31 March History
- 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.
31 March Birthdays
- 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).