Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 31:
1959 – The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.
1970 – Lesotho’s prime minister, Leabua Jonathan, announced that King Moshoeshoe II was leaving the country indefinitely and Queen Mamohato would act as regent.
1980 – U.S. athlete Jesse Owens died. He won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics but Hitler refused to shake his hand because he was black.
1992 – Israeli woman, 51, gives birth to twins.
2002 – A suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy restaurant in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, killing at least 15 people and injuring 44.
2003 – Mladen Naletilic and Vinko Martinovic, two Bosnian Croats nicknamed “Tuta” and “Stela”, were jailed for 20 years and 18 years respectively for crimes against humanity during a 1993-94 ethnic cleansing campaign in Bosnia.
2004 – Freddy Adu, 14, becomes youngest professional player in American team sports.
2005 – Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, died 13 days after her tube feeding was halted under orders from a U.S. court.
2005 – Lithuanian stunt performers set world record for longest time inside ice cube.
2009 – Honda announces first robot controllable by just human thought.
2010 – World’s largest solar boat “PlanetSolar” launches.
(Reuters)
