March 31 in Pop Culture History

March 31 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

March 31 History Highlights

  • 1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issued The Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
  • 1889 – Eiffel Tower was dedicated, opening later that year.
  • 1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
  • 1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, was decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
  • If you were born on March 31st,
    You were likely conceived the week of… July 8th (prior year)

Facts About The Eiffel Tower

  • The Eiffel Tower was the centerpiece for the Paris World’s Fair in 1889.
  • The four corners are pointed North, South, East and West
  • It is the most photographed object on Instagram
  • They discovered Cosmic Rays at the Eiffel Tower.
  • Today it has 8 elevators and two restaurants
  • They still have a post office, near the gift shop, with its own special postmark!
  • They paint it every few years, in 2018, they used 60 Tons of paint.
  • At 986 feet, the Eiffel Tower was nearly double the height of the world’s previous tallest structure, the 555-foot Washington Monument.
    It held the title until the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building was built in New York in 1930.
  • The lights on the tower were put up in 1985, and they are copyrighted.
    Under European Copyright Law, people can’t sell or publish photographs of the tower,
    or even post them on social media without permission.

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.”
– Rene Descartes

“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.”
– Walter E. Williams

“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.”
– Cesar Chavez

“I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.”
– Christopher Walken

“The best AC/DC cover I’ve heard? There was an all-girl cover band in America, the Hell’s Belles.”
Angus Young, co-founder and lead guitarist for AC/DC

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
* Formally called ‘Away We Go’ in the initial tryout runs

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, 1962April 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.

1987Max 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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