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March 31
(Redirected from 31 March)
March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March.
Events
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307 - After divorcing his wife Minerva, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
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1717 - A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.
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1774 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.
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1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
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1866 - Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile
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1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
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1889 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.
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1903 - Richard Pearse reportedly flies a heavier-than-air machine in powered flight near Pleasant Point , South Canterbury, New Zealand; some claim 1902
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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.
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1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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1917 - The United States takes possession of the U.S. Virgin Islands after paying $25 million to Denmark.
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1918 - Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
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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.
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1931 - An earthquake destroys Managua Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
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1933 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.
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1949 - Newfoundland and Labrador joins Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
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1959 - The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
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1964 - The Dictatorship in Brazil , under the aegis of general Castello Branco, begins.
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1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the Moon.
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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.
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1968 - President Lyndon Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.
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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.
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1979 - In Jerusalem, Israel, Gali Atari & Milk and Honey win the twenth-fourth Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing "Hallelujah".
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1979 - The last Bristish soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta is no longer a military base.
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1985 - The first ever WrestleMania is held in New York City's Madison Square Garden.
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1986 - A Mexicana Boeing 727 enroute to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166
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1986 - Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England
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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".
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1991 - The Warsaw Pact comes to an end.
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1992 - The television news program Dateline NBC premieres.
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1993 - Actor Brandon Lee is accidentally killed during the filming of The Crow.
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1994 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).
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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.
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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.
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2004 - Google announces Gmail, the first web-based mail service to offer 1 gigabyte of storage.
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2004 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.
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2004 - Sandton Square in Johannesburg, South Africa, is renamed Nelson Mandela Square.
Births
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250 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (d. 306)
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1499 - Pope Pius IV (d. 1565)
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1504 - Guru Angad Dev, Second Guru of the Sikhs (d. 1552)
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1519 - Henry II of France (d. 1559)
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1536 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Ashikaga shogun (d. 1565)
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1596 - René Descartes, mathematician (d. 1650)
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1621 - Andrew Marvell, English poet (d. 1678)
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1675 - Pope Benedict XIV (d. 1758)
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1732 - Franz Joseph Haydn, composer (d. 1809)
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1809 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (d. 1852)
- 1809 - Edward FitzGerald, poet (d. 1883)
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1811 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist, inventor: Bunsen burner (d. 1899)
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1878 - Jack Johnson, African-American boxer (d. 1946)
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1885 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse" (d. 1930)
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1900 - Richard Alexander Walter Windsor , Duke of Gloucester
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1911 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (d. 1986)
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1912 - Hermann Höcherl , German politician (d. 1989)
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1914 - Octavio Paz, Mexican writer, diplomat, and nobel laureate (d. 1998)
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1915 - Albert Hourani, historian (d. 1993)
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1922 - Richard Kiley, actor, singer (d. 1999)
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1924 - Leo Buscaglia, American author (d. 1998)
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1926 - John Fowles, author
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1927 - César Chávez, labor activist (d. 1993)
- 1927 - William Daniels, actor
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1928 - Gordie Howe, ice hockey player
- 1928 - Lefty Frizzell, country music performer
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1929 - Lucille Bliss , voice actress
- 1929 - Liz Claiborne , Belgian fashion designer
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1934 - Shirley Jones, singer, actress
- 1934 - Richard Chamberlain, actor
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1935 - Herb Alpert, musician
- 1935 - Judith Rossner , American author
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1939 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia (d. 1993)
- 1939 - Volker Schlöndorff, German film director
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1940 - Patrick Leahy, United States Senator from Vermont
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1943 - Christopher Walken, actor
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1945 - Gabe Kaplan, American actor, comedian, poker player
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1946 - Gonzalo Márquez, Major League Baseball player (d. 1984)
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1948 - Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States
- 1948 - Rhea Perlman, actress
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1949 - Bethel Enproe Adam, second Angam Baby
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1050 - Ed Marinaro, American football player, actor
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1955 - Angus Young, British-Australian musician (AC/DC)
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1957 - Marc McClure , American actor
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1965 - William McNamara , American actor
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1966 - Roger Black, British athlete
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1971 - Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
- 1971 - Pavel Bure, ice hockey player
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1973 - Bold Forbes, thoroughbred race horse (d. 2000)
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1976 - Josh Saviano, actor (The Wonder Years)
Deaths
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1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England (b. 1121)
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1783 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (b. 1718)
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1837 - John Constable, painter (b. 1776)
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1855 - Charlotte Brontë, author (b. 1816)
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1880 - Henryk Wieniawski, composer
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1913 - John Pierpont Morgan, American financier and banker (b. 1837)
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1917 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901 (b. 1854)
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1915 - Wyndham Halswelle, British runner
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1931 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
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1945 - Anne Frank, diarist (b. 1929)
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1952 - Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (b. 1877)
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1954 - Edwin Armstrong, electrical engineer
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1956 - Ralph DePalma, race car driver (b. 1884)
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1975 - Spider Sabich , American skier
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1978 - Charles Best, medical scientist (b. 1899)
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1980 - Jesse Owens, athlete (b. 1913)
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1981 - Enid Bagnold, British author, playwright
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1985 - The Singing Nun, nun, singer
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1986 - Jerry Paris , American actor
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1988 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
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1993 - Brandon Lee, actor (b. 1965)
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1995 - Selena, Tejano singer (b. 1971)
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1998 - Bella Abzug, American politician (b. 1920)
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2002 - Barry Took, British comedian and writer
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2003 - H.S.M. Coxeter, geometer and author
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2003 - Anne Gwynne , American actress
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2005 - Terri Schiavo, right-to-die and right-to-live symbol
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2005 - Frank Perdue, poultry farmer (b. 1920)
Holidays and observances
External links
March 30 - April 1 - February 28 (February 29) - April 30 -- listing of all days
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