March 31 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryTable of Contents |
March 31 History Highlights |
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Facts About The Eiffel Tower |
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March 31 is… |
| Bunsen Burner Day Clams on the Half Shell Day Oranges and Lemons Day Tater Day World Backup Day |
March 31 Birthday Quotes |
“We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.” “Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.” “When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.” “I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.” “The best AC/DC cover I’ve heard? There was an all-girl cover band in America, the Hell’s Belles.” |
March 31 Birthdays |
| 1596 – René Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher (died in 1650) 1732 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (died in 1809) 1878 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (died in 1946) 1908 – Red Norvo, American vibraphone player and composer (died in 1999) 1927 – Cesar Chavez, American labor union leader and activist (died in 1993) 1928 – Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (died in 2016) 1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer, founded Liz Claiborne Inc. (died in 2007) 1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor 1934 – Shirley Jones, American actress and singer 1935 – Herb Alpert, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer 1936 – Walter E. Williams, American economist and academic (died in 2020) 1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor 1948 – Al Gore, American politician, 45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Prize laureate 1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress 1955 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian guitarist and songwriter, AC/DC |
March 31 History |
| 1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. 1822 – The massacre of tens of thousands of people living on the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following an attempted rebellion,. 1836 – The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, by Charles Dickens, was published under his pseudonym, Boz. 1889 – The Eiffel Tower, 986 feet tall, in Paris, France, was inaugurated 1918 – The US began daylight saving time (DST) on Easter Sunday when clocks were set ahead by one hour. 1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code was instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion, and violence in film, in the US. It was in place until 1968. 1943 – Broadway Show – Oklahoma! (Musical) March 31, 1943 March 31, 1957 – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, starring Julie Andrews aired Live on CBS 1959 – The Dalai Lama, fled the Chinese suppression of a national uprising in Tibet and crossed the border into India, where he is granted political asylum. 1963 – #1 Hit March 31, 1962 – April 6, 1962: Connie Francis – Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You 1981 – A new single-cell genetically engineered life form patent (#4,259,444) was issued to Ananda Chakrabarty. The Pseudomonas bacterium (now called Burkholderia cepacia) could be used to clean up toxic spills because it can break down crude oil into simpler substances that can potentially become food for aquatic life. 1984 – #1 Hit March 31, 1984 – April 20, 1984: Kenny Loggins – Footloose 1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (WWF), took place in Madison Square Garden in New York. 1987 – Max Headroom premiered on ABC 1994- Madonna appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and stirred up controversy by going on a profanity-laden tirade. It marked the most censored event in television talk show history with 13 swear words being censored. 1995- Latina singer Selena was murdered and the live coverage of the crime drew in over 3.2 million views to CBS. 1998 – Netscape released Mozilla source code under an open-source license. 2001 – #1 Hit March 31, 2001 – April 13, 2001: Shaggy featuring Rayvon – Angel |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
| The band playing most of the songs on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album was Toto. Giant Pandas poop up to 40 times per day. The word Chortle was made by the author of Alice in Wonderland in his poem Jabberwocky, as a nonsense word and blend of the words chuckle and snort The Who’s “You Better You Bet” was the fourth-ever music video played on MTV, it was also the 54th, being the first to be repeated. The law of urination… states that all mammals take roughly 21 seconds to empty their bladders regardless of size. After Disney acquired Miramax in 1993, the first film given the green-light was Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated Pulp Fiction. Gary Larson, the creator of “The Far Side” comics, coined a term that is used by paleontologists – The Thagomizer. The Beatles had a specific clause in their contract that stated that they would not ever have to play for a segregated audience. The term ‘dead ringer’ comes from the practice of substituting a thoroughbred horse with a look-a-like to trick bookies. For the first 40 million years that woody trees were around, wood was not biodegradable…until a fungus figured out how to rot it Disney’s Ursula The Sea Witch is inspired, in both appearance and demeanor, by drag legend and John Waters’ muse Divine. The blob of toothpaste they show in toothpaste ads is called a “Nurdle”. George Washington had his own personal recipe for egg nog that he would serve to guests, which included one-pint brandy, 1/2 pint rye whiskey, 1/2 pint Jamaica rum, and 1/4 pint sherry wine. Dogs develop bite inhibition, the ability to control the strength of a bite as puppies, learning that harsh bites often interrupt playtime. |
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