From Historynet: Today in History March 31

1282          The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end.

1547          In France, Francis --king since 1515--dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II .

1776          Abigail Adams  writes to husband 

John  that women are "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights.

1779          Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea.

1790          In Paris, France, 

Maximilien Robespierre  is elected president of the Jacobin Club.

1836          The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by 

Charles Dickens  is published in London.

1862          Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces takes place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.

1880          The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana.

1889          The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opens on the Left Bank as part of the Exhibition of 1889.

1916          General John Pershing  and his army rout Pancho Villa's  army in Mexico.

1917          The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.

1918          Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time.

1921          Great Britain declares a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike.

1933          To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps .

1939          Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade.

1940          La Guardia airport in New York officially opens to the public.

1941          Germany begins a counter offensive in North Africa.

1945          The United States and Britain bar a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.

1948          The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.

1949          Winston Churchill  declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe.

1954          The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault.

1960          The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans.

1966          An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.

1967          President Lyndon Johnson  signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.

1970          U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.

1980          President Jimmy Carter  deregulates the banking industry.

1991          Albania offers a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years.