Events of the day 31 March
Events of day 31 March
307:
After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
627:
Battle of the Trench: Muhammad undergoes a 14-day siege at Medina (Saudi Arabia) by Meccan forces under Abu Sufyan.
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 Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1561:
The city of San Cristóbal, Táchira is founded.
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 an attempted rebellion, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix.
1854:
Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
1885:
The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
1889:
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1899:
Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.
1906:
The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.
1909:
Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1913:
The Vienna Concert Society rioted during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern,
causing a premature end to the concert due to violence; this concert became known as the Skandalkonzert.
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:
Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed.
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 Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.
1931:
An earthquake in Nicaragua destroys Managua; killing 2,000.
1931:
A Transcontinental & Western Air airliner crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.
1933:
The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States.
1942:
World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
1945:
World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.
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.
1958:
In the Canadian federal election, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, win the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265.
1959:
The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
1964:
A coup d'état in Brazil establishes a military government, under the aegis of general Castelo Branco.
1966:
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1968:
American President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address.
At the conclusion of his speech, he also announced, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.".
1970:
Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
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 (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1990:
Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.
1991:
Georgian independence referendum, 1991: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
1992:
The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
1995:
Selena is murdered by her fan club's president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas after accusations of Saldívar embezzling money from Selena's fan club.
1998:
Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license.
2004:
Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.
Celebrations 31 March
1930:
Was born Petre Gigea.
1959:
Was born Cristina Felea.
1930:
Was born Florin Mihai Petrescu.
1954:
Was born Dan Sandu.
1952:
Was born Adrian Vasiliu.
1950:
