1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine are present and join the Crusade
1492 – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra edict expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity.
1683 – Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and King John III Sobieski of Poland sign a covenant against Turkey, beginning of the Holy League
1776 – Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that women were “determined to foment a rebellion” if the new Declaration of Independence failed to guarantee their rights.
1808 – French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names
1854 – The U.S. government signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. The act opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakotade to American trade.
1870 – In Perth Amboy, NJ, Thomas Munday Peterson became the first black to vote in the U.S.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opened.
1900 – The W.E. Roach Company was the first automobile company to put an advertisement in a national magazine. The magazine was the “Saturday Evening Post”.
1901 – In Russia, the Czar lashed out at Socialist-Revolutionaries with the arrests of 72 people and the seizing of two printing presses.
1904 – In India, hundreds of Tibetans were slaughtered by the British.
1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was founded to set rules in amateur sports. The organization became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.
1908 – 250,000 coal miners in Indianapolis, IN, went on strike to await a wage adjustment.
1917 – The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands.
1918 – For the first time in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time went into effect.
1931 – Brilliant Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (43) is killed with 7 others when light plane crashes on trip from Kansas City to Los Angeles; record 105-12-5 @ .881 remains best ever
1933 – The U.S. Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps to relieve rampant unemployment.
1948 – US Congress passes Marshall Aid Act to rehabilitate war-torn Europe
1960 – The South African government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations led to the death of more than 50 Africans.
1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces in an address to the nation that he will not seek re-election
1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizes a troop surge in Vietnam, bringing the total number of US soldiers to a peak of 549,500
1976 – The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from a respirator. Quinlan remained comatose until 1985 when she died.
1980 – U.S. President Carter deregulated the banking industry.
1990 – Major riots occur in London and other British towns in protest against the new Community Charge poll tax laws
1993 – Brandon Lee was killed accidentally while filming a movie.
1994 – “Nature” magazine announced that a complete skull of Australppithecus afarensis had been found in Ethiopia. The finding is of humankind’s earliest ancestor.
1998 – For the first time in U.S. history the federal government’s detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.
2000 – In Uganda, officials set the number of deaths linked to a doomsday religious cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, at more than 900. In Kanungu, a March 17 fire at the cult’s church killed more than 530 and authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult
2004 – In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/international/worldspecial/enraged-mob-in-falluja-kills-4-american.html
2005 – Terry Schiavo died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/01/usa.garyyounge
2013 – 14 Boko Haram suspects are killed in a Nigerian Army raid
2019 – Elton John joins George Clooney’s call to boycott hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei after Brunei plans new anti-gay laws to make homosexual sex punishable by death
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
