What are the important events that happened on March 31? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
March 31: Facts & Myths About This Day
March 31 is the 91st day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 275 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is March 18, 2024 – a Sunday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,530,720 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘enneacontahenagon’ day.
Aries is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Aquamarine is the modern birthstone for this month. Jade is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 304 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,118 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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March 31 Historical Events
- 1717 –A sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
- 1854 –Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
- 1866 –The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.
- 1909 –Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 1930 –The Motion Pictures 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.
- 1931 –TWA Flight 599 crashes near Bazaar, Kansas killing 8 including Knute Rockne, head football coach at the University of Notre Dame
- 1957 –Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.
- 1970 –Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijack Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.
- 1986 –Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England.
- 1991 –Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
Who were born on March 31?
- 1360 –Philippa of Lancaster, queen of Portugal (d. 1415)
- 1536 –Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (d. 1565)
- 1621 –Andrew Marvell, English poet (d. 1678)
- 1876 –Borisav Stanković, Serbian writer (d. 1927)
- 1911 –Elisabeth Grümmer, German soprano (d. 1986)
- 1935 –Judith Rossner, American author
- 1945 –Myfanwy Talog, Welsh actress (d. 1995)
- 1948 –Gustaaf Van Cauter, Belgian cyclist
- 1960 –Michelle Nicastro, American actress and singer (d. 2010)
- 1981 –Ryan Bingham, American singer/songwriter
Who died on March 31?
- 1727 –Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1643)
- 1850 –John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (b. 1782)
- 1880 –Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (b. 1835)
- 1935 –Concordia Selander, Swedish actress (b. 1861)
- 1976 –Paul Strand, American photographer and filmmaker (b. 1890)
- 1980 –Jesse Owens, American athlete (b. 1913)
- 1993 –Chichay, Filipino actress (b. 1918)
- 1996 –Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American musician (The Gun Club) (b. 1958)
- 2002 –Moturu Udayam, Indian women’s activist (b. 1924)
- 2005 –Stanley J. Korsmeyer, American oncologist (b. 1951)
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