March 31st

Terri Schiavo died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute.

Four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq. frenzied crowds dragged their burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.

Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (They were acquited in 2000.).

Major League Baseball players agreed to end the sport’s longest strike in history after a judge ordered a preliminary injunction against team owners.

The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.

The first edition of WrestleMania is held in New York. The annual event is the world's most important wrestling meet. It is the biggest event organized by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan remained comatose and died in 1985.).

President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election.

US orders first combat troops to Vietnam.

Following a coup d'etat, a military dictatorship takes charge in Brazil. The regime under Humberto Castelo Branco suppressed the left-wing opposition, leading to widespread social unrest and strike action, especially in 1968.

The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.

Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" opened on Broadway.

British parliament accepts Irish Home Rule law.

Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States.

The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.

English Parliament makes the Humble Petition to Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell offering him the crown: he declines.

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Aragon issue the Alhambra Decree which expels Jews from their Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.