THIS DAY IN THE PAST - NGÀY NẦY NĂM XƯA
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Today in History
March 31
March 31
| 1282 | The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end. | |
| 1547 | In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II. | |
| 1776 | Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights. | |
| 1779 | Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea. | |
| 1790 | In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club. | |
| 1836 | The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is published in London. | |
| 1862 | Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces takes place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River. | |
| 1880 | The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana. | |
| 1889 | The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opens on the Left Bank as part of the Exhibition of 1889. | |
| 1916 | General John Pershing and his army rout Pancho Villa's army in Mexico. | |
| 1917 | The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million. | |
| 1918 | Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time. | |
| 1921 | Great Britain declares a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike. | |
| 1933 | To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps . | |
| 1939 | Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade. | |
| 1940 | La Guardia airport in New York officially opens to the public. | |
| 1941 | Germany begins a counter offensive in North Africa. | |
| 1945 | The United States and Britain bar a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco. | |
| 1948 | The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin. | |
| 1949 | Winston Churchill declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe. | |
| 1954 | The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault. | |
| 1960 | The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans. | |
| 1966 | An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City. | |
| 1967 | President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution. | |
| 1970 | U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, the first since September 1968. | |
| 1980 | President Jimmy Carter deregulates the banking industry. | |
| 1991 | Albania offers a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. | |
| Born on March 31 | ||
| 1596 | René Descartes, French philosopher and scientist. | |
| 1621 | Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician. | |
| 1693 | John Harrison, Englishman who invented the chronometer. | |
| 1732 | Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer. | |
| 1809 | Edward Fitzgerald, American writer. | |
| 1809 | Nikolai V. Gogol, Russian writer (The Inspector General, Dead Souls). | |
| 1811 | Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist, inventor of the Bunsen burner. | |
| 1854 | Sir Dugald Clerk, inventor of the two-stroke motorcycle engine. | |
| 1878 | Jack Johnson, first Africa-American boxer to become the world heavyweight champion. | |
| 1914 | Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and Nobel Prize-winning writer. | |
| 1915 | Henry Morgan, comedian, radio performer. | |
| 1926 | John Fowles, English novelist (The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman). | |
| 1936 | Marge Piercy, poet and novelist. | |
| 1948 | Al Gore, Vice President to President William J. Clinton (1993-2001). | |
