004 – In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.
- 2004 – Sandton Square in Johannesburg, South Africa, is renamed Nelson Mandela Square.
[change] Births
- 250 – Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (d. 306)
- 1360 – Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal (d. 1415)
- 1425 – Bianca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan (d. 1468)
- 1499 – Pope Pius IV (d. 1565)
- 1504 – Guru Angad Dev, 2nd Sikh Guru (d. 1552)
- 1519 – King Henry II of France (d. 1559)
- 1536 – Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1565)
- 1596 – René Descartes, French mathematician (d. 1650)
- 1675 – Pope Benedict XIV (d. 1758)
- 1718 – Mariana Victoria of Spain (d. 1781)
- 1723 – King Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1766)
- 1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
- 1788 – Jessadabodindra (Rama III), King of Siam (d. 1851)
- 1809 – Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (d. 1852)
- 1811 – Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist and inventor (d. 1899)
- 1819 – Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, German statesman (d. 1901)
- 1848 – William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, American-born British financier, author and statesman (d. 1919)
- 1871 – Arthur Griffith, Irish politician (d. 1922)
- 1872 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario, publicist, curator and art critic (d. 1929)
- 1872 – Alexandra Kollontai, Russian Communist revolutionary (d. 1952)
- 1878 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)
- 1890 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-British physicist (d. 1971)
- 1900 – Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (d. 1974)
- 1906 – Shin'ichiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist (d. 1979)
- 1913 – Etta Baker, American blues musician and singer (d. 2006)
- 1914 – Octavio Paz, Mexican writer (d. 1998)
- 1915 – Shoichi Yokoi, Japanese sergeant (d. 1997)
- 1922 – Richard Kiley, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1927 – César Chávez, American labor activist (d. 1993)
- 1927 – Vladimir Ilyushin, Russian pilot (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born fashion designer (d. 2007)
- 1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor
- 1934 – Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
- 1934 – Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist
- 1935 – Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and band leader
- 1938 – David Steel, Scottish politician
- 1939 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia, President of the Republic of Georgia (d. 1993)
- 1939 – Volker Schloendorff, German film director
- 1939 – Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, German footballer
- 1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor
- 1947 – Kristian Blak, Danish musician and recording executive
- 1947 – Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Israeli physicist (d. 2011)
- 1947 – Cesar Gaviria, 36th President of Colombia
- 1948 – Al Gore, Vice President of the United States
- 1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress
- 1952 – Dermot Morgan, Irish comedian and actor (d. 1998)
- 1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian musician (AC/DC)
- 1955 – Svetozar Marovic, only President of Serbia and Montenegro
- 1962 – Mark Begich, American politician
- 1966 – Roger Black, British athlete
- 1969 – Francesco Moriero, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Ewan McGregor, British actor
- 1978 – Daniel Mays, British actor
- 1979 – Danny Invincibile, Australian footballer
- 1980 – Maaya Sakamoto, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1982 – Tal Ben Haim, Israeli footballer
- 1984 – Eddie Johnson, American soccer player
- 1987 – Georg Listing, German musician (Tokio Hotel)
- 1987 – Koneru Humpy, Indian chess player
- 1989 – Pablo Piatti, Argentine footballer
[change] Deaths
- 1204 – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England (b. 1121)
- 1340 – Ivan I of Russia (b. 1288)
- 1547 – Francis I of France (b. 1494)
- 1621 – Philip III of Spain (b. 1578)
- 1703 – Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (b. 1642)
- 1727 – Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1643)
- 1837 – John Constable, English painter (b. 1776)
- 1850 – John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (b. 1782)
- 1855 – Charlotte Brontë, English writer (b. 1816)
- 1877 – Antoine Auguste Cournot, French mathematician (b. 1801)
- 1885 – Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (b. 1819)
- 1913 – J. P. Morgan, American financier (b. 1837)
- 1917 – Emil von Behring, German doctor, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1901) (b. 1854)
- 1931 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
- 1945 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist (b. 1929)
- 1945 – Hans Fischer, German chemist (b. 1881)
- 1972 – Meena Kumari, Indian actress (b. 1932)
- 1975 – Percy Alliss, English golfer (b. 1897)
- 1980 – Jesse Owens, American athlete (b. 1913)
- 1988 – William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)
- 1995 – Selena, Mexican-American singer-songwriter (b. 1971)
- 1997 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist (b. 1896)
- 1998 – Bella Abzug, American politician (b. 1920)
- 2001 – Clifford Shull, American physicist (b. 1915)
- 2005 – Terri Schiavo, American patient in right-to-die case (b. 1963)
- 2008 – Jules Dassin, American film director (b. 1911)
- 2009 – Jarl Alfredius, Swedish television journalist (b. 1943)
- 2009 – Raul Alfonsin, President of Argentina (b. 1927)
[change] Observances
- Cesar Chavez Day (United States)
- Freedom Day (Malta)
