March 31


March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap
years). There are 275 days remaining.

Events

   * 307 - After divorcing his wife Minerva, Constantine marries Fausta, the
     daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
   * 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the
     Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to
     American trade.
   * 1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
   * 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.
   * 1903 - Richard Pearse is reputed to have flown a heavier than air
     machine in powered flight near Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, New
     Zealand.
   * 1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States
     (IAAUS) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United
     States. The IAAUS would later become the National Collegiate Athletic
     Association (NCAA) in 1910.
   * 1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   * 1917 - The United States takes possession of the U.S. 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.
   * 1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first
     spaceprobe to enter orbit around the moon.
   * 1970 - Explorer I re-enters the earth's atmosphere (after 12 years in
     orbit)
   * 1990 - Thunder Meets Lightning: Julio Cesar Chavez defeats Meldrick
     Taylor to unify boxing's world junior welterweight title in very
     controversial fight.
   * 1991 - The Warsaw Pact comes to an end.
   * 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).

Births

   * 1596 - RenŽ Descartes, mathematician (+ 1650)
   * 1732 - Joseph Haydn, composer (+ 1809)
   * 1809 - Nikolai Gogol, writer (+ 1852)
   * 1878 - Jack Johnson, African-American boxer (+ 1946)
   * 1885 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse" (+ 1930)
   * 1900 - Richard Alexander Walter Windsor, Duke of Gloucester
   * 1912 - Hermann Hšcherl, politician (+ 1989)
   * 1914 - Ocatvio Paz, author, Nobel Prize for Literature (+ 1998)
   * 1922 - Richard Kiley, actor, singer (+ 1999)
   * 1927 - Cesar Chavez, labor activist (+ 1993)
   * 1927 - William Daniels, actor
   * 1928 - Gordie Howe, ice hockey player
   * 1928 - Lefty Frizzell, country music performer
   * 1934 - Shirley Jones, singer, actress
   * 1935 - Richard Chamberlain, actor
   * 1935 - Herb Alpert, musician
   * 1939 - Volker Schlšndorff, film director
   * 1943 - Christopher Walken, actor
   * 1948 - Al Gore, Vice President of the United States
   * 1948 - Rhea Perlman, actress
   * 1971 - Ewan McGregor, actor
   * 1971 - Pavel Bure, ice hockey player
   * 1976 - Colin Farrell, actor

Deaths

   * 1837 - John Constable, painter
   * 1855 - Charlotte Bronte, author
   * 1917 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
     or Medicine 1901
   * 1931 - Knute Rockne, American football coach
   * 1978 - Charles Best, medical scientist
   * 1980 - Jesse Owens, athlete
   * 1988 - William McMahon, Australian Prime Minister
   * 1993 - Brandon Lee, actor
   * 1998 - Bella Abzug, American politician

Holidays and observances

   * 1991, 2002, 2013, 2024: Easter day