What Happened This Day 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.
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).