Today is: March 31

But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.             Psalm   59:16

March is:

Bible Women Awareness Month

Cataract Awareness Month This month increases awareness of cataracts, including how to prevent them and how to treat them. Sponsor: Prevent Blindness America

Gardening, Nature, and Ecology Books Month - Read a book about gardening, nature, ecology, botany, agriculture, or biology. Sponsor: Book Marketing Update.

March 31 is:

Birth of the Symphony Day - Enjoy a symphony on the birthday of Franz Joseph Haydn, father of the symphony. Haydn was born in 1732 in Rohrau, Austria. 

Bunsen Burner Day - On the birthday of Robert von Bunsen (1811), inventor of the Bunsen burner, we celebrate his simple device that allows chemists to efficiently control a gas flame.

First black to vote in the U.S. (1870) - After the ratification of the 15th Amendment, Thomas Peterson Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first black to vote in the U.S.

First dance marathon in the U.S. (1923) - The first dance marathon in the U.S. was held in New York City.

First town illuminated by electric lights (1880) - Wabash, Indiana, was the first town to be lit by electricity. 

l Think Therefore I Am Day - On the birthday of Rene Descartes, the father of modem philosophy, we honor all great thinkers. Descartes was born in 1596 in Touraine, France.

National Farm Workers Day - On the birthday of Cesar Estrada Chavez organizer of the National 

Virgin Islands Transfer Day - Denmark transferred the Virgin islands to the U. S. in 1917 for $25 million.

Born on this Day

• 1596: Rene Descartes was born. More than just a philosopher, Descartes wrote one of the first great books on music, the "Compendium musicae." One of his most famous propositions is: "I think, therefore, I am." (Cogito ergo sum...). Descartes is known as the "father of modern philosophy.)
  

• 1621: English poet Andrew Marvell
  

• 1732: The "father of symphony", Franz Joseph Haydn, was born in Austria-Hungary. Haydn composed about 120 symphonies, a dozen operas and hundreds of other musical works.
  

• 1809: Russian author, playwright and novelist Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol was born. His most famous work is the novel "Dead Souls." Gogol died in 1852.
  

• 1809: Edward FitzGerald, writer, "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
  

• 1811: German physicist and chemist Robert Bunsen (inventor of the Bunsen burner)
  

• 1854: Sir Dugald Clerk, inventor of the 2-stroke motorcycle engine.
  

• 1878: Boxer Jack Johnson, the first black to hold the heavyweight title
  

• 1915: Radio-TV personality Henry Morgan
  

• 1922: Actor-singer Richard Kiley
  

• 1926: Actor Sydney Chaplin
  

• 1927: Labor leader Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona. Chavez organized migrant farm workers in support of better working conditions. He started the National Farm Workers Association and organized boycotts of some produce.
  

• 1927: Actor William Daniels
  

• 1928: Hockey Hall-of-Famer Gordie Howe
  

• 1929: Designer Liz Claiborne
  

• 1934: Actress Shirley Jones
  

• 1934: Country singer-songwriter John D. Loudermilk
  

• 1935: Actor Richard Chamberlain.
  

• 1935: Musician Herb Alpert
  

• 1943: Actor Christopher Walken
  

• 1945: Comedian Gabe Kaplan
  

• 1948: Vice President Al Gore
  

• 1948: Actress Rhea Perlman
  

• 1950: Actor Ed Marinaro (some sources 1949)
  

• 1956: Indy "500" driver Kevin Cogan
  

• 1957: Actor Marc McClure
  

• 1959: Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC)
  

• 1971: Actor Ewan McGregor   
      
     

Events in History on this day
  

• 0297: Diocletian's edict against the Manicheans
  

• 1146: St. Bernard calls for the 2nd Crusade at Vezelay, France
  

• 1152; Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, exiles his mother, Melissande
  

• 1341: Ivan I Kalita, Grand Prince of Moscow (1328-41), dies at about 37
  

• 1492: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity (they have 3 months to leave).
  

• 1495: "Holy League" formed
  

• 1547: Death of Francis I, King of France
  

• 1560: Last Mass in St. Giles Cathedral
  

• 1561: Founding of San Cristobal, Venezuela
  

• 1571: British seize fortress of Dumbarton, Scotland
  

• 1579: A rapier and dagger duel is fought at Paris, between De Sourdiac and De la Chasnaye-Lalier
  

• 1594: Death of Tintoretto
  

• 1621: Death of Philip III, King of Spain
  

• 1631: Death of John Donne
  

• 1841: Schumann's First Symphony was premiered in Leipzig. Schumann wrote afterward that it went over as well, he felt, as any symphony since Beethoven.
  

• 1880: Wabash, Indiana, became the first town completely illuminated by electrical lighting.
  

• 1889: French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor atop the Eiffel Tower, officially marking its completion.
  

• 1896: Whitcomb L. Judson of Chicago, Illinois, received a patent for the hookless shoe fastener.
  

• 1917: The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands, which it had purchased from Denmark at the cost of $25 million.
  

• 1923: The first US dance marathon, held in New York City, ended with Alma Cummings setting a world record of 27 hours on her feet.
  

• 1932: The Ford Motor Company publicly unveiled its "V-8" engine.
  

• 1933: Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps.
  

• 1934: American bank robber John Dillinger escapes from police custody.
  

• 1943: The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play "Oklahoma!" opened on Broadway (Alfred Drake played the role of Curly and Joan Roberts played Laurey).
  

• 1945: The Tennessee Williams play "The Glass Menagerie" had its Broadway premier with Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfield, Eddie Dowling as Tom, Julie Haydon as Laura and Anthony Ross as Jim, the Gentleman Caller.
  

• 1948: Congress passed the Marshall Aid Act, a plan to rehabilitate war-ravaged Europe.
  

• 1949: Newfoundland entered confederation as Canada's tenth province.
  

• 1967: At a Finsbury Park, UK, concert that included Englebert Humperdinck and Cat Stevens, Jimi Hendrix torched his guitar for the first time.
  

• 1968: President Johnson announced he would NOT seek re-election and simultaneously ordered suspension of American bombing of North Vietnam.
  

• 1970: A bankruptcy referee granted the owner of the Seattle Pilots permission to sell the major-league baseball franchise to investors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers.
  

• 1971: Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the deaths of 22 Vietnamese civilians in what is called the "My Lai" massacre.
  

• 1972: Swimmer Mark Spitz was presented the Amateur Athletic Union's coveted Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete of 1971.
  

• 1973: Ken Norton defeated Muhammad Ali in a 12-round split decision. Ali had his jaw broken during the fight.
  

• 1976: The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained comatose, died in 1985.)
  

• 1983: Some 5,000 people died when a major earthquake struck Colombia, devastating the mountain city of Popayan.
  

• 1985: El Salvador's Christian Democratic Party, led by President Jose Napoleon Duarte, won a majority of seats in legislative elections.
  

• 1985: Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, long a favorite of country music stars, closed its doors in Nashville, Tennessee.
  

• 1986: 167 people died when a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in a remote mountainous region of Mexico.
  

• 1986: Louisville beat Duke, 72-69, to win the NCAA college basketball championship.
  

• 1987: The judge in the "Baby M" case in Hackensack, New Jersey, awarded custody of the girl borne under a surrogate-motherhood contract to her father, William Stern, instead of the surrogate, Mary Beth Whitehead.
  

• 1988: The novel "Beloved" by Toni Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, while the North Carolina newspaper "Charlotte Observer" won the prize for public service for its coverage of the PTL scandal.
  

• 1989: The FBI announced it would conduct a criminal investigation into the massive oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound.
  

• 1990: Hundreds of people were injured when rioting erupted in London over Britain's so-called "poll tax."
  

• 1990: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned the defiant Baltic republic of Lithuania to annul its declaration of independence or face "grave consequences."
  

• 1991: The Soviet Republic of Georgia voted to declare their independence from the Soviet Union. Hours after the election, Soviet troops were dispatched from Moscow to Georgia in a state of emergency.
  

• 1991: Communists won Albania's first multiparty elections, but democratic opponents scored victories in major cities. Meanwhile, the Warsaw Pact spent the last day of its existence as a military force.
  

• 1992: The UN Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.
  

• 1993: The UN Security Council increased international pressure on Bosnian Serbs, authorizing NATO warplanes to shoot down aircraft that violated a ban on flights over Bosnia.
  

• 1993: Actor Brandon Lee, 28, was killed during the filming of a movie in Wilmington, North Carolina, by a prop gun that fired part of a dummy bullet instead of a blank.
  

• 1993: "Star Dust" lyricist Mitchell Parish died in New York at age 92.
  

• 1993: Steve Reich was sandwiched between Bach and Mahler at the Chicago Symphony. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted Bach's "Sinfonie for Double Orchestra in E-flat major," Reich's composition called "Three Movements," and Mahler's First Symphony.
  

• 1994: The PLO and Israel agreed to resume talks on Palestinian autonomy, more than a month after the Hebron mosque massacre.
  

• 1995: Baseball players agreed to end their 232-day strike after a judge granted a preliminary injunction against club owners.
  

• 1995: President Clinton briefly visited Haiti, where he declared the U.S. mission to restore democracy there a "remarkable success."
  

• 1995: Mexican-American singer Selena, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club (Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison).
  

• 1996: Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced a halt to combat operations in Chechnya, limited troop withdrawals and a willingness to hold indirect talks with the rebels' leader.
  

• 1997: Jury selection began in Denver in the trial of accused Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
  

• 1997: The Supreme Court ruled the government can force cable television systems to carry local broadcast stations.
  

• 1998: For the first time in history, the Clinton administration released a detailed financial statement for the federal government showing its assets and liabilities.
  

• 1998: Actor Robert Downey Jr. was released from jail after spending four months behind bars for violating his probation on drug and alcohol related charges.
  

• 1998: The UN Security Council imposed a new arms embargo on Yugoslavia to pressure the Serbs into concessions concerning ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
  

• 1998: A Mexican crime figure who confessed to killing an American businessman was cleared of murder charges. Judge Vicente Hernandez rejected evidence against Alfonso Gonzalez Sanchez, alias "El Chucky," accused of leading a gang of taxi robbers and of murdering U.S. real estate broker Peter Zarate, 40, on Dec. 15, 1997.
  

• 1998: Former New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug died at age 77.
  

• 1999: Three U.S. Army soldiers were captured by Serb forces near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border. (Staff Sergeant Andrew Ramirez, Staff Sergeant Christopher Stone and Specialist Steven M. Gonzales were released more than a month later.)
  

• 1999: Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (The officers were later acquitted.)
  
  

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