Friday 31st of March 1499

224th Pope Pius IV is born as Giovanni Angelo Medici in Milano, Lombardia, Italy.

Giovanni was the second of eleven children to Bernardino de' Medici and Clelia Serbelloni.

Sunday 31st of March 1596

Philosopher, mathematician and scientist René Descartes is born in La Haye en Touraine, Indre-et-Loire, France.

Descartes' mother died on 13 May 1597, a few days after giving birth to another son, who also died soon after.

Sunday 31st of March 1675

247th Pope Benedictus XIV is born as Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Saturday 31st of March 1685

Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Thüringen, Germany.

Monday 31st of March 1727

Mathematician, physicist, astronomer and theologian Isaac Newton dies of natural causes at the age of 85 in London, Kensington, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Monday 31st of March 1732

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn aka The Father of the Symphony is born in Rohrau-an-der-Leitha, Niederösterreich, Austria.

Friday 31st of March 1809

Writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol is born in Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine.

Friday 31st of March 1837

Painter John Constable dies of heart failure at the age of 61 in 76 Charlotte Street, London, Fitzrovia, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 31st of March 1855

Poet and writer Charlotte Brontë aka Currer Bell known for Jane Eyre dies of dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum at the age of 39 in Haworth, West Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Sunday 31st of March 1878

Boxer Jack John Arthur Johnson aka The Galveston Giant known for becoming the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion is born in Galveston, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 31st of March 1909

Writer and journalist Robert Brasillach is born in Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillon, France.

Friday 31st of March 1916

Black Jeff Brown is lynched for bumping into a white woman in Cedar Bluff, Mississippi, United States.

Friday 31st of March 1916

Kidnapper and child murderer Franklin Pierce McCall is born in Jasper, Florida, United States.

Wednesday 31st of March 1926

Writer John Robert Fowles known for his novel The Collector is born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, United Kingdom.

Thursday 31st of March 1932

25-year-old Nazi leader and Reichsjugendführer Baldur Benedikt von Schirach marries 19-year-old Henriette Hoffman in Alter Peter, Petersplatz 1, München, Bayern, Germany.

Sunday 31st of March 1935

Actor Richard George Chamberlain is born in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

Sunday 31st of March 1935

Musician Herb Herbert Alpert known from Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass is born in Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, California, United States.

Tuesday 31st of March 1953

54-year-old Serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie aka The Strangler of 10 Rillington Place is arrested, posing as John Waddington in Putney Bridge, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

All he had in his possession were some coins and an old newspaper clipping about the remand of Timothy Evans.

Saturday 31st of March 1962

18-year-old Klaus Jung is abducted and killed by serial killer Jürgen Bartsch aka Der Kirmesmörder in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Monday 31st of March 1969

153 die in coal mine explosion and fire in Barroterán, Coahuila, Mexico.

Tuesday 31st of March 1970

A Japan Airlines Boeing 727-89 Flight 351 is hijacked by nine members of the   Communist militant group the Japanese Red Army on the way from Tokyo   in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan.

The group then proceeded to Pyongyang's Mirim Airport where they surrendered to North Korean authorities, who offered the whole group asylum.  

Tuesday 31st of March 1970

63-year-old West German Ambassador to Guatemala Karl Borromäus Maria Heinrich Graf von Spreti is kidnapped by Marxist–Leninist FAR guerillas in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

von Spreti was killed six days later.

Wednesday 31st of March 1971

28-year-old American hero and mass murderer William Laws Calley known for the My Lay Massacre is sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor for the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre in United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, United States.

The next day President Richard Nixon ordered Calley transferred from Leavenworth Prison to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal. Calley served only three and a half years of house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning.

Monday 31st of March 1980

Black Olympic legend Jesse James Cleveland Owens dies of lung cancer at the age of 67 in Tucson, Arizona, United States.

Saturday 31st of March 1984

Murderer Ronald Clark O'Bryan aka The Pixy Stix Killer aka The Man Who Killed Halloween is executed by lethal injection at the age of 40 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

On 31 October 1974 O’Bryan poisoned his 8-year-old son Timothy with a cyanide-laced Giant-sized Pixy Stix in order to claim life insurance money to ease his own financial troubles. O’Bryan also distributed poisoned candy to his 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth and four other children in an attempt to cover up his crime, however neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy.

Monday 31st of March 1986

167 die in Mexicana Boeing 727–264 Flight 940 crash into a mountain in El Carbón, Michoacán, Sierra Madre, Mexico.

Friday 31st of March 1995

Singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez aka The Queen of Tejano music is shot dead by 35-year-old Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club at the age of 24 in Days Inn Motel, 901 Navigation Blvd, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States.

Saldívar was embezzling money from the Selena fan club and Selena decided to fire her. Shot once in her right shoulder, severing an artery, Selena ran towards the lobby for help. She collapsed on the floor as the clerk called 911, with Saldívar still chasing her and calling her a "bitch". Selena died in a hospital from loss of blood. Her funeral drew 60.000 mourners.

Tuesday 31st of March 1998

Spree killer Daniel Eugene Remeta is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 40 in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States.

Remeta once said he wanted to be extradited to Florida because it imposes capital punishment. "I want them to pull the switch," he said. "I'm not afraid. Death is only as ugly as you make it.''

Wednesday 31st of March 1999

31-year-old Serial killer Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala aka The Phoenix Strangler aka The Phantom Sniper aka The Canefield Killer is found guilty of 16 murders and 10 rapes and sentenced to 506 years in prison in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Wednesday 31st of March 2004

Peaches on stage in Ancienne Belgique, Boulevard Anspach 110, Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

Tuesday 31st of March 2015

The seats for the medics in the bullfighting arena in Plaza de Toros, 5 Av. Plaza de Toros, Calanda, Teruel, Spain.

Thursday 31st of March 2016

Architect Zaha Mohammad Hadid dies of a heart attack at the age of 66 in Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Rd, Miami, Florida, United States.

Friday 31st of March 2017

Pop artist James Rosenquist dies after a long illness at the age of 84 in New York City, New York, United States.