Sun · 27 SepMoon 99%Field Kp 4 · active Quote · Marcus Aurelius Riddle of the day Card of the dayHow today feels →

This day in history

This day in history: 31 March

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

Share

← Previous day30 Mar

Events58

Born on this day · Died on this day306 · 132

Next day →1 Apr

Key facts

496 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 31 March.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2023: A historic tornado outbreak occurs in the American Midwest and South.

Holidays and observances

Cesar Chavez Day (California, Washington (state))

Christian feast day Abdas of Susa

Christian feast day Acathius of Melitene (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Christian feast day Anesius and companions

Christian feast day Balbina

Christian feast day Benjamin

Christian feast day John Donne (Anglican Communion, Lutheran)

Christian feast day March 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day Natalia Tułasiewicz

Freedom Day (Malta)

International Transgender Day of Visibility

King Nangklao Memorial Day (Thailand)

Events

2023A historic tornado outbreak occurs in the American Midwest and South.

2018Start of the 2018 Armenian revolution.

2016NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station.

2005The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.

2004Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.

1998Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license.

1995Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.

1995TAROM Flight 371, an Airbus A310-300, crashes near Balotesti, Romania, killing all 60 people on board.

1993The 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

1992The Treaty of Federation is signed in Moscow.

1992The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

1991Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

1991The Warsaw Pact formally disbands.

1990Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

1986Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940 crashes into the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range near the Mexican town of Maravatío, killing 167.

1980The 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.

1970Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

1968American 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 fo

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

1966The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

1964Brazilian General Olímpio Mourão Filho orders his troops to move towards Rio de Janeiro, beginning the coup d'état and 21 years of military dictatorship.

1959The 14th Dalai Lama crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

1958In 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.

1957Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.

1951Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1949The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.

1945World 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.

1942World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.

1939Events 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.

1933The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States.

1931An earthquake in Nicaragua destroys Managua; killing 2,000.

1931A Transcontinental & Western Air airliner crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.

1930The 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.

1921The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.

1918Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1918Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed.

1917According to the terms of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the islands become American possessions.

1913The 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

1909Serbia formally withdraws its opposition to Austro-Hungarian actions in the Bosnian Crisis.

1906The 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.

Born on this day

2005Reed Baker-Whiting, American professional footballer

2004Alex Luna, Argentine professional footballer

2004Mateo Sanabria, Argentine professional footballer

2004Samson Baidoo, Austrian professional footballer

1999Adam Chrzanowski, Polish professional footballer

1999Adele Tan, Singaporean sports shooter

1999Ballou Tabla, Canadian professional soccer player

1999Ben Williams, Welsh professional footballer

1999Brooke Scullion, Irish Singer

1999Denys Strekalin, Ukrainian-born pair skater

1999Dimitris Dalakouras, Greek professional footballer

1999Edon Zhegrova, professional footballer

1999Elžbieta Kropa, Lithuanian figure skater

1999Japhet Tanganga, English footballer

1999Jens Odgaard, Danish professional footballer

1999Jonas Røndbjerg, Danish ice hockey player

1999Luca Pizzul, Italian professional footballer

1999Maren Lutz, German female canoeist

1999Nuno Pina, Portuguese football player

1999Providence Cowdrill, English cricketer

1999Ricardo Felipe, Brazilian footballer

1999Sander Raieste, Estonian professional basketball player

1999Santiago Chocobares, Argentine rugby union player

1999Shehana Vithana, Sri Lankan-Australian professional squash player

1999Shiann Salmon, Jamaican track and field athlete

1999Tereza Jančová, Slovak skier

1998Jakob Chychrun, American-born Canadian ice hockey player

1996Liza Koshy, American actress, comedian, and television host

1995Fiona Brown, footballer

1994Mads Würtz Schmidt, Danish road cyclist

1994Samira Asghari, Afghan member of the International Olympic Committee

1994Tyler Wright, Australian surfer

1993Mikael Ishak, Swedish footballer

1992Adam Zampa, Australian cricketer

1992Stijn de Looijer, Dutch footballer

1991Milan Milanović, Serbian footballer

1991Rodney Sneijder, Dutch footballer

1990George Iloka, American football player

1990Lyra McKee, Irish journalist (died 2019)

1990Sandra Roma, Swedish tennis player

Died on this day

2026Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat, 14th Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1937)

2025Betty Webb, English code breaker (born 1923)

2025Sian Barbara Allen, American television actress (born 1946)

2024Barbara Rush, American actress (born 1927)

2022Moana Jackson, New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law (born 1945)

2022Patrick Demarchelier, French fashion photographer (born 1943)

2022Shirley Burkovich, former American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player (born 1933)

2022Tullio Moneta, Italian mercenary and actor (born 1937)

2021Ken Reitz, American baseball player (born 1951)

2021Muhammad Wakkas, Bangladeshi teacher and parliamentarian (born 1952)

2020Gita Ramjee, Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher (born 1956)

2019Nipsey Hussle, American rapper (born 1985)

2018Nick Newton, inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks (born 1933)

2017Gilbert Baker, American artist and LGBT rights activist (born 1951)

2017James Rosenquist, American artist (born 1933)

2016Denise Robertson, British writer and television broadcaster (born 1932)

2016Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician (born 1927)

2016Imre Kertész, Hungarian author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)

2016Ronnie Corbett, Scottish comedian, actor and screenwriter (born 1930)

2016Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (born 1950)

2015Betty Churcher, Australian painter, historian, and curator (born 1931)

2015Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian lawyer and politician (born 1937)

2015Cocoa Fujiwara, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1983)

2015Dalibor Vesely, Czech-English historian, author, and academic (born 1934)

2014Gonzalo Anes, Spanish economist, historian, and academic (born 1931)

2014Roger Somville, Belgian painter (born 1923)

2013Ahmad Sayyed Javadi, Iranian lawyer and politician, Iranian Minister of Interior (born 1917)

2013Bob Clarke, American illustrator (born 1926)

2013Charles Amarin Brand, French archbishop (born 1920)

2013Dmitri Uchaykin, Russian ice hockey player (born 1980)

Quote of the day

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Will Durant, on Aristotle

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

This day in history

Every question has its own page

Journal

What you should know, before others do

Weekly insights. One article. One practice. No noise.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to run the platform. Analytics and marketing cookies are only turned on once you consent — you can change your choice at any time.