TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 31
1084 Anti-pope Clemens crowns German King Hendrik IV as Holy Roman Emperor
1146 Bernard 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.
1282 The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end.
1492 Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Aragon issue the Alhambra Decree which expels Jews from their Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon
1547 In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II.
1657 English Parliament makes the Humble Petition to Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell offering him the crown: he declines
1736 Bellevue Hospital founded in a New York City almshouse – 1st public hospital in the US
1745 Jews are expelled from Prague
1776 Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are “determined to foment a rebellion” if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights.
1790 In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club.
1854 Treaty of Kanagawa: Commodore Perry forces Japan to opens ports to US
1880 The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana.
1917 The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918 Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time.
1933 To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps .
1948 The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949 Winston Churchill declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe.
1951 The first commercially built U.S. computer The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) is sold to the United States Census Bureau costing about US$159,000.
1964 A military coup d’état in Brazil led by Gen. Humberto Castello Branco ousted Pres. Joao Goulart.
1966 An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.
1967 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1968 President Johnson announces on nationwide television he would not run for another term of office saying “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your President.”
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 President Jimmy Carter deregulates the banking industry.
1985 The first edition of WrestleMania is held in New York The annual event is the world’s most important wrestling meet. It is the biggest event organized by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
1990 The worst violence seen so far in the series of Anti Poll Tax demonstrations erupted in London during the largest rally when nearly 100,000 people take to the streets in protest at the new government levy. More than 400 were arrested and property was damaged with repairs estimated at £400,000 after the demonstration.
1991 Iraqi forces recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.
1992 The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner
1993 Brandon Lee was killed accidentally while filming a movie
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 Four Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) employees are ambushed and murdered in Fallujah, Iraq. The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were dragged from their cars, beaten, and set ablaze.
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