Saturday, March 31, 2012. 275 days left until the end of the year…
Here’s what interested me that has happened in history on this day…
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.
Titanic
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 8 including Knute Rockne, head football coach at the University of Notre Dame
1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
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.
1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth‘s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
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.
1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York.
1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
1995 – Selena, an American singer, was murdered by her friend and employee of her boutiques Yolanda Saldívar who was embezzling money from the establishments. The event was named “Black Friday” by Hispanics.
2004 – Iraq War in Anbar Province - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.
Birthdays.
1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
1927 – César Chávez, American labor activist (d. 1993)
1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born American fashion designer (d. 2007)
1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor
1934 – Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
1940 – Barney Frank, American politician
1940 – Patrick Leahy, American politician
Christopher Walken
1942 – Michael Savage, American radio host and political commentator
1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor
1948 – Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel laureate
1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress
1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist (AC/DC)
Deaths.
1727 – Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1643)
1850 – John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (b. 1782)
1913 – J. P. Morgan, American financier (b. 1837)
1931 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
1945 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist (b. 1929)
1993 – Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)
1995 – Selena, American singer (b. 1971)
2005 – Terri Schiavo, American figure in right-to-die case (b. 1963)
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