On this day in History - Mar 31

• 0250 - Constantius Chlorus was born. Roman Emperor (d. 0306).
• 0307 - After divorcing his wife Minerva, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
• 1084 - Anti-pope Clement III crowned German emperor Henry IV.
• 1128 - Num diploma desta data, o nome de D. Afonso Henriques aparece à frente de Fernão Peres de Trava, pela primeira vez, demonstrando a tentativa de pacificação entre D. Teresa, Fernão Peres de Trava e a nobreza portucalense revoltada.
• 1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine dies (b. 1121). Queen of France and England.
• 1340 - Ivan I of Russia dies (b. 1288). Prince of Moscow.
• 1371 - É assinado o Tratado de Alcoutim entre D. Fernando e Henrique II de Castela, pelo qual se põe fim à guerra começada em 1369. D. Fernando abdicava das suas pretensões à coroa de Castela, obtendo em troca um alargamento do território de Portugal e o acordo para o seu casamento com a Infanta Dona Leonor, filha mais velha do rei de Castela.
• 1492 - Os reis Católicos, Fernando de Aragão e Isabel de Castela, assinam o decreto de expulsão dos judeus da Espanha.
• 1499 - Pope Pius IV was born (d. 1565).
• 1504 - Guru Angad Dev was born (d. 1552). Second Guru of the Sikhs.
• 1519 - Henry II of France was born (d. 1559).
• 1521 - The first Roman Catholic mass in the Philippines was celebrated on the island of Limasawa.
• 1536 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru was born (d. 1565). Ashikaga shogun.
• 1567 - Philipp I of Hesse dies (b. 1504).
• 1596 - René Descartes was born in La Haye (d. 11 Feb 1650). French mathematician and philosopher. ("I think, therefore I am")
• 1621 - Philip III of Spain ( Philip II of Portugal) dies (b. 1578)./ Morte de Filipe II de Portugal, (Filipe III de Catela) nascido em 1578, sucedendo-lhe Filipe III com 16 anos.
• 1621 - Andrew Marvell was born (d. 1678). English poet.
• 1631 - John Donne dies (b. 1572). English writer and prelate.
• 1651 - Karl II, Elector Palatine was born (d. 1685).
• 1667 - Assinatura do tratado de aliança entre D. Afonso VI e Luís XIV (França), contra Carlos II de Espanha.
• 1671 - Anne Hyde dies (b. 1637). Queen of James II of England.
• 1675 - Pope Benedict XIV was born (d. 1758).
• 1693 - John Harrisson was born (d. 1776). English horologist and inventer /Nasceu o inventor inglês John Harrison, responsável pelo cronómetro .
• 1703 - Johann Christoph Bach, dies (b. 1642). German composer.
• 1703 - Portugal, Inglaterra e Holanda assinaram um tratado de aliança ofensiva e defensiva .
• 1711 - Ireland's last trial for witchcraft was at Magee Island.
• 1717 - A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.
• 1718 - Marianne Victoria of Borbón was born (d. 1781). Queen regent of Portugal.
• 1723 - King Frederick V of Denmark was born (d. 1766).
• 1723 - Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon dies (b. 1661). British Governor of New York and New Jersey
• 1727 - Sir Isaac Newton dies (b. 1643). Mathematician and physicist.
• 1732 - Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria. ( d. 31 May 1809 in Vienna). Composer.
• 1741 - Pieter Burmann the Elder dies (b. 1668). Dutch classical scholar
• 1742 - P. D. Q. Bach was born (d. 1807). Fictitious composer.
• 1745 - Jews were expelled from Prague.
• 1774- American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.
• 1777 - Charles Cagniard de la Tour was born (d. 1859). French physicist.
• 1778 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born (d. 1858). Dutch zoologist.
• 1783 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin dies (b. 1718). Russian statesman.
• 1791 - Mozart aceita a encomenda anónima de um Requiem, enquanto última a composição da Flauta Mágica.
• 1806 - Benito Juarez was born (d. 1872). Mexican statesman.
• 1809 - Edward FitzGerald was born (d. 1883). English poet.
• 1809 - Nikolai Gogol was born (d. 1852). Russian writer.
• 1811 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen was born (d. 1899). Chemist, inventor: Bunsen burner.
• 1821 - É extinta a Inquisição em Portugal, por uma sessão das Cortes Gerais, Extraordinárias e Constituintes da Nação Portuguesa. Tinha sido instituída por meio da bula "Cum ad nihit magis", de 23 de Maio de 1536.
• 1829 - Pius VIII was elected pope.
• 1837 - John Constable dies (b. 1776). English painter.
• 1839 - Las fuerzas gubernamentales del general y político argentino Juan Manuel de Rosas masacran a los sublevados del barón de Astrada, quien perece en la lucha.
• 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
• 1855 - Charlotte Brontë dies (b. 1816). English author.
• 1864 - Manuel Murillo Toro is elected President of Colombia.
• 1866 - Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile .
• 1870 - Thomas Peterson Mundy of New Jersey becomes the first black man to cast a ballot after the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives blacks the right to vote.
• 1871 - Arthur Griffith was born (d. 1922). President of Ireland.
• 1878 - La Asamblea Nacional de Ecuador promulga una Nueva Constitución bajo la presidencia de Ignacio Veintimilla.
• 1878 - Jack Johnson was born (d. 1946). African-American boxer.
• 1879 - Se establece por decreto en Venezuela el bolívar como moneda nacional.
• 1880 - Henryk Wieniawski dies.Polish composer .
• 1881 - Sigmund Freud received his MD degree from the University of Vienna. During his career as a medical student, Freud discovered that cocaine could be used as an analgesic.
• 1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
• 1885 - Pascin was born (d. 1930). Bulgarian painter, The "Prince of Montparnasse".
• 1885 - Franz Wilhelm Abt dies (b. 1819). German composer.
• 1889 - The Eiffel Tower built for the Paris World's Fair is opened to public.
• 1890 - William Lawrence Bragg was born (d. 1971). English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1891 - Victor Varconi was born (d. 19876). Hungarian film actor.
• 1900 - Richard Alexander Walter Windsor was born. Duke of Gloucester .
• 1903 - Richard Pearse reportedly flies a heavier-than-air machine in powered flight near Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, New Zealand; some claim 1902
• 1906 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga was born (d. 1979). Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 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.
• 1908 – Eugénio Salvador was born (d. 1992). Portuguese actor / Nascimentop, em Lisboa, do grande actor português, Eugénio Salvador (m. 1992). [Aqui D'El Rei! (1992) (TV) . A Maluquinha de Arroios (1970) Bonança & C.a (1969) Passagem de Nível (1965) Aqui Há Fantasmas (1964) Parque das Ilusões, O (1963) Pupilas do Senhor Reitor, As (1961) Vidas Sem Rumo (1956) Comissário de Polícia, O (1953) Duas Causas (1953) Três da Vida Airada, Os (1952) Um Marido Solteiro (1952); Eram Duzentos Irmãos (1952); Madragoa (1952); Sonhar É Fácil (1951); Sol e Toiros (1949) ; Fado, História d'uma Cantadeira (1948); Cais do Sodré (1946) ;Maria Papoila (1937/I) Lisboa (1930)].
• 1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• 1911 - Elisabeth Grümmer was born (d. 1986). Alsatian soprano.
• 1912 - Hermann Höcherl was born (d. 1989). German politician.
• 1912 - Karl May dies (b. 1842). Author.
• 1913 - John Pierpont Morgan dies (b. 1837). American financier and banker.
• 1914 - Octavio Paz was born (d. 1998). Mexican writer, diplomat, and Nobel laureate
• 1915 - Albert Hourani was born (d. 1993). English historian.
• 1915 - Wyndham Halswelle dies (b. 1882). British runner .
• 1915 - Sixto (Doroteo) Palavecino was born in Barrancas, Salavina. Argentine musician.
• 1917 - Emil Adolf von Behring dies (b. 1854). German physician, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
• 1917 - Estados Unidos toma posesión de las islas Vírgenes, compradas a Dinamarca por vinte millones de dólares .
• 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.
• 1922 - Richard Kiley was born (d. 1999). American actor, singer.
• 1924 - Leo Buscaglia was born (d. 1998). American author.
• 1926 - John Fowles was born (d. 2005). English author .
• 1927 - César Chávez was born (d. 1993). American labor activist.
• 1927 - William Daniels was born. American actor .
• 1928 - Gordie Howe was born. Canadian ice hockey player .
• 1928 - Lefty Frizzell was born (d. 1975). American singer and songwriter.
• 1929 - Lucille Bliss was born. American voice actress.
• 1929 - Liz Claiborne was born. Belgian fashion designer.
• 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.
• 1931 - Knute Rockne dies (b. 1888). American football coach.
• 1932 - Nagisa Oshima was born in Kyoto, Japan. Director, Writer, Editor, Actor, Director [ (TV) Kyoto, My Mother's Place (1991); Max mon amour (1986); Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) ; Ai no borei (1978) aka Empire of Passion (USA); Ai no corrida (1976) aka Bullfight of Love (Japan: literal English title).. aka Empire of the Senses; The Battle of Tsushima (1975) ; Natsu no imoto (1972)... aka Dear Summer Sister; Shonen (1969)... aka Boy (USA);Nihon shunka-kô (1967)... aka A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs; Ai to kibo no machi (1959)... aka A Street of Love and Hope (literal English title) and many others.].
• 1933 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.
• 1933 - El presidente de Uruguay, Gabriel Terra, da un golpe de Estado y disuelve el Parlamento.
• 1934 - Shirley Jones was born. American singer and actress .
• 1934 - Carlo Rubbia was born. Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1935 - Judith Rossner was born. American author.
• 1935 - Richard Chamberlain was born. American actor (Dr. Kildare) .
• 1935 - Herb Alpert was born. American trumpeter an band leader.
• 1935 – Ruth Escobar was born. Brazilian actress, journalist and politician.
• 1938 - Sheila Dikshit was born. Chief Minister of Delhi.
• 1939 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia was born (d. 1993). Scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia .
• 1939 - Volker Schlöndorff was born. German film director .
• 1940 - Patrick Leahy was born. United States Senator from Vermont.
• 1941 - Cox v. New Hampshire : The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the convictions of Jehovah's Witnesses for engaging in a public parade without a license.
• 1943 - Christopher Walken was born. American actor.
• 1945 - Valerie Curtin was born. American actress, writer, and producer.
• 1945 - Gabe Kaplan was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1945 - Anne Frank dies (b. 1929). German-born diarist whose world-famous diary was published after WW II.
• 1945 - Hans Fischer dies in Munich (b. 27 Jul 1881). German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1930.
• 1946 - Gonzalo Márquez was born (d. 1984). Venezuelan Major League Baseball player.
• 1947 - Cesar Gaviria Trujillo was born. President of Colombia.
• 1947 - En Paraguay, las fuerzas rebeldes contra el Gobierno de Higinio Moriñigo son derrotadas en Piripuco.
• 1948 - Al Gore was born. Vice President of the United States .
• 1948 - Rhea Perlman was born. American actress .
• 1948 - Aprovação pelo Congresso dos Estados Unidos da América do chamado "Plano Marshall".
• 1949 - Newfoundland becomes the 10th province in Canada.
• 1949 - Bethel Enproe Adam was born. Second Angam Baby .
• 1949 - Terranova ingresa en la Federación Canadiense, y se constituye en la décima provincia de Canadá.
• 1950 - Ed Marinaro was born. American football player and actor.
• 1950 - Andras Adorjan was born. Hungarian chess player,
• 1952 - Wallace H. White, Jr. dies (b. 1877). U.S. Senator from Maine.
• 1953 - Foram descobertos os "Manuscritos do Mar Morto" .
• 1954 - Edwin Armstrong dies (b. 1890). American electrical engineer and inventor.
• 1955 - Angus Young was born. Scottish-born musician (AC/DC).
• 1956 - Ralph DePalma dies (b. 1884). Italian-born race car driver.
• 1957 - Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.
• 1957 - Marc McClure was born. American actor.
• 1959 - The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
• 1964 - Golpe militar de 1964 no Brasil derruba o presidente João Goulart .
• 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 - Roger Black was born. British athlete .
• 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 - President Lyndon 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.
• 1971 - Ewan McGregor was born. Scottish actor .
• 1971 - Pavel Bure was born. Russian ice hockey player.
• 1972 - Alejandro Amenábar was born in Santiago. Chilean actor, writer and film director.
• 1973 - Bold Forbes was born (d. 2000). Puerto Rican racehorse.
• 1974 - Stefan Olsdal was born. Bassist for Placebo (band)
• 1974 - Benjamin Eicher was born. Swiss film director
• 1976 - The New Jersey Supreme Court sets a precedent, ruling that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan can be taken off life support so she can "die with dignity."
• 1976 - Josh Saviano was born. American actor (The Wonder Years).
• 1978 - Stephen Clemence was born. English footballer.
• 1978 - Jérôme Rothen was born. French footballer
• 1978 - Charles Best dies (b. 1899). Canadian medical scientist.
• 1979 - In Jerusalem, Israel, Gali Atari & Milk and Honey win the twenth-fourth Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing "Hallelujah".
• 1980 - Jesse Owens dies in Phoenix, Arizona (b. 1913). American track-and-field legend.
• 1980 - Vladimír Holan dies (b. 1905). Czech poet.
• 1980 - Chien-Ming Wang was born. Taiwanese Major League Baseball player.
• 1981 - Enid Bagnold dies (b. 1889). British author and playwright.
• 1982 - Tal Ben Haim was born. Israeli footballer.
• 1982 - Philippe Mexès was born. French footballer.
• 1984 - El presidente de Honduras, Roberto Suazo Córdova, asume el mando temporal de las Fuerzas Armadas.
• 1984 - Ronald Clark O'Bryan dies executed (b. 1944). American murderer.
• 1985 - The Singing Nun dies (b. 1933). Belgian nun and singer.
• 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 .
• 1987 - El Papa, Juan Pablo II, llega a Montevideo en su octava visita a Iberoamérica.
• 1988 - William McMahon dies (b. 1908). Twentieth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1989 - Yaser Arafat es proclamado presidente de Palestina por decisión unánime de los 70 miembros del Comité Central de la OLP.
• 1990 - El político español José María Aznar es elegido presidente del Partido Popular.
• 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.
• 1991 - British Telecom changes its name into 'BT'.
• 1992 - Boris Yeltsin firma en Moscú el Tratado de la Federación con 18 repúblicas rusas.
• 1992 - The television news program Dateline NBC premieres.
• 1992 - A inflação no Brasil atinge um pico recorde de 84,3% no mês. Nos últimos 12 meses a inflação havia chegado a 4.854%
• 1993 - O Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas aprovam o uso de força militar na Iugoslávia.
• 1993 - Actor Brandon Lee (b. 1965) 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.
• 1995 - Selena dies (b. 1971). American singer.
• 1996 - Valentino Rossi takes part in his first 125cc Motorcycle Grand Prix race, at Shah Alam, Malaysia.
• 1998 - Bella Abzug dies (b. 1920). American politician.
• 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.
• 1999 - Yuri Knorosov dies (b. 1922). Russian linguist and epigrapher.
• 2000 - Cuffley v. Mickes : The Ku Klux Klan applied to participate in Missouri's Adopt-A-Highway program, but were denied because of their beliefs. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Klan.
• 2001 - President Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announces the formation of the Perpetual Education Fund, an endowment to offer loans to students in developing nations.
• 2001 - Clifford Shull dies (b. 1915). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate .
• 2002 - Barry Took dies (b. 1928). British comedian and writer.
• 2003 - H.S.M. Coxeter dies (b. 1907). English-born geometer and author.
• 2003 - Michael Jeter dies. Actor .
• 2003 - Tommy Seebach dies (b. 1949). Danish singer.
• 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.
• 2005 - After 13 days without her feeding tube, Terri Schiavo dies in Florida. Terri Schiavo fell into a coma brought on buy her bulimia and the loss of blood flow to her brain caused it to die - her cerebral cortex was gone and spinal fluid was all that remains. Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael, wanted the feeding tube removed and said that was what she would have wanted. All courts agreed, but Terri Schiavo's parents fought it - and lost
• 2005 - Stanley J. Korsmeyer dies (b. 1951). American oncologist.
• 2005 - Frank Perdue dies (b. 1920). American poultry farmer.
• Brasil: Dia da Integração Nacional
• Freedom Day in Malta