The Daily News | March 31

Virgin Islands bought from Denmark ($25 million), 1917
Knute Rockne died, 1931
US Marshall Aid Act (rehabilitate Europe) passed, 1948
John Donne, poet, died, 1631
Rioting in London over Britain’s “poll tax”, 1988
Eiffel Tower inaugurated, 1889
Lt. William Calley sentenced to life imprisonment, 1971
USS Missouri decommissioned, 1991
Cottonseed hulling machine patented (John Lineback), 1814
Warsaw pact formally dissolved, 1991
John Pierpont Morgan, US industrialist financier, died, 1913
First US dance marathon (New York), 1923
Jack Johnson, first black to hold the heavyweight title, 1878
Richard Pearse flew in a monoplane, 1903
Lyndon Johnson announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, 1968
“Oklahoma!” opened on Broadway, 1943
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation founded (Philadelphia), 1946
Uranus discovered (William Herschel), 1781
James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens, US olympic athlete, died, 1980
Civilian Conservation Corps authorized, 1933
Modern spiritualism is born when the Fox sisters hear rapping, 1848
Charlotte Bronte, English novelist, died, 1855
John Caldwell Calhoun, first US vice president to resign, died, 1850
“V-8” engine unveiled by Ford Motor Co, 1932
Ten hour workday established for US federal public works employees, 1840
“The Hound of the Baskervilles” released, 1939
Dag Hammarskjold nominated as Secretary-General of UN Security Council, 1953
Newfoundland became Canada’s 10th province, 1949
First town completely illuminated by electrical lighting (Wabash, Indiana), 1880
John Constable, English landscape painter, died, 1837
New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator, 1976
Daylight Savings Time first went into operation, 1918