SPEEKERBOXX

 What Happened Today... March 1st

1562 - Catholics massacred over 1,000 Huguenots as they prayed at Vassy, France, starting the First War of Religion.

1815 - Napoleon landed in France after returning from the island of Elba, where he had retired after being forced to abdicate in April 1814.

1973 - Fine Gael and Labour Party coalition won the Irish General Election. Liam Cosgrave became prime minister.

1999 - More than 130 nations signed a United Nations Treaty banning land mines, which took effect on this date. The United States, Russia and China did not sign.

 What Happened Today... March 2nd

1949 - Capt. James Gallagher completed the first non-stop round the world flight. He completed the 23,452-mile (37,742-km) flight in 94 hours 1 minute.

1969 - The first of two prototype Concords made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

 What Happened Today... March 3rd

1875 - The first performance of French composer George Bizet's opera "Carmen" took place at the Opera Comique, Paris.

1886 - The Treaty of Bucharest was signed, bringing peace between Bulgaria and Serbia.

1918 - Germany and its allies signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia, ending hostilities between them in World War I.

1931 - On Brunswick Records, Cab Calloway and his orchestra recorded "Minnie the Moocher" for the first time. The song was featured in the 1980 motion picture, "The Blues Brothers", starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd.

1931 - The Star-Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key, became the official national anthem of the United States.

1963 - A new constitution was approved in Senegal under which the president took over the powers of the prime minister.

1996 - A Moslem suicide bomber killed 18 people and wounded 10 on a Jerusalem bus in a mirror-image of an attack a week earlier.

 What Happened Today... March 4th

1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa was elected king of Germany in succession to his uncle Conrad III. He later became a crusader and opponent of the pope.

 1793 - George Washington was inaugurated in Philadelphia for a second term as president of the United States.

1877 - Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" was first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

1941 - A British naval raid on the German-occupied Lofoten Islands off Norway sank 11 German ships.

1950 - When Walt Disney released "Cinderella" today, it was the man who invented Mickey, first full-length, animated, feature film in eight years.

1975 - Actor Charlie Chaplin was knighted at Buckingham Palace.

1976 - In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Convention was formally dissolved and Northern Ireland came under direct rule from London.

1977 - More than 1,570 people were killed in Romania by an earthquake which registered 7.2 on the Richter scale; 35,000 families were made homeless.

1991 - Miners in the two largest Soviet coalfields went on strike to support demands for the resignation of President Mikhail Gorbachev and for pay raises.

 What Happened Today... March 5th

 1750 - The first Shakespearean preented in in America was performed at the Nassau Street Theatre in New York City. The play was "King Richard III".

1856 - In London, England - the Covent Garden theater was destroyed by fire.

1867 - In Ireland, a Fenian rising took place at Kilmallock when 14 police fought off over 200 armed Fenians.

1920 - Norway was admitted to the League of Nations.

1933 - Election returns in Germany gave the Nazis and their allies 52 percent of seats in the Reichstag.

1936 - The new Spitfire fighter plane went on show for the first time in Southampton, England.

1980 - In Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo agreed to form a coalition government.

1985 - The New York Islanders' Mike Bossy, became the first National Hockey League player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons. Two players scored 1993 - Five years after his exit in disgrace from the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned for life after he was ruled to have failed a second dope test.

1995 - British merchant bank Barings confirmed that a rescue package had been agreed upon with the Dutch ING group to buy the bank after the massive stock market gambling that triggered its downfall.

1997 - Turkey's National Security Council said that Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan had signed a council statement demanding a crackdown on religious activism.

 What Happened Today... March 6th

1944 - 658 United States bombers began a daylight attack on Berlin from bases in Britain and dropped 2,000 tons of bombs.

1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, requested asylum at the United States embassy in New Delhi.

1980 - Belgian-born French author Marguerite Yourcenar became the first woman writer to be elected to the Academie Francaise.

1983 - Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democrats were returned to power in Germany.

1988 - Three members of an Irish Republican Army unit were shot dead in a Gibraltar street by undercover SAS commandos.

1991 - Indian Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, in office only four months, resigned after losing the support of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) party.

1992 - A computer virus called "Michelangelo" struck thousands of personal computers around the world.

 What Happened Today... March 7th

1793 - The ruling Convention in France declared war on Spain during the Revolution.

1814 - Napoleon with a force of 37,000 defeated 90,000 Prussians under Bluecher at the Battle of Craonne in France.

1854 - Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine that stitched buttonholes.

1918 - The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Russian Communist Party.

1942 - In World War II, the British evacuated Rangoon, having completed all essential demolition. The Japanese entered the city the next day.

1951 - Iranian Prime Minister Ali Razmara was assassinated by a religious fanatic in a mosque in Tehran.

1959 - Melvin C. Garlow became the first pilot to fly more than a million miles in jet airplanes.

1965 - West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard said West Germany would seek to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

1973 - The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won a landslide victory in Bangladesh's first general election.

1978 - 38 black nationalists were killed during a Rhodesian raid on a guerrilla base in Zambia.

1987 - World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, became the youngest heavyweight titlist ever, when he defeated James Smith in a decision during a 12-round match in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1992 - A new four-party coalition government, led by Jean-Luc Dehaene, was formed in Belgium.

1994 - Poland said it would join Hungary in applying for membership of the European Union.

What Happened Today... March 8th

1855 - At Niagara Falls, New York, a train went over the first railway suspension bridge.

1894 - In New York, a dog license law was enacted, marking the first such animal control law in the United States. It would cost dog owners a $2 yearly fee per canine in cities with a population over 1,200,000.

1920 - Denmark joined the League of Nations.

1921 - French troops occupied Duesseldorf and other towns in the Ruhr after Germany failed to pay reparations.

1942 - Rangoon fell to the Japanese after being evacuated by British forces.

1962 - The Beatles gave their first performance on the BBC in Great Britain. John, Paul, George and Pete Best sang "Dream Baby" on "Teenager’s Turn".

1966 - The Nelson Column in Dublin was destroyed in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explosion.

1973 - IRA car bombs exploded outside the Old Bailey courthouse and Scotland Yard police headquarters in London, killing one person and injuring 238. On the same day a referendum in Northern Ireland favoured maintaining ties with the United Kingdom.

What Happened Today... March 9th

1822 - New York City's Charles M. Graham, patented artificial teeth.

1916 - Germany declared war on Portugal on grounds that Portugal had seized German shipping in Portuguese harbors.

1932 - Eamon de Valera was appointed President of Ireland.

1945 - The United States 1st Army captured Bonn.

1956 - Archbishop Makarios, suspected of terrorism by the British, was deported from Cyprus to the Seychelles.

1982 - Charles Haughey was sworn in as Irish prime minister.

1994 - Five Irish Republican Army mortar bombs landed on the runway at London's Heathrow airport but failed to explode.

1995 - United States President Bill Clinton approved a visa for Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams to enter the United States.

What Happened Today... March 10th

1862 - Britain and France recognized the independence of Zanzibar.

1862 - The first paper money of the United States government was issued.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell sent the first clear telephone message, to a nearby room, telling his assistant, Mr. Watson, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”

1922 - Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British governors of India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

1952 - The government of Cuba was overthrown by former president Fulgencio Batista, who ruled as a dictator until 1959.

1982 - In South Africa, the trial opened of 43 mercenaries accused of hijacking an Air India plane after a foiled coup in the Seychelles in November 1981.

1990 - An Iraqi court condemned British journalist Farzad Bazoft to death for espionage. He was executed on the 15th.

1995 - The EU responded angrily to Canada's seizure of a Spanish fishing boat in international waters, demanding its release and calling for retaliatory measures.

What Happened Today... March 11th

1851 - The first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" was given in Venice.

1882 - The Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association formed in Princeton, New Jersey.

1926 - Irish statesman Eamon de Valera resigned as head of Sinn Fein; he later formed the Fianna Fail party.

1935 - Hermann Goering officially created the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.

1970 - The Japanese Consul-General in Sao Paulo, Nobuo Okuchi, was kidnapped by Brazilian revolutionaries.

1973 - Gaullists and their allies retained an absolute majority in the second ballot of the French general election.

1978 - Bobby Hull, of the Winnipeg Jets, joined the ranks of Gordie Howe when he got career goal number 1,000 in a game against the Quebec Nordiques.

1981 - Chilean President Augusto Pinochet was sworn in for an eight-year term as president.

1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.

1990 - The Lithuanian Parliament proclaimed the restoration of the Baltic Republic's pre-World War II independence from the Soviet Union. Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control.

1995 - Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, arrived in New York.

1995 - A lone gunman shot dead Burundi's Energy and Mines Minister Ernest Kabushemeye in the nation's capital, Bujumbura.

 What Happened Today... March 12th

1470 - In the Wars of the Roses, Edward IV defeated the rebels at the battle of Empingham.

1507 - Cesare Borgia, Italian politician, cardinal and adventurer was killed in a battle with rebels of Navarre near Viana, Italy.

1799 - In the War of the Second Coalition, Austria declared war on France.

1854 - Britain and France concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the Crimean War.

1868 - Britain annexed Basutoland (Lesotho).

1913 - Canberra became the capital of Australia when the foundation stone of the Federal Parliament building was laid.

1940 - Finland signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ending the 14-week war which the Russians won by sheer weight of numbers.

1969 - Paul McCartney married, photographer, Linda Eastman.

1973 - In Syria, a new and permanent constitution was endorsed by over 97 per cent of voters in a national referendum.

1981 - Two Soviet cosmonauts boarded the Salyut 6 space station for a 75-day mission to the facility, which had been in orbit since 1977.

1985 - Auto dealer Tom Bensen and several investors bought the New Orleans Saints football team for $64 million.

1987 - Both Coca-Cola and Boeing Company joined Dow Jones industrials. The 30-stock average sold their stock of Owens-Illinois Glass and Inco Ltd. to make room for the new issues.

1972 - Britain and China resumed full diplomatic relations after 22 years; Britain withdrew its consulate from Taiwan.

1974 - The Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris was inaugurated.

1992 - Pravda, founded in 1912 by Lenin and the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, ceased publication because of lack of funds.

1997 - Sister Nirmala was elected as the new Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charity, succeeding Mother Teresa.

What Happened Today... March 14th

1891 - The submarine Monarch laid telephone cable along the English Channel bed to prepare for the first telephone links across the Channel.

1900 - The United States adopted the gold standard.

1915 - In World War I, the German cruiser Dresden was sunk by the Royal Navy in the Pacific.

1964 - Jack Ruby was found guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of United States President John F. Kennedy.

1965 - Israel accepted West Germany's request to establish diplomatic relations.

1976 - Egypt formally abrogated the 1971 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union.

1979 - At least 200 people died when a Trident aircraft crashed on to a factory outside Peking, China.

1980 - 87 people including a 14-man United States boxing team died in an air crash in Warsaw.

1983 - OPEC agreed to cut its oil prices by 15 percent for the first time in its 23-year history.

1991 - The "Birmingham Six," six Irishmen wrongly accused of the 1974 bombing of pubs in Birmingham, England, were freed after 16 years in jail.

What Happened Today... March 15th

44BC - The ancient Roman calendar called the 15th day of every mont the Ide or Ides of the month. We only remember March as the month that has Ides because it was on that day Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated. William Shakespeare's play helped promote the Ides of March.

1883 - In London, Irish-American terrorists attempted to blow up the offices of the Times newspaper.

1939 - The German Army crossed the Czech frontier and Adolf Hitler proclaimed the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

1979 - Pope John Paul II published his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis," in which he warned of the growing gap between rich and poor.

 1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

What Happened Today... March 16th

1935 - German leader Adolf Hitler renounced the disarmament clauses in the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription.

1937 - The Brooklynn Dodgers hired former world champion hurdler, Percy Beard to teach the faltering baseball team how to run.

1939 - Slovakia was placed under German control; Hungary annexed Ruthenia (formerly part of Czechoslovakia).

1971 - The Jackson 5 single, Never Can Say Goodbye, was released on this date, and within five days, it had sold 1,213,000 copies, an unparalleled success since the heyday of the Beatles.

1982 - Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev announced that the Soviet Union was freezing deployment of SS-20 missiles west of the Urals.

1995 - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams met President Bill Clinton for the first time.

What Happened Today... March 17th

1860 - In New Zealand, the second Maori war broke out.

1861 - A new united kingdom of Italy was proclaimed by parliament with Victor Emmanuel II as king.

1958 - The second United States satellite to orbit the Earth, Vanguard I, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

1960 - The second United Nations conference on the Law of the Sea opened in Geneva, attended by 88 states. It ended on April 26 without agreement.

1967 - "Peanuts" comic strip characters, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, were on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1978 - American Hot Wax, a film based on the story of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who introduced rock'n'roll to teenage American radio audiences in the 1950's, opened in United States theaters. The film featured a young Fran Drescher as Sheryl and Jay Leno as Mookie in one of their early film roles.

What Happened Today... March 18th

1662 - The first buses, eight-seat vehicles known as "carrosses a cinq solz," ran in Paris.

1776 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act, despised in its colonies, but retained the right to impose taxes in the future.

1922 - Mahatma Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for his civil disobedience campaign.

1940 - Hitler and Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agreed that Italy would eventually join the war.

1949 - The text of the North Atlantic Treaty was published for the first time.

1990 - Christian Democrats won a landslide victory in the first democratic elections held in East Germany.

1993 - After six days of deadlock, security forces stormed a hijacked Ethiopian airliner in the eastern town of Dire Dawa, killing two of the four hijackers.

What Happened Today... March 19th

1563 - In France, the Peace of Amboise ended the First War of Religion. The Huguenots were granted a limited amount of toleration.

1861 - The Maori insurrection in New Zealand ended when they finally surrendered.

1932 - Australia's Sydney Harbor Bridge was officially opened.

1950 - Writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, died.

1964 - The Great St. Bernard Tunnel under the Alps between Switzerland and Italy was opened to traffic.

1988 - Two British soldiers who drove into a Republican area of Belfast during a funeral procession, were seized and killed.

What Happened Today... March 20th

1933 - The first German concentration camp was opened at Dachau.

1934 - The first practical tests of radar were carried out at Kiel Harbor, Germany, by Dr. Rudolph Kuenhold.

1969 - At the Rock of Gibraltar, Beatle John Lennon married Yoko Ono, making him the second Beatle to marry in 8 days. A week earlier, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman.

1974 - An attempt was made to kidnap Britain's Princess Anne in The Mall, London.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule, setting a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.

1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed, and more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains.

1996 - The British government said for the first time that mad cow disease could probably be transmitted to humans.

1997 - President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin opened talks in Helsinki, Finland, on the issue of NATO expansion.

What Happened Today... March 21st

1556 - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake as a heretic.

1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, New York was incorporated. Today it is known as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first engineering college in the United States.

1871 - Chancellor Otto von Bismarck opened the first Reichstag (parliament) in the newly created German Reich.

1964 - Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles was released on this date, and created the greatest advance sale in history for a single record, worldwide at 2.1 million.

1965 - Martin Luther King led the start of a 4,000-strong civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1996 - Goran Persson, a former finance minister, became Swedish prime minister.

What Happened Today... March 22nd

1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere gave the first demonstration of motion pictures using celluloid film in Paris.

1964 - Ron Clarke, of Australia shattered the world 3 mile (4.8km) indoor record with a time of 13 minutes 18.4 seconds at an athletic meet in New York.

1979 - Sir Richard Sykes, Britain's Ambassador to the Netherlands, was shot dead by Irish terrorists in the Hague.

1987 - A 3,100-ton pile of rotting garbage left Islip, New York to look for a landfill willing to take its contents. Later it was submerged at sea.

1996 - Gunmen massacred 11 people in a political attack in South Africa's Zulu heartland, hours after President Nelson Mandela visited the province.

What Happened Today... March 24th

1882 - In Berlin, Germany, Professor Robert Koch announced his discovery of the tuberculosis germ.

1883 - Long distance telephone service began between Chicago and New York.

1930 - The recently discovered ninth planet was given the name Pluto.

1941 - Glenn Miller started work on his first film for 20th Century Fox, "Sun Valley Serenade".

1976 - Argentinean President Isabel Peron was deposed by her country's military.

1980 - Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

1987 - French Premier Jacques Chirac signed a contract with Walt Disney Productions for the creation of the EuroDisney theme park.

What Happened Today... March 25th

1306 - Robert de Bruce was crowned Robert I the Bruce of Scotland at Scone. He led the forces that freed Scotland from English rule in 1328.

1409 - The Council of Pisa, formed to try to resolve the schism in the Catholic church between the popes Gregory and Benedict, held its first meeting at Pisa. 

1807 - The slave trade in England was abolished.

1895 - Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1924 - King George of Greece was deposed and a republic proclaimed.

 1957 - The Treaty of Rome was signed, providing for the establishment on January 1, 1958, of the Common Market in Europe.

1982 - Lieutenant General Mohammad Hossain Ershad declared himself martial law leader of Bangladesh after a military coup.

 1995 - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was freed from an Indiana prison three years after his conviction for rape.

1996 - Officials from the 15 European Union states agreed to recommend a ban on exports of British beef products because of concern over mad cow disease.

1996 - France, Britain and the United States signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.

What Happened Today... March 26th

1793 - The Holy Roman Emperor formally declared war on France.

1913 - The Bulgarians took Adrianople in the Balkan War.

1917 - At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry under Murray withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.

1918 - In World War I, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch was appointed commander of the Allied armies on the western front.

1951 - The United States Air Force flag, which features a coat of arms, 13 white stars and the Air Force seal on a blue background, was approved.

1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine. It was a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis.

1960 - The University of Southern California (USC) won the NCAA swimming title, making it the first Pacific Coast school to do so.

1964 - Edward Clark set the fastest speed record ever noted by an American swimmer when, at the Yale University pool, he was timed at 4.89 miles-per-hour.

 What Happened Today... March 27th

1625 - Charles I, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, ascends to throne.

1861 - Black demonstrators in Charleston, South Carolina, stage ride-ins on street cars.

1931 - Actor Charlie Chaplin, "The Little Tramp", was awarded France’s distinguished Legion of Honor decoration.

1933 - Japan announced it would leave the League of Nations after being found guilty of aggression in Manchuria.

1941 - Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was deposed in a coup d'etat following his pact with Adolf Hitler.

1944 - 1,000 Jews leave France for Auschwitz concentration camp.

1945 - General Eisenhower declares German defenses on Western front broken.

1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet premier and first secretary of the Communist Party.

1968 - Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space in 1961, was killed in a plane crash near Moscow.

1980 - Mount St. Helens in Washington state becomes active after 123 years.

What Happened Today... March 28th

1885 - The United States Salvation Army is officially organized.

1891 - In London, the first world championship for amateur weightlifters was held.

1910 - The first seaplane takes off from the waters of Martinques, France.

1922 - Bradley A. Fiske, of Washington, D.C., patented a device to read microfilm.

1930 - The cities of Constantinople and Angora changes names to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey.

1933 - The German Reichstag confers dictatorial powers to Adolf Hitler.

1939 - Adolf Hitler denounced Germany's 1934 non-aggression pact with Poland.

1941 - In World War II, the Italian navy was defeated in the Battle of Cape Matapan.

1991 - Tens of thousands of Soviet radicals defied a Kremlin ban and circumvented a huge police and army presence to stage rallies in support of radical Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. 

1994 - About 60 people were killed in Johannesburg and surrounding townships when Inkatha supporters marched in support of the Zulu Monarch ahead of the April elections.

What Happened Today... March 29th

1798 - The Helvetic Republic, a government set up by the French directory in Switzerland from the ten Cantons, was proclaimed.

1809 - In Sweden, Gustavus IV was forced to abdicate after a number of military defeats against Denmark. He was succeeded by Charles XIII.

1871 - In London, Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in memory of her late consort Prince Albert.

1912 - English Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott died as his expedition attempted to return after reaching the South Pole.

1936 - Nazi propaganda claimed that 99 percent of the German population voted for official Nazi candidates in elections.

1963 - Britain granted the right to any territory to secede from the Central African Federation.

1974 - The first close-up pictures of the planet Mercury were taken by the United States spacecraft Mariner 10.

1982 - Katharine Hepburn set an industry record by winning a total of four Oscars as a performer. She received her fourth Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the movie On Golden Pond.

1985 - After 21, The Porkettes changed their name to The National Pork Council of Women.

1987 - A referendum in Haiti showed overwhelming support for a new constitution.

What Happened Today... March 30th

1806 - Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, was proclaimed king of Naples.

1814 - Britain and its allies against Napoleon Bonaparte marched in triumph into Paris.

1842 - The first surgical operation using an anaesthetic was carried out by Dr. Crawford Long of Jefferson, Georgia.

1856 - The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War and guaranteeing the integrity of Ottoman Turkey.

1858 - Hyman L. Lipman, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, patented the pencil, which did have an attached eraser.

1867 - Russia sold Alaska for two-cents an acre.

1970 - Television dramas were added to daytime lineups on both ABC and NBC. "The Best of Everything" and "A World Apart" were fisrt aired on ABC. On NBC debuted "Somerset" and "Another World".

1971 - The Bee Gees were given a gold record for, "Lonely Days". When playing the gold record, they heard the song at a faster speed and said, “Hey, this sounds like disco!” The rest is part of "Saturday Night Fever" history.

1973 - The United States military role in Vietnam came to a formal end when the last U.S. prisoner was released and the last soldier withdrew.

1979 - Airey Neave, opposition Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland, died when a bomb exploded in his car in the House of Commons car park.

1987 - Vincent van Gogh’s "Sunflowers" brought in $39.85 million, more than triple the record for a painting at auction. It was sold on the 134th anniversary of the artist's birth.

What Happened Today... March 31st

1854 - The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed between the United States and Japan, opening up the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to U.S. traders.

1889 - The Eiffel Tower in Paris was inaugurated.

1900 - The W.E. Roach Company became the first automobile company to advertise in a national magazine. Their advertising slogan was, “Automobiles that give satisfaction!” in the "Saturday Evening Post".

1917 - The United States purchase of the Danish West Indies for $25 million, agreed to the previous August, took effect. They called them the Virgin Islands.

1923 - The first dance marathon was held in New York City. Dancer Alma Cummings established a world's record by remaining on her feet for 27 hours.

1931 - The great Knute Rockne died in a plane crash.

1937 - Phil Harris recorded "That’s What I Like About the South" on a 78 r.p.m. disk. Harris moved to television stardom and continued as a vocalist during the 1950s with hits like "The Thing".

1945 - The play, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, opened on Broadway on this date.

1949 - Newfoundland joined the Canadian Federation as the 10th province.

1954 - The Soviet Union offered to join NATO.

1983 - The Colombian city of Popayan was devastated by an earthquake which killed at least 500 people and left more than 3,000 homeless.

1985 - Nashville, Tennessee's Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a favorite of country music stars, closed.

1986 - A Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed into a mountainside in central Mexico en route from Mexico City to Los Angeles. All 166 people on board were killed.

1991 - The Warsaw Pact, which held Eastern Europe under tight Kremlin control for 36 years, formally ceased its existence as a military force when Soviet commanders surrendered their powers.