March 31

Historic Events

2023

A historic tornado outbreak occurs in the American Midwest and South. ›

2018

Start of the 2018 Armenian revolution. ›

2016

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station. ›

2005

The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory. ›

2004

Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed. ›

1998

Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license. ›

1995

Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas. ›

1995

TAROM Flight 371, an Airbus A310-300, crashes near Balotesti, Romania, killing all 60 people on board. ›

1993

The Macao Basic Law is adopted by the Eighth National People's Congress of China to take effect December 20, 1999. Resumption by China of the Exercise of Sovereignty over Macao ›

1992

The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California. ›

1992

The Treaty of Federation is signed in Moscow. ›

1991

Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union. ›

1991

The Warsaw Pact formally disbands. ›

1990

Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax. ›

1986

Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940 crashes into the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range near the Mexican town of Maravatío, killing 167. ›

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. ›

1970

Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit. ›

1968

American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." ›

1966

The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon. ›

1966

The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the 1966 United Kingdom general election. ›

1964

Brazilian General Olímpio Mourão Filho orders his troops to move towards Rio de Janeiro, beginning the coup d'état and 21 years of military dictatorship. ›

1959

The 14th Dalai Lama crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum. ›

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. ›

1957

Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government. ›

1951

Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. ›

1949

The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada. ›

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. ›

1942

World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession. ›

1939

Events preceding World War II in Europe: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pledges British military support to the Second Polish Republic in the event of an invasion by Nazi Germany. ›

1933

The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States. ›

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. ›

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. ›

1921

The Royal Australian Air Force is formed. ›

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. ›

1917

According to the terms of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the islands become American possessions. ›

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. ›

1909

Serbia formally withdraws its opposition to Austro-Hungarian actions in the Bosnian Crisis. ›

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. ›

1905

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany declares his support for Moroccan independence in Tangier, beginning the First Moroccan Crisis. ›

1901

Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák premieres at the National Opera House in Prague. ›

1899

Philippine–American War: Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces. ›

1889

The Eiffel Tower is officially opened. ›

1885

The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate. ›

1854

Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. ›

1814

The Sixth Coalition occupies Paris after Napoleon's Grande Armée capitulates. ›

1774

American Revolution: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act. ›

1761

The 1761 Lisbon earthquake strikes off the Iberian Peninsula with an estimated magnitude of 8.5, six years after another quake destroyed the city. ›

1717

A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controversy. ›

1706

The last session of history of the Catalan Courts, the parliament of the Principality of Catalonia, ends. Catalonia's constitutional modernisation passed by the Courts aims to improve the guarantee of individual, political and economic rights (such as the secrecy of correspondence). ›

1657

The Long Parliament presents the Humble Petition and Advice offering Oliver Cromwell the British throne, which he eventually declines. ›

1521

Ferdinand Magellan and fifty of his men came ashore to present-day Limasawa to participate in the first Catholic mass in the Philippines. ›

1492

Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile sign the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, ordering all Jews in their kingdoms to either convert to Christianity or leave the country. ›

1272

Pope Gregory X calls for a General Church Council to discuss reunion of Churches, Crusade to the Holy Land and Church reform. ›

1174

A conspiracy against Saladin, aiming to restore the Fatimid Caliphate, is revealed in Cairo, involving senior figures of the former Fatimid regime and the poet Umara al-Yamani. Modern historians doubt the extent and danger of the conspiracy reported in official sources, but its ringleaders will be publicly executed over the following weeks. ›

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. ›

307

After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman emperor Maximian. ›