March 31st

March 31 is the 90th (ninetieth) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and 91.ᵉʳ (ninety-first) in leap years. There are 275 days left to end the year.

Events

• 1258: In the Colegiata of Santa María de Valladolid (Spain), the marriage of the Infante Felipe de Castilla is celebrated with the Princess Cristina of Norway.
• 1492: In Granada, Spain, the Catholic Kings sign the decree of expulsion of the Jews.
• 1578: Juan de Escobedo, secretary of Juan de Austria, is murdered in Spain.
• 1561: In Venezuela, the Spanish military Juan Maldonado founded the village of San Cristobal (Venezuela).
• 1621: Philip IV is proclaimed king of Spain and Portugal.
• 1650: In southern Peru, an earthquake destroys the city of Cuzco, leaving 5000 dead.
• 1678: In Spain, King Charles II issued a royal cédula through which the shield of Medellin (Colombia) was adopted.
• 1761: Shortly after noon there is an 8.5 earthquake in Lisbon that causes a tsunami.
• 1817: In Chile the 81 patriots exiled to Juan Fernández returned by the Spaniards. Among them was Don Ignacio de la Carrera, father of José Miguel Carrera. The return took place in the port of Valparaiso.
• 1818: In the village of San Carlos (in the Argentine province of Corrientes)—in the framework of the Lusobrasileña invasion—the first of the four days of the battle of San Carlos is waged, in which the Portuguese (leadered by the Carioca Francisco das Chagas Santos) will defeat the Argentines (leadered by the Guasurarí Guasurarí guaraní and Artigas).
• 1839: In the present province of Entre Ríos, the unit members face the feds in the battle of Pago Largo.
• 1847: in the state of Veracruz (Mexico)—in the framework of the U.S. Intervention in Mexico—captures the port of Alvarado.
• 1854: In the Japanese city of Edo (today Tokyo), the United States and Japan sign their first trade agreement.
• 1866: In Chile, during the Spanish-American War, the Spanish Navy bombs the port of Valparaiso.
• 1889: The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris.
• 1909: In England begins the construction of the RMS Titanic, completed just three years later.
• 1926: In the Estambulí district of Galata (Turkey), followers of the Turkish Orthodox Church appropriate the Greek Orthodox Church of Christ the Saviour (Sotiros Christos) which in 1948 was returned by the Turkish government to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
• 1931: in Managua (capital of Nicaragua) 10:23 a.m. local time an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 in the seismological scale of Richter, destroys the city, causing more than 2000 dead.
• 1933: In the United States—in the framework of the Great Depression—President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Civil Conservation Corps with the mission of relieving the catastrophic unemployment.
• 1939: In Spain, in the framework of the Civil War, the last republican cities, Almeria, Murcia and Cartagena, are occupied by the subordinated side.
• 1953: on the Nevada Test Site, United States detonates the atomic bomb Ruth, 0.2 kt. It is the third (eleven) pump of Operation Upshot-Knothole. Ruth was the first UCRL lab bomb; it was a uranium-hydrated bomb, but it was a failed bomb (fizzle, a bomb that generates much less expected power).
• 1966: The Soviet Union launches its Moon probe 10.
• 1968: in Matagalpa (Nicaragua) is ordained as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa Monsignor Miguel Obando and Bravo, S.D.B. Whoever two years later, in 1970, will be appointed Archbishop of Managua and in 1985 will be elevated to Cardinal.
• 1970: After 12 years, the American satellite Explorer 1 back into the Earth's atmosphere.
• 1974: in the Kyalami (South Africa) circuit, the Argentine corridor Carlos Reutemann wins the South Africa Formula 1 Grand Prix.
• 1979: in Jerusalem, the song Hallellujah of Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win through Israel the XXIV Eurovision Edition.
• 1983: in Colombia, an earthquake destroys the city of Popayán.
• 1986: in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, a Boeing 727 plane from Mexicana de Aviación burns to Puerto Vallarta and crashes. 166 people die.
• 1986: The British Historic Palace of Hampton Court is damaged by a fire.
• 1990: Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez offers a concert with 75 000 people at the Santiago de Chile National Stadium, after having been banned from entering the country during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet for 17 years.
• 1991: the Warsaw Pact is dissolved in Europe.
• 1992: The British hard rock band Def Leppard launches its fifth studio album titled Adrenalize.
• 1992: The Canadian singer Céline Dion launches the 11th market. studio album homonym and second in English entitled Céline Dionafter previous success Unison (1990).
• 1995: The singer of Tex-mex, Mexico-American; Selena
• 1997: In Huarte-Araquil (Navarra, Spain) there is a rail accident causing 18 deaths and between 80 and 100 wounded.
• 1998: According to the Taiwanese sect (1993-2001), at 0:01 h, God could be seen on Channel 18 on all U.S. televisions, no matter whether the viewer had cable service), starting at the end of the world
• 1999: In Andalusia, Spain, the Act on the Care of Persons with Disabilities was adopted.
• 1999: in Chile, Radio Minería ends its broadcasts, after 57 years of existence.
• 2002: in Tenerife (Canarias), the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is affected by torrential rains, producing losses of both homes and human lives.
• 2005: in Valencia, the service of Cercanías between Riba-Roja de Túria and Quart de Poblet is definitively suspended.
• 2015: In Argentina, there was a national strike (fourth strike against the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner).
• 2017: in Colombia, an avalanche for the overflow of three rivers takes root 17 neighborhoods of the city of Mocoa, department of Putumayo, leaving more than 200 dead.
• 2021: Nintendo, End Super Mario forever and the 35th anniversary games say goodbye to the Nintendo Switch

Births

• 250: Constancio Cloro, emperor of Rome between 305 and 306 (f. 306).
• 1360: Felipa de Lancaster, Queen of Portugal (f. 1415).
• 1373: Catherine de Lancáster, Spanish queen (f. 1418).
• 1425: Bianca Maria Visconti, aristocrat milanes (f. 1468).
• 1499: Pius IV, Catholic Pope (f. 1565).
• 1519: Henry II, French king (f. 1559).
• 1536: Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (f. 1565).
• 1592: Benito Daza de Valdés, optimetrista español (f. 1634).
• 1596: René Descartes, a French mathematician and philosopher (f. 1650).
• 1621: Andrew Marvell, British poet (f. 1678).
• 1675: Benedict XIV, Pope between 1740 and 1758 (f. 1758).
• 1684: Francesco During, composer and Italian pedagogue (f. 1755).
• 1685: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (f. 1750).
• 1718: Mariana Victoria de Borbón, Infanta española (f. 1781).
• 1723: Frederick V, Danish king between 1746 and 1776 (f. 1776).
• 1730: Étienne Bézout, French mathematician (f. 1783).
• 1732: Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (f. 1809).
• 1777: Charles Cagniard de la Tour, physicist and French engineer (f. 1859).
• 1778: Coenraad Jacob Temminck, a naturalist and a Dutch zoologist (f. 1858).
• 1788: Nangklao, Thai king (f. 1851).
• 1809: Edward FitzGerald, writer, translator and British hypnist (f. 1883).
• 1813: Felix Maria Zuloaga, Mexican military and political (f. 1898).
• 1819: Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe, Chancellor and German aristocrat (f. 1901).
• 1821: Fritz Müller, a naturalist and a German biologist (f. 1897).
• 1843: Bernhard Förster, German writer (f. 1889).
• 1844: Andrew Lang, British writer (f. 1912).
• 1845: Amos Salvador Rodrigáñez, engineer and Spanish politician (f. 1922).
• 1847: Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, Russian mathematician (f. 1878).
• 1856: José Benjamín Zubiaur, an Argentine educator (f. 1921).
• 1870: James Cox, American politician (f. 1957).
• 1871: Arthur Griffith, Irish politician and president (f. 1922).
• 1872: Alexandra Kollontai, a socialist, revolutionary and a Russian feminist (f. 1952).
• 1872: Serguéi Diáguilev, Russian businessman, founder of the Russian Ballets (f. 1929).
• 1878: Jack Johnson, American boxer, first heavyweight black race to be world champion (f. 1946).
• 1884: Adriaan van Maanen, astronomer neerlando-American (f. 1946).
• 1885: Jules Pascin, a Bulgarian-American painter (f. 1930).
• 1887: José María Usandizaga, composer and Spanish pianist (f. 1915).
• 1888: Juan Luis Beigbeder, Spanish military and political (f. 1957).
• 1890: Sir William Lawrence Bragg, British physicist, nobel prize of physics in 1915 (f. 1971).
• 1892: Stanisław Maczek, Polish military (f. 1994).
• 1893: Clemens Krauss, director of orchestra and Austrian musician (f. 1954).
• 1894: José Sinués y Urbiola, economist and Spanish politician (f. 1965).
• 1895: Martín Ramírez, Mexican painter (f. 1963).
• 1896: Melitón Pedraza and Pereyra, an Argentine businessman and politician (f. 1957).
• 1899: Franz Völker, German tenor (f. 1965).
• 1900: Enrique de Gloucester, British aristocrat (f. 1974).
• 1905: Robert Stevenson, British filmmaker (f. 1986).
• 1906: Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, nobel prize of physics in 1965 (f. 1979).
• 1908: Red Norvo, American jazz musician (f. 1999).
• 1908: José de Jesús Tirado y Pedraza, Mexican bishop, 9th Archbishop of Monterrey (f. 1983).
• 1909: Robert Brasillach, writer, film critic and French journalist (f. 1945).
• 1911: Robert Hamer, British filmmaker (f. 1963).
• 1914: Octavio Paz, Mexican writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990 (f. 1998).
• 1915: Sixto Palavecino, musician and singer of Argentine folklore (f. 2009).
• 1915: Shōichi Yokoi, Japanese military (f. 1997).
• 1916: Dora Ferreiro, an Argentine actress (f. 2011).
• 1918: Ted Post, American Film and Television Director (f. 2013).
• 1920: Maria Smírnova, Soviet aviator (f. 2002).
• 1922: Richard Kiley, American actor (f.1999).
• 1923: Antonio Ubieto Arteta, Spanish historian and philologist (f. 1990).
• 1926: John Fowles, a British novelist and essayist (f. 2005).
• 1927: Alfonso Arana, Puerto Rican painter (f. 2005).
• 1927: César Chávez, a Mexican-American labor activist (f. 1993).
• 1928: Morihiro Saitō, professor of Japanese martial arts (f. 2002).
• 1929: Liz Claiborne, American designer (f. 2007).
• 1929: Gene Puerling, vocal arranger and American singer (f. 2008).
• 1930: Vicente Nebrada, Venezuelan choreographer and dancer (f. 2002).
• 1932: Nagisa ⋅shima, Japanese filmmaker (f. 2013).
• 1932: Antonio Serrano Ocaña, Spanish footballer.
• 1933: Nichita Stănescu, a Romanian poet (f. 1983).
• 1934: Richard Chamberlain, American actor.
• 1934: Shirley Jones, American actress.
• 1934: Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, nobel prize of physics in 1984.
• 1935: Herb Alpert, American trumpeter.
• 1939: Zviad Gamsajurdia, Georgian President (f. 1993).
• 1939: Volker Schlöndorff, German filmmaker.
• 1939: Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, German footballer.
• 1941: Mirla Castellanos, Venezuelan singer
• 1943: Christopher Walken, American actor.
• 1943: Roy Andersson, Swedish filmmaker.
• 1945: Jovino Novoa, a Chilean lawyer and politician (f. 2021).
• 1947: César Gaviria, Colombian politician.
• 1947: Eliyahu M. Goldratt, physicist and author of the restriction theory (f. 2011).
• 1948: Al Gore, politician, businessman and American journalist, Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
• 1948: Norma Morandini, journalist and Argentine politics.
• 1948: Enrique Vila-Matas, Spanish writer.
• 1948: Rhea Perlman, American actress.
• 1950: Jorge Oñate, Colombian musician of Vallenato (f. 2021).

Angus Yound

• 1950: Ed Marinaro, football player and American actor.
• 1950: Yoshifumi Kondō, Japanese animator (f. 1998).
• 1952: Omar Chabán, an Argentine businessman (f. 2014).
• 1955: Angus Young, an Australian musician (born in Scotland), AC/DC.
• 1955: Vicente Boluda, entrepreneur and Spanish football leader.
• 1956: Jota Mario Valencia, Colombian television presenter (f. 2019).
• 1956: Víctor Púa, ex-futbolist and Uruguayan coach.
• 1957: Marc McClure, American actor.
• 1958: Sylvester Groth, film actor and German tenor.
• 1959: Markus Hediger, Swiss poet and translator.
• 1959: Ali McMordie, Irish bassist, Stiff Little Fingers.
• 1963: Fabián Arenillas, Argentine actor.
• 1963: Eugenio Curatola, Argentine scammer.
• 1963: Magaly Medina, journalist and presenter of Peruvian television.
• 1964: Oleksandr Turchínov, Ukrainian politician.
• 1964: Leonardo López Luján, Mexican archaeologist.
• 1964: Fabiana Rios, Argentine policy.
• 1965: Steven T. Seagle, American hysterist.
• 1966: José Luis Di Palma, Argentine motor racing driver.
• 1969: Diego Korol, Argentine comedian.
• 1969: Nyamko Sabuni, Swedish politics.

Ewan McGregor

• 1969: Steve Smith, American basketball player.
• 1970: Gabriel Markus, Argentine tennis player.
• 1971: Ewan McGregor, British actor.
• 1972: Alejandro Amenábar, Chilean-Spanish filmmaker.
• 1972: Facundo Arana, Argentine actor.
• 1972: Carlos Gascón, Spanish actor.
• 1974: Stefan Olsdal, Swedish bassist, from the Placebo band.
• 1974: Tushar Ranganath, Indian filmmaker (f. 2011).
• 1977: Pedro López Figueroa, Chilean guitarist, of the Sinergia band.
• 1977: Jorge Alberti, Puerto Rican actor.
• 1978: Tony Yayo, American rapper.
• 1978: Bibelot Mansur, Mexican actress.
• 1978: Jérôme Rothen, French footballer.
• 1978: Fernando Ávalos, Argentine soccer player.
• 1982: Such Ben Haim, Israeli footballer.
• 1982: Audrey Kawasaki, American painter.
• 1982: Chloé Zhao, Chinese filmmaker.
• 1984: Eddie Johnson, American footballer.
• 1984: Sofia Reca, actress, singer and conductor of Argentine television.
• 1985: Dafne Fernández, Spanish actress and dancer.
• 1985: Jessica Szohr, American model.
• 1986: Paulo Machado, Portuguese footballer.
• 1986: Mayella Lloclla, Peruvian film and television actress.
• 1987: Georg Listing, German bass player, from the Tokyo Hotel band.
• 1987: Humpy Koneru, Indian chess player.
• 1987: Nordin Amrabat, Dutch footballer.
• 1987: Amaury Bischoff, Franco-Portuguese footballer.
• 1989: Pablo Piatti, Argentine footballer.
• 1991: Ramón Coronel, Paraguayan footballer.
• 1991: Rodney Sneijder, Dutch footballer.
• 1994: Donatas Kazlauskas, Lithuanian footballer.
• 1996: Artem Besyedin, Ukrainian footballer.
• 1997: Abdulrahman Ghareeb, Saudi footballer.
• 1998: Luigi Liguori, Italian footballer.
• 2002: Priscilla Delgado, Spanish actress.
• 2014: Kids Diana Show, Ukrainian youtuber.

Deaths

• 1340: Ivan I, Russian tsar (n. 1288).
• 1493: Martín Alonso Pinzón, a Spanish navigator (n. 1441).
• 1547: Francis I, French king between 1515 and 1547 (n. 1494).
• 1567: Philip I of Hesse, a German aristocrat, founder of the University of Marburg (n. 1504).
• 1621: Philip III, king of Spain (n. 1578).
• 1622: Gonzalo Méndez de Cancio, Spanish navy, governor of Florida and mayor mayor of Castropol (n. circa 1554).
• 1685: Juan Hidalgo, Spanish composer (n. 1614).
• 1703: Johann Christoph Bach, German organist and composer (n. 1642).
• 1727: Isaac Newton, scientist, physicist, philosopher, alchemist and British mathematician (n. 1643).
• 1744: Antioj Kantemir, Russian writer (n 1708).
• 1797: Olaudah Equiano, African writer (n. 1745).
• 1835: Damián de la Santa, a Spanish politician (n. 1769).
• 1837: John Constable, British painter (n. 1776).
• 1839: Genaro Berón de Astrada, militar y política argentina (n. 1801).
• 1853: Andrés Narvarte, Venezuelan politician (n. 1781).
• 1855: Charlotte Brontë, a British writer (n. 1816).
• 1867: Benjamin B. Wiffen, British poet and hypnist (n. 1794).
• 1869: Allan Kardec, pseudonym of the French pedagogue Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (n. 1804).
• 1888: Jean-Marie Guyau, French anarchist philosopher and poet (n. 1854).
• 1897: Sostenes Rocha, a Mexican military and journalist (n. 1831).
• 1906: Philip Czech, a Spanish painter (n. 1844).
• 1908: Francisco Alió, Spanish composer (n. 1862).
• 1916: Julio F. Sarría, politician and military Venezuelan (n. 1841).
• 1917: Emil Adolf von Behring, German bacteriologist, nobel prize for medicine in 1901 (n. 1854).
• 1933: Baltasar Brum, politician and former Uruguayan president (n. 1883).
• 1944: Misha Hillesum, an early Dutch Jewish pianist, the brother of writer Etty Hillesum (1914-1943); gassed in Auschwitz (n. 1920).
• 1944: Mineichi Koga, Japanese admiral (n. 1885).
• 1944: Trofim Tanaschishin, Soviet military (n. 1903).
• 1945: Francisco G. Sada, a Mexican businessman and industrialist (n. 1856).
• 1945: Hans Fischer, German chemist and physician, nobel chemistry award in 1930 (n. 1881).
• 1948: Egon Erwin Kisch, Czech journalist and reporter (n. 1885).
• 1958: Blanche Mehaffey, American actress (n. 1907).
• 1967: Rodion Malinovski, Soviet military (n. 1898).
• 1970: Semion Timoshenko, Soviet military (n. 1895).
• 1972: Ramon Iglesias and Navarri, Spanish bishop (n. 1889).
• 1975: Rodolfo Gil Benumeya, Spanish writer (n. 1901).
• 1976: Paul Strand, American photographer (n. 1890).
• 1978: Charles Best, Canadian physician (n. 1899).
• 1980: Vladimír Holan, Czech poet (n. 1905).
• 1980: Jesse Owens, American athlete (n. 1913).
• 1984: Hedy Crilla, an Argentine actress (n. 1898).

Brandon Lee, with his father Bruce.

• 1984: Ronald Clark O'Bryan The Candyman, American murderer (n. 1944).
• 1986: O'Kelly Isley Jr., American soul singer (n. 1937).
• 1992: Alfredo De Angelis, director of Argentine orchestra and pianist (n. 1912).
• 1993: Brandon Lee, American actor (n. 1965).
• 1993: Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish musician (n. 1907).
• 1994: Léon Degrelle, Belgian politician, founder of the conservative movement Christus Rex (n. 1906).
• 1994: José Escobar Saliente, Spanish artist, author Zipi and Zape and Carpanta (n. 1908).
• 1994: Eugenio Giner, Spanish hysterist (n. 1924).
• 1995: Selena, Mexican-American singer (n. 1971).
• 1996: Dario Bellezza, Italian poet, writer and theatrical author (n. 1944).
• 2001: Diego García, Spanish marathonist (n. 1961).
• 2001: Clifford Glenwood Shull, American physicist, nobel physics award in 1994 (n. 1915).
• 2003: Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, British geometry (n. 1907).
• 2003: Anne Gwynne, American actress (n. 1918).
• 2003: Tommy Seebach, singer, composer, key player, pianist and Danish producer (n. 1949).
• 2003: Eduardo Úrculo, painter and Spanish sculptor (n. 1938).
• 2003: Fermín Vélez, a Spanish motor vehicle pilot (n. 1959).
• 2003: Eugene Wall, a chemical engineer, documentaryist and U.S. informatologist (n. 1922).
• 2005: Terri Schiavo, an American woman in an irreversible vegetative state who opened debates on euthanasia, bioethics, legal guardianship, federalism and civil rights in her country (n. 1963).
• 2007: Paul Watzlawick, psychologist, communication theorist and American philosopher (n. 1921).
• 2008: Jules Dassin, American filmmaker (n. 1911).
• 2009: Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine lawyer and politician, president between 1983 and 1989 (n. 1927).
• 2009: Joan Bernet Toledano, Spanish hysterist (n. 1924).
• 2012: Omar Calabrese, Italian semiologist (n. 1949).
• 2012: Dale R. Corson, American physicist (n. 1914).
• 2014: Gonzalo Anes, economist and Spanish historian (n. 1931).
• 2014: Frankie Knuckles, American musician (n. 1955).
• 2015: Carlos Gaviria Díaz, was a lawyer, university professor, magistrate and Colombian politician. (n. 1937).
• 2016: Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer (n. 1929).
• 2016: Zaha Hadid, British architect of Iraqi origin (n. 1950).
• 2016: Georges Cottier, Swiss cardinal (n. 1922).
• 2016: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a German politician and diplomat (n. 1927).
• 2017: Gilbert Baker, American activist and designer (n. 1951).
• 2019: Peter Coleman, Australian writer and politician (n. 1928).
• 2020: James Stuart Gordon, British political entrepreneur (n. 1936).
• 2021: Kamal Ganzuri, Egyptian economist and politician (n. 1933).

Celebrations

• Orthodox Church: San Acacio.
• Argentina National Water Day.
• Malta Freedom Day.
• Mexico Taco Day.
• International Day of the Transgender Community.
• World Backup Day

Catholic saints list

• Saint Benjamin of Argoldeacon (f. c. 420).
• Saint Balbin of Rome (f. c. 595).
• San Agilolfo de Cologne, bishop (f. c. 751).
• San Guido de PomposaAbbot (f. 1046).
• Blessed Juana de Toulouse, virgin (s. XV).
• Blessed Bonaventure Tornielli, presbyter (f. 1491).
• beato Cristóbal Robinson, priest and martyr (f. 1597).
• beata Natalia Tulasiewiczmartyr (1945).