GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS THURSDAY, March 31, the 91st day day of 2016 with 275 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:28 and sunset is @ 7:08. The moon is waning. The morning stars are stars are, Mercury & Venus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn & Uranus.
ON THIS DAY IN: 1492 – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra edict expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity.
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.
1779 – Russia and Turkey signed a treaty concerning military action in Crimea.
1831 – Quebec and Montreal were incorporated as cities.
1854 – The U.S. government signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. The act opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakotade to American trade.
1862 – Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
1870 – In Perth Amboy, NJ, Thomas Munday Peterson became the first black to vote in the U.S.
1880 – Wabash, IN, became the first town to be completely illuminated with electric light.
1885 – Binney & Smith Company was founded in New York City. The company later became Crayola, LLC.
1889 – In Paris, the Eiffel Tower 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”.
1900 – In France, the National Assembly passed a law reducing the workday for women and children to 11 hours.
1901 – In Russia, the Czar lashed out at Socialist-Revolutionaries with the arrests of 72 people and the seizing of two printing presses.
1902 – In Tennessee, 22 coal miners were killed by an explosion.
1904 – In India, hundreds of Tibetans were slaughtered by the British.
1905 – Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in Tangier proclaiming to support for an independent state of Morocco.
1906 – The Conference on Moroccan Reforms in Algerciras ended after two months with France and Germany in agreement.
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.
1909 – Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1917 – The U.S. purchased and took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918 – For the first time in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time went into effect.
1921 – Great Britain declared a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike.
1923 – In New York City, the first U.S. dance marathon was held. Alma Cummings set a new world record of 27 hours.
1932 – The Ford Motor Co. debuted its V-8 engine.
1933 – The U.S. Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps to relieve rampant unemployment.
1933 – The “Soperton News” in Georgia became the first newspaper to publish using a pine pulp paper.
1939 – Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened invasion.
1940 – La Guardia airport in New York officially opened to the public.
1941 – Germany began a counter offensive in North Africa.
1945 – “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
1946 – Monarchists won the elections in Greece.
1947 – John L. Lewis called a strike in sympathy for the miners killed in an explosion in Centralia, IL, on March 25, 1947.
1948 – The Soviets in Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949 – Winston Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the U.S.S.R. from taking over Europe.
1949 – Newfoundland entered the Canadian confederation as its 10th province.
1958 – The U.S. Navy formed the atomic submarine division.
1959 – The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) began exile by crossing the border into India where he was granted political asylum. Gyatso was the 14th Daila Lama.
1960 – The South African government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations led to the death of more than 50 Africans.
1966 – An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City. (New York)
1966 – The Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first spacecraft to enter a lunar orbit.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970 – The U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, it was the first since September 1968.
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.
1981 – In Bangkok, Thailand, four of five Indonesian terrorists were killed after hijacking an airplane on March 28.
1985 – ABC-TV aired the 200th episode of “The Love Boat.”
1986 – 167 people died when a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in Los Angeles.
1987 – HBO (Home Box Office) earned its first Oscar for “Down and Out in America”.
1989 – Canada and France signed a fishing rights pact.
1991 – Albania offered a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. Incumbent President Ramiz Alia won.
1991 – Iraqi forces recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.
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 – U.N. Security Council imposed arms embargo on Yugoslavia.
1998 – Buddy Hackett received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 – For the first time in U.S. history the federal government’s detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.
1999 – Three U.S. soldiers were captured by Yugoslav soldiers three miles from the Yugoslav border in Macedonia.
1999 – Fabio was hit in the face by a bird during a promotional ride of a new roller coaster at the Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, VA. Fabio received a one-inch cut across his nose.
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 – Air America Radio launched five stations around the U.S.
2004 – Google Inc. announced that it would be introducing a free e-mail service called Gmail.