Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
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. | |
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Born on March 31 |
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| 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). | |
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