On March 31, 1917, the U.S. took formal possession of the Danish West Indies. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 31st history…

1146 - Bernard Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon urging the necessity of a Second Crusade; Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine are present and join the crusade

1657 - English Parliament makes the Humble Petition to Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell offering him the crown: he declines (pictured)

1736 - Belleview Hospital founded in a NYC almshouse - 1st public hospital in US

1889 - Eiffel Tower officially opens in Paris; built for the Exposition Universelle, at 300 meters high it retains the record for tallest manmade structure for 41 years

1918 - 1st daylight savings time in US goes into effect 

On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 30th history…

240 BC - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet

1842 - Ether used as an astringent for 1st time

1867 - Alaska Purchase: US buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ($109 million in 2018), roughly 2 cents an acre (pictured)

1870 - 15th Amendment to US Constitution adopted, guarantees right to vote regardless of race

1959 - Dalai Lama flees China and is granted political asylum in India

1981 - US President Reagan is shot and wounded in an assassination attempt, 3 others are also wounded 

An enormous ice dam formed at the source of the Niagara River on the eastern shore of Lake Erie on March 29, 1848. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 29th history…

845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving (pictured)

1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Duke Edward of York defeats the Lancastrian army, deposes King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou and proclaims himself King Edward IV

1795 - Ludwig van Beethoven, 24, has his debut performance as a pianist in Vienna

1806 - Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the 1st US federal highway

1912 - Captain Robert Scott, storm bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary “the end cannot be far”

1951 - American citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union

1974 - Chinese farmers discover the Terra Cotta Army, 8,000 clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China’s 1st emperor, Qin Shi Huang

2017 - Man’s body found inside a 7 meter long reticulated python in Indonesia 

Brewing magnate August Anheuser Busch Jr. was born March 28, 1899, in St. Louis, Missouri. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 28th history…

1885 - US Salvation Army officially organized

1930 - Turkish cities Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara

1979 - A partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US results in release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere, but no deaths

2017 - World’s largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 meters found in Western Australia (pictured)

2017 - US President Trump signs Energy Independence executive order undoing Obama Climate Control measures 

On March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 27th history…

1513 - Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon and his expedition first sight Florida (pictured)

1855 - Kerosene patented

1866 - US President Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th Amendment

1915 - Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) is arrested and returned to quarantine in NY after spending 5 years evading health authorities and causing several further outbreaks of typhoid

2020 - $2.2 trillion stimulus package, largest in US history, signed into law by president Trump