March 31
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Featured Event
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZC4-10663)
U.S. implements Daylight Saving Time
On this day in 1918, Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s Standard Time Act went into effect, which advanced clocks by an hour. Also called “war time” because of its implementation during World War I, the time change was designed to conserve fuel by reducing the need for artificial light. However, daylight saving was largely unpopular; groups that rose early, such as farmers, were its harshest critics. After being implemented and repealed in various forms over the years, in 1966 the government set the Universal Time Act, which standardized Daylight Saving Time nationwide. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Nils Jorgensen/AP Images
Iraqi-born British architect Dame Zaha Hadid, who died this day in 2016, was known for radical deconstructivist designs that helped her become the first woman to be awarded (2004) the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Famous Birthdays
More on March 31
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
2008
American director Jules Dassin, a master of film noir perhaps best known for the influential heist film Rififi (1955), died at age 96. [Take our movie quiz.]
U.S. Navy Photograph
1992
The USS Missouri—site of the Japanese surrender in 1945, formally ending World War II—was decommissioned for a second and final time; it was the last U.S. battleship still in service. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about submarines, ships, and other watercraft.]
AP
1980
American track-and-field legend Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, died at age 66. [Sort fact from fiction in our Olympics quiz.]
White House Collection
1968
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ended a televised speech about the Vietnam War by announcing that he would not seek reelection, stunning viewers. [Watch an overview of Lyndon B. Johnson’s life and career.]
© Eric Lee/Paramount Classics, a division of Paramount Pictures; all rights reserved
1948
American politician Al Gore, who served as vice president (1993–2001) in the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton and lost the disputed 2000 presidential election, was born. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidential elections.]
© LMPC/Getty Images
1943
Oklahoma! debuted on Broadway. The first of 11 musicals written by the iconic team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, Oklahoma! launched a golden age of American musical comedy that lasted through the 1950s. [Learn more about the people, places, and events that shaped the 1940s.]
Courtesy of the National Hockey League
1928
Canadian-born American ice hockey player Gordie Howe—one of the game’s greatest players, known for both his scoring ability and his toughness—was born in Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada. [See where Howe ranks on our list of the 10 best hockey players of all time.]
© Corbis
1889
The 984-foot (300-meter) Eiffel Tower, a wrought iron technological masterpiece created by Gustave Eiffel to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution, was officially inaugurated in Paris.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
1870
Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [Read about the history of voting in the United States.]
The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk Newspapers' Art Trust Purchase and Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Victor Spark in Memory of their Son Donald, 52.55.2
1854
U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry signed the Treaty of Kanagawa in Japan, ending that country’s period of seclusion. [How much do you know about Japanese history?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Detroit Publishing Company (dig. id. det 4a27870)
1732
Composer Joseph Haydn, one of the most important figures in the development of the Classical style in music during the 18th century, was born in Rohrau, Austria. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about music composers.]
National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
1596
French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher René Descartes, widely considered the father of modern philosophy and perhaps best known for the famous phrase “I think, therefore I am,” was born. [Test your knowledge of a few things you probably didn’t learn in Philosophy 101.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1521
The first Roman Catholic mass in the Philippines was celebrated on the island of Limasawa. [Take our quiz about the history of Roman Catholicism.]