1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1903 – Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
1909 – Construction of the ill fated RMS Titanic begins.
1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.
1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
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 eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.
1942 – Michael Savage, American radio host and author was born.
1945 – World 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.
1948 – Al Gore, American politician, 45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Prize laureate was born.
1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
1965 – An Iberia Airlines Convair 440 crashes into the sea on approach to Tangier, killing 47 of 51 occupants.
1970 – Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijack Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.
1980 – The 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.
1980 – Jesse Owens, American sprinter and long jumper (b. 1913) died.
1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York.
1990 – Approximately 200,000 protestors take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.
1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
2004 – Iraq War in Anbar Province – In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.
ALSO ——————-
HAPPY RE-BIRTHDAY TO:
1685 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Eisenach Germany, composer (Mattheus-Passion)
1925 - Jean Coutu, French Canadian actor (d. 1999)
1927 - Cesar Chavez, Yuma Az, farm labor leader (United Farm Workers)
1933 - Shirley Jones, Smithton Pa, actress (Partridge Family, Elmer Gantry)
1935 - Herb Alpert, bandleader/trumpeteer (Tijuana Brass)/CEO (A & M)
1943 - Christopher Walken, Astoria Queens, actor (Deer Hunter, Brainstorm)
1944 - Mick Ralphs, English guitarist (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company)
1946 - Gabe Kaplan, Brooklyn New York, American comedian/actor (Welcome Back Kotter)
1955 - Angus Young, Glascow Scotland, rock guitarist (AC/DC-Highway to Hell)
1971 - Ewan McGregor, Perth Scotland, Scottish actor (Trainspotting)
more AT http://www.historyorb.com/birthdays/march/31
RIP:
1727 - Isaac Newton, English physicist/astronomer, dies in London at 84
1996 - Jeffrey Lee Pierce, musician, dies at 37
MORE here – http://www.historyorb.com/deaths/march/31