March 31

March 31 is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 275 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
• 1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.
• 1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
• 1717 – A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
• 1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.
• 1822 – The massacre of the population of the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following a rebellion attempt, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix.
• 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
• 1866 – The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.
• 1877 – The family with samurai antecedents that responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu rebels.
• 1885 – The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
• 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.
• 1903 – Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
• 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.
• 1909 – Construction begins on the RMS Titanic.
• 1912 – Construction is completed on the RMS Titanic.
• 1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.
• 1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
• 1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.
• 1930 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film for the next thirty eight years.
• 1931 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
• 1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
• 1942 – Holocaust in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislawow), western Ukraine. German Gestapo organize the first deportation of 5,000 Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzec death camp. It is one of the largest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the camp.
• 1946 – The first election is held in Greece after World War II.
• 1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
• 1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
• 1957 – Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.
• 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.
• 1965 – Iberia Airlines Convair 440 crashes into the sea on approach to Tangier, killing 47 of 51 occupants.
• 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
• 1968 – 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 – Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijack Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.
• 1979 – The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
• 1980 – The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets because of bankruptcy and debts owed to creditors.
• 1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE, takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York
• 1986 – A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route 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 – 200,000 protestors take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.
• 1991 – The Islamic Constitutional Movement, or Hadas, is established in Kuwait.
• 1991 – Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 – The USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active United States Navy Battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
• 1994 – Human evolution: The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.
• 1995 – In Corpus Christi, Texas, Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez is shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her own fan club.
• 1998 – Netscape releases the code base of its browser under an open-source license agreement; the project is given the code name Mozilla and would eventually be spun off into the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.
• 2004 – In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.
• 2007 – In Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million people take part in the first Earth Hour.
• 2008 – Aloha Airlines, a bankrupt airline, permanently ends passenger service

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, second Sikh guru (d. 1552)
• 1519 – King Henry II of France (d. 1559)
• 1536 – Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (d. 1565)
• 1576 – Louise Juliana of Nassau, Regent of Bohemia (d. 1644)
• 1596 – René Descartes, French mathematician (d. 1650)
• 1621 – Andrew Marvell, English poet (d. 1678)
• 1651 – Karl II, Elector Palatine (d. 1685)
• 1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach Influential German composer and organist. (d. 1750)
• 1675 – Pope Benedict XIV (d. 1758)
• 1718 – Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, queen regent of Portugal (d. 1781)
• 1723 – King Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1766)
• 1730 – Étienne Bézout, French mathematician (d. 1783)
• 1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
• 1777 – Charles Cagniard de la Tour, French physicist (d. 1859)
• 1778 – Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist (d. 1858)
• 1794 – Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan, American politician (d. 1852)
• 1809 – Edward FitzGerald, English poet (d. 1883)
• 1811 – Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist and inventor (d. 1899)
• 1819 – Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1901)
• 1847 – Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, Russian mathematician (d. 1878)
• 1855 – Alfred E. Hunt, founder of Alcoa (d. 1899)
• 1871 – Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (d. 1922)
• 1872 – Alexandra Kollontai, Russian ambassador to Norway (d. 1952)
• 1872 – Serge Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (Ballets Russes) (d. 1929)
• 1876 – Borisav "Bora" Stanković, Serbian writer (d. 1927)
• 1878 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)
• 1884 – Adriaan van Maanen, Dutch-American astronomer (d. 1946)
• 1885 – Pascin, Bulgarian painter (d. 1930)
• 1890 – William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)
• 1891 – Victor Varconi, Hungarian film actor (d. 1976)
• 1893 – Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor (d. 1954)
• 1906 – Shin'ichiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
• 1907 – Eddie Quillan, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1908 – Red Norvo, American jazz vibraphonist (d. 1999)
• 1911 – Elisabeth Grümmer, German soprano (d. 1986)
• 1914 – Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
• 1915 – Albert Hourani, English historian (d. 1993)
• 1915 – Shoichi Yokoi, Japanese military man (d. 1997)
• 1916 – Lucille Bliss, American voice actress
• 1916 – John H. Wood, Jr., American federal judge (d. 1979)
• 1919 – Frank Akins, American football player (d. 1993)
• 1920 – Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, English Duchess, now Dowager Duchess
• 1922 – Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
• 1924 – Leo Buscaglia, American author (d. 1998)
• 1924 – Charles Guggenheim, American film director/producer (d. 2002)
• 1925 – Jean Coutu, French Canadian actor (d. 1999)
• 1926 – John Fowles, English author (d. 2005)
• 1927 – César Chávez, American labor activist (d. 1993)
• 1927 – William Daniels, American actor
• 1928 – Lefty Frizzell, American singer and songwriter (d. 1975)
• 1928 – Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born American fashion designer (d. 2007)
• 1929 – Bertram Fields, American lawyer
• 1931 – Miller Barber, American golfer
• 1932 – Nagisa Oshima, Japanese film director
• 1933 – Nichita Stănescu, Romanian poet (d. 1983)
• 1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor
• 1934 – Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
• 1934 – Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1934 – John D. Loudermilk, American singer and songwriter
• 1935 – Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and band leader
• 1935 – Judith Rossner, American author
• 1936 – Bob Pulford, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1936 – Marge Piercy, American writer
• 1936 – Dokumamushi Sandayu, Japanese actor
• 1938 – Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi
• 1938 – Bill Hicke, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
• 1938 – Michiko Nomura, Japanese voice actor
• 1938 – Arthur B. Rubinstein, American composer
• 1938 – David Steel, Scottish politician
• 1939 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (d. 1993)
• 1939 – Volker Schlöndorff, German film director
• 1940 – Barney Frank, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
• 1940 – Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator from Vermont
• 1942 – Michael Savage, American talk radio host and commentator
• 1942 – Ulla Hoffmann, Swedish politician
• 1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor
• 1944 – Pascal Danel, French singer and songwriter
• 1944 – Mick Ralphs, English guitarist (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company)
• 1945 – Valerie Curtin, American actress, writer, and producer
• 1945 – Myfanwy Talog, Welsh actress (d. 1995)
• 1945 – Gabe Kaplan, American actor and comedian
• 1946 – Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1984)
• 1947 – César Gaviria Trujillo, President of Colombia
• 1948 – Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress
• 1948 – Gustaaf Van Cauter, Belgian cyclist
• 1950 – Ed Marinaro, American football player and actor
• 1950 – András Adorján, Hungarian chess player
• 1951 – Frankie Sabath, Puerto Rican performer/singer
• 1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist (AC/DC)
• 1955 – Robert Vance, New Zealand cricketer
• 1957 – Marc McClure, American actor
• 1957 – Alan Duncan, British politician
• 1958 – Tony Cox, American actor
• 1959 – Ali McMordie, Irish bassist (Stiff Little Fingers)
• 1962 – John Taylor, American football player
• 1962 – Mark Begich, U.S. Senator from Alaska
• 1963 – Paul Mercurio, Australian actor/dancer
• 1964 – Paul Wong Koon-Chung, Hong Kong musician (Beyond)
• 1965 – Tom Barrasso, American ice hockey player
• 1965 – Jean-Christophe Lafaille, French mountaineer (d. 2006)
• 1965 – Steven T. Seagle, American comic-book writer
• 1966 – Roger Black, English athlete
• 1968 – Naoya Ogawa, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1968 – J.R. Reid, American basketball player
• 1969 – Samantha Brown, American television host
• 1969 – Steve Smith, American basketball player
• 1969 – Nyamko Sabuni, Swedish politician
• 1971 – Pavel Bure, Russian ice hockey player
• 1971 – Craig McCracken, American Animator
• 1971 – Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
• 1972 – Alejandro Amenábar, Spanish film director
• 1972 – Andrew Bowen, American actor
• 1972 – Hristos Polihroniou, Greek hammer thrower
• 1973 – Bold Forbes, Puerto Rican/American thoroughbred racehorse (d. 2000)
• 1974 – Stefan Olsdal, Swedish bassist (Placebo)
• 1974 – Benjamin Eicher, Swiss film director
• 1975 – Adam Green, American film director
• 1976 – Josh Saviano, American actor
• 1976 – Ashton Moore, American porn actress
• 1977 – Toshiya, Japanese musician (Dir en grey)
• 1977 – Garth Tander, Australian racing driver
• 1978 – Stephen Clemence, English footballer
• 1978 – Jérôme Rothen, French footballer
• 1978 – Tony Yayo, American rapper
• 1979 – Josh Kinney, American baseball player
• 1979 – Amey Date, Indian playback singer
• 1980 – Chien-Ming Wang, Taiwanese baseball player
• 1980 – Maaya Sakamoto, Japanese voice actor
• 1980 – Michael Ryder, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1981 – Maarten van der Weijden, Dutch swimmer
• 1981 – Gerard McCarthy, British actor
• 1981 – Pa Dembo Tourray, Gambian footballer
• 1982 – Tal Ben Haim, Israeli footballer
• 1982 – Philippe Mexès, French footballer
• 1982 – Lennon Murphy, American rock singer/songwriter
• 1983 – Paddy McCarthy, Irish footballer
• 1983 – Vlasios Maras, Greek gymnast
• 1984 – James Jones, American football player
• 1984 – David Clarkson, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1986 – Cveta Majtanović, Serbian singer, winner of Pop Idol.
• 1987 – Humpy Koneru, Indian chess grandmaster
• 1988 – Hogan Ephraim, English footballer

Deaths

• 1074 – Regency Yorimichi Fujiwara of Japan (b. 992)
• 1204 – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England (b. 1121)
• 1340 – Ivan I of Russia, Prince of Moscow (b. 1288)
• 1547 – Francis I of France (b. 1494)
• 1567 – Philipp I of Hesse (b. 1504)
• 1621 – Philip III of Spain (b. 1578)
• 1631 – John Donne, English writer and prelate (b. 1572)
• 1671 – Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England (b. 1637)
• 1703 – Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (b. 1642)
• 1723 – Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British-born U.S. state governor (b. 1661)
• 1727 – Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1643)
• 1741 – Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1668)
• 1783 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (b. 1718)
• 1837 – John Constable, English painter (b. 1776)
• 1850 – John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (b. 1782)
• 1855 – Charlotte Brontë, English author (b. 1816)
• 1877 – Antoine Augustin Cournot, French mathematician (b. 1801)
• 1880 – Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (b. 1835)
• 1885 – Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (b. 1819)
• 1913 – John Pierpont Morgan, American financier (b. 1837)
• 1917 – Emil Adolf von Behring, German physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1854)
• 1915 – Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish athlete (b. 1882)
• 1931 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
• 1935 – Georges V. Matchabelli, Russian-born perfumer (b. 1885)
• 1944 – Mineichi Koga, Japanese admiral (b. 1885)
• 1945 – Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)
• 1945 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist (b. 1929)
• 1952 – Wallace H. White, Jr., American politician (b. 1877)
• 1956 – Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (b. 1884)
• 1968 – Grover Lowdermilk, American baseball player (b. 1885)
• 1972 – Meena Kumari, Indian actress (b. 1932)
• 1975 – Percy Alliss, English Golfer (b. 1897)
• 1976 – Paul Strand, American photographer (b. 1890)
• 1978 – Charles Best, Canadian medical scientist (b. 1899)
• 1980 – Vladimír Holan, Czech poet (b. 1905)
• 1980 – Jesse Owens, American athlete (b. 1913)
• 1981 – Enid Bagnold, British playwright (b. 1889)
• 1983 – Christina Stead, Australian writer (b. 1902)
• 1984 – Ronald Clark O'Bryan, American murderer (b. 1944)
• 1986 – O'Kelly Isley, Jr., American singer (The Isley Brothers) (b. 1937)
• 1986 – Jerry Paris, American actor (b. 1925)
• 1988 – William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
• 1993 – Chichay, Filipino actress (b. 1918)
• 1993 – Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)
• 1993 – Mitchell Parish, American lyricist (b. 1900)
• 1995 – Selena, Mexican-American singer (b. 1971)
• 1996 – Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American musician (The Gun Club) (b. 1958)
• 1998 – Bella Abzug, American politician (b. 1920)
• 1998 – Tim Flock, American race car driver (b. 1924)
• 1999 – Yuri Knorozov, Russian linguist (b. 1922)
• 2001 – Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1915)
• 2002 – Barry Took, British comedian (b. 1928)
• 2002 – Moturu Udayam, Indian women's activist (b. 1924)
• 2003 – H.S.M. Coxeter, English-born geometer (b. 1907)
• 2003 – Anne Gwynne, American film actress (b. 1918)
• 2003 – Tommy Seebach, Danish singer (b. 1949)
• 2005 – Stanley J. Korsmeyer, American oncologist (b. 1951)
• 2005 – Justiniano Montano, Filipino politician (b. 1905)
• 2005 – Frank Perdue, American poultry farmer (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Terri Schiavo, American figure in right to die case (b. 1963)
• 2006 – Angela Devi, American adult model (b. 1975)
• 2006 – Jackie McLean, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1931)
• 2007 – Paul Watzlawick, Austrian-born theoreticist (b. 1921)
• 2008 – Jules Dassin, American film director (b. 1911)
• 2008 – Bill Keightley (Mr. Wildcat), American basketball equipment manager (b. 1926)
• 2009 – Jarl Alfredius, Swedish news anchor (b. 1943)
• 2009 – Raúl Alfonsín, Argentinean ex president (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

• US Virgin Islands – Transfer Day
• Freedom Day (Malta)
• Abdas of Susa
• Anesius and companions

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: March 31

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada