March 31 Historical Events
The following events took place on March 31. The list is arranged in chronological order.
Found 47 events. Showing 1 - 30.
- 307After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
- 627Battle of the Trench: Muhammad undergoes a 14-day siege at Medina (Saudi Arabia) by Meccan forces under Abu Sufyan.
- 1146Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.
- 1492Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
- 1561The city of San Cristóbal, Táchira is founded.
- 1717A sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
- 1774American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.
- 1822The massacre of the population of the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following an attempted rebellion, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix.
- 1854Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
- 1866The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.
- 1877The family with samurai antecedents that responded to the Saigō army in Ōita Nakatsu, rebels.
- 1885The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
- 1889The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
- 1899Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, was captured by American forces.
- 1903Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
- 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.
- 1909Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 1909Construction of the ill fated RMS Titanic begins.
- 1910Six North Staffordshire Pottery towns federate to form modern Stoke-on-Trent.
- 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 the Skandalkonzert.
- 1917The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.
- 1918Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed.
- 1918Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
- 1921The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.
- 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.
- 1931An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
- 1931TWA Flight 599 crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.
- 1933The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States.
- 1942World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
- 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.
12
Curious about this Charming Gift Box? This is a party item you can activate and send to your friends when you play the free game Jump Birthday Party. It’s a fun and easy-to-play mobile game for all ages. Get free 1,000 gold coins when you download today!