Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 31
March 31: Feast of the Annunciation in Western Christianity (observed, 2008); César Chávez Day in various U.S. states, Freedom Day in Malta.
- 1778 – English explorer James Cook landed on Vancouver Island and claimed it for Great Britain.
- 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
- 1889 – The Eiffel Tower (pictured) was inaugurated in Paris, becoming a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
- 1903 – New Zealand inventor Richard Pearse reportedly flew in one of the first powered flying machines for a distance of several hundred metres, about nine months before the Wright brothers flew their Wright Flyer.
- 1917 – The Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands after the United States paid Denmark US$25 million for the Caribbean islands.