March 31st Anniversaries

Santo Domingo.- The events of March 31, are marked by important historical events and international celebrations that left their mark on world history. Here are the main events of March 31:

• International Zero Waste Day
• International Transgender Day of Visibility promotes respect and inclusion globally
• World Backup Day (Data Backup)

Saint's Day: Saints Balbina and Cornelia. Saint Guy of Pomposa, Prophet Amos.

National: March 31st Anniversaries

• 1864. Field Marshal José de la Gándara y Navarro assumes command of the Spanish colony in La Española.
• 1876. The tenth constitutional amendment is approved in Santo Domingo (in the last three years).
• 1905. President Carlos Morales Languasco issues a customs collection decree, whose revenues will be distributed as follows: 45% to the Dominican Government and the remaining 55% for the payment of the national external debt.
• 1938. The publication of the bulletin of the General Archive of the Nation begins.
• 1960. Cuban hitman Francisco Quintana Valdez offers the FBI details of how he and his compatriot Artemio Molina Fernández assassinated the Spanish writer José Almoina Mateos, by order of dictator Rafael Trujillo.
• 1963. Several leaders of the communist party Movimiento Popular Dominicano (MPD), led by Máximo López Molina, return to the country, being received by a group of people shouting “Homeland or Death” and “Yankees Out”.
• 1970. During a workers' demonstration held in Puerto Plata, the port workers Tomás Severo hijo, Severino Pascual, Pedro Almonte and Carlos Santos López are murdered.
• 1993. Representatives of the PRD, PLD and PRSC parties accept the proposal that Cardinal Nicolás de Js. López Rodríguez mediate between the JCE and the political organizations, to resolve the dispute over the signing of the contract with IBM/Kodak in the updating of the electoral roll.
• 2008. The Attorney General's Office of the Republic reveals that, according to its statistics, during 2007 there were 803 homicides linked to common crime.
• 2015. The traditional company Cervecería Nacional Dominicana (CND) disappears as a legal entity, being absorbed by Brazilian Cervecera Ambev Dominicana, S.A., as part of the merger process of both liquor firms.

International: March 31st Anniversaries

• 1492. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, sign the decree of expulsion from their entire territory of the Jews who do not convert to Christianity, within four months.
• 1493. Spanish navigator Martín Alonso Pinzón dies.
• 1854. The treaty of peace and friendship between Japan and the USA is signed, by which the ports of Sidoma and Hakodate were opened.
• 1917. The United States takes control of the Virgin Islands purchased from Denmark for 20 million dollars.
• 1931. An earthquake devastates Managua and leaves a balance of 1,500 dead and 3,000 injured.
• 1939. France and Great Britain guarantee the integrity of the borders of the Polish state.
• 1948. The so-called “Marshall Plan” is approved in the USA.
• 1989. The leader Mohammed Yasir Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, better known as Yaser Arafat, is proclaimed president of Palestine by unanimous decision of the 70 members of the PLO Central Committee.
• 1990. The Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez offers a concert to 75,000 people at the National Stadium of Santiago de Chile, after being prohibited from entering the country for 17 years, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet .
• 1992. Boris Yeltsin signs the Federation Treaty with 18 Russian republics in Moscow.
• 1995. The Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, called “the queen of tex mex”, is murdered in a hotel in the city of Corpus Cristo, Texas.
• 1997. At the Huarte-Araquil (Navarre, Spain) station, a train accident occurs causing 18 deaths and between 80 and 100 injuries.
• 2006. The French president, Jacques Chirac, announces that he will enact the law of the First Employment Contract, but asks to modify its most criticized points before being applied, after four days of popular mobilizations.
• 2009. Argentine ex-president Raúl Alfonsín, who governed his country from December 10, 1983 - July 8, 1989, dies at the age of 82 due to lung cancer.
• 2014. The Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez is hospitalized in a medical center in Mexico City due to pneumonia. He died two weeks later.
• 2017. After a night of rain, the city of Mocoa, Colombia, is destroyed, whose number of dead and missing remains uncertain.
• 2021. A federal court in New York imposes the maximum sentence, plus 30 years, on the Latino Antonio (Tony) Hernández - brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández - for charges of drug trafficking, use of weapons and endangering the health and safety of the United States and Honduras, for more than 12 years.

Births: March 31st Anniversaries

1596 – René Descartes French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, considered the father of modern philosophy.

• 1732 .Franz Joseph Haydn Austrian composer, one of the most important figures of musical classicism.
• 1927. César Chávez American activist and union leader, defender of agricultural workers.
• 1943 . Christopher Walken American actor, Oscar winner and recognized for his unique style.
• 1955. Angus Young Guitarist and co-founder of the rock band AC/DC.
• 1971. Ewan McGregor Scottish actor, famous for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.

Deaths: March 31st Anniversaries

• 1547. Francis I of France King of France, a prominent Renaissance monarch and rival of Emperor Charles V.
• 1880. Henryk Wieniawski Polish violinist and composer, considered one of the great virtuosos of the 19th century.
• 1917. Emil Adolf von Behring German physician and bacteriologist, first winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• 1993. Brandon Lee American actor, tragically deceased during the filming of the movie The Crow.
• 1995. Selena American Tejano music singer, known as the “Queen of Tex-Mex”.