Did you know
There he co-discovered the genetic cause of most cases of the cancer follicular lymphoma – the misregulation of the gene Bcl-2
Notable Deaths on March 31
132 people
32 BC – 2026
March 31 has seen 132 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 32 BC – 2026. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
2005 — Stanley J. Korsmeyer
American oncologist and academic (born 1951)
Did you know
Born and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and later the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
Did you know
He rose to prominence in the early 1980s as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute
Did you know
Louis, further studying the role of Bcl-2 in cell biology
Did you know
His group's work expanded the paradigm of cancer-causing genes, providing the first example of how interfering with programmed cell death could lead to cancer development
Roman nobleman of the Equestrian order (born 109 BC)
Titus Pomponius Atticus was a Roman editor, banker, and literary patron, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with the famous Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. Atticus was from a wealthy family of…
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-32
528
Saffarid emir (born 906)
Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad was the amir of Sistan from 923 until his death in 963. He is responsible for restoring Saffarid rule over Sistan, and was a great patron of the arts.
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963
1241
Italian bishop and diplomat
William of Modena, also known as William of Sabina, Guglielmo de Chartreaux, Guglielmo de Savoy, Guillelmus, was an Italian clergyman and papal diplomat. He was frequently appointed a legate, or papal ambassador by the…
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1251
Russian Grand Duke (born 1288)
Ivan I Danilovich Kalita was Prince of Moscow from 1325 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1331 until his death in 1340.
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1340
Italian Augustinian friar
Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro OESA was an Augustinian friar who was at one time Petrarch's confessor, and who taught Boccaccio at the beginning of his education in the humanities. He was Bishop of Monopoli in Apulia.…
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1342
patriarch of Constantinople
Isidore II of Constantinople was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1456 to 1462.
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1462
Italian Roman Catholic priest (born 1411)
Bonaventura Tornielli was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed friar from the Servite Order. Tornielli was born into a noble household and was a noted preacher in which he visited numerous Italian cities…
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1491
1547
1567
Spanish king (born 1578)
Philip III was King of Spain and Portugal during the period known as the Iberian Union, reigning from 1598 until his death in 1621. He was also King of Naples and Sicily, Duke of Milan, and Lord of the Seventeen…
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1621
Royal Governor of La Florida (born 1554)
Gonzalo Méndez de Canço y Donlebún was a Spanish admiral who served as the seventh governor of the Spanish province of La Florida (1596–1603). He fought in the Battle of San Juan (1595) against the English admiral…
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1622
English lawyer and poet (born 1572)
John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London…
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1631
1671
3rd Earl of Clarendon, English soldier and politician, 14th Colonial Governor of New York (born 1661)
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was an English Army officer, politician and colonial administrator. He was propelled into the forefront of English politics when he and…
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1723
Dutch scholar and author (born 1668)
Pieter Burman, also known as Peter or Pieter Burmann and posthumously distinguished from his nephew as "the Elder", was a Dutch classical scholar.
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1741
Nigerian merchant, author, and activist (born 1745)
Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka, presumed to be in present-day southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a…
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1797
English painter and educator (born 1776)
John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area on the…
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1837
American lawyer and politician, 7th Vice President of the United States (born 1782)
John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and…
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1850
English novelist and poet (born 1816)
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which was…
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1855
French mathematician and philosopher (born 1801)
Antoine Augustin Cournot was a French philosopher and mathematician who contributed to the development of economics.
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1877
Polish violinist and composer (born 1835)
Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue, who is regarded amongst the most distinguished violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski…
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1880
1885
American lawyer and politician, 28th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1823)
Galusha Aaron Grow was the 24th speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1861 to 1863. Elected as a Democrat in the 1850 congressional elections, he switched to the newly organized Republican…
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1907
Greek poet, essayist and art critic (born 1856)
Jean Moréas was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek during his youth.
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1910
American banker and financier (born 1837)
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately…
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1913
English-Scottish runner and captain (born 1882)
Wyndham Halswelle was a British athlete. He won the controversial 400 m race at the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the only athlete to win an Olympic title by a walkover.
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1915
German physiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1854)
Emil von Behring, was a German physiologist. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a…
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1917
Bengali Islamic scholar and author (born 1869)
Abdul Hamid was a Bengali Islamic scholar, author and educationist. He was one of the pioneers of introducing the Deobandi movement in Bengal and is noted for being one of the founding fathers of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul…
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1920
English painter and illustrator (born 1855)
George Charles Haité was an English designer, painter, illustrator and writer. His most famous work is the iconic cover design of the Strand Magazine, launched in 1891, which helped popularise the Sherlock Holmes…
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1924
Chinese scholar and political reformer (born 1858)
Kang Youwei was a Chinese political thinker and reformer in the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked conflict between the emperor and his adoptive mother,…
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1927
German politician, Mayor of Marburg (born 1836)
Ludwig Schüler was a German politician and from 17 September 1884 until 20 May 1907 mayor of Marburg.
In January 1911 he was appointed honorary citizen.
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1930
American football player and coach (born 1888)
Knute Kenneth Rockne was a Norwegian-American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Leading Notre Dame for 13 seasons, Rockne accumulated over 100 wins and three national championships.
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1931
Georgian-American businessman and diplomat, founded Prince Matchabelli perfume (born 1885)
Prince Georges Vasili Matchabelli was a Georgian perfumer. A nobleman and diplomat, he emigrated to the United States after the 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia.
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1935
Greek general (born 1887)
Ioannis Tsangaridis was a Greek Cypriot General of the Hellenic Army.
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1939
Japanese admiral (born 1885)
Mineichi Koga was a Japanese Marshal Admiral and commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet.
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1944
New Zealand banker and politician (born 1884)
Frank Findlay was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.
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1945
German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)
Hans Fischer was a German organic chemist and the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for Chemistry "for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin."
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1945
Estonian architect (born 1890)
Robert Natus was an Estonian architect of Baltic German descent.
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1950
Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1877)
Wallace Humphrey White Jr. was an American politician and Republican leader in the United States Congress from 1917 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state of Maine and served in the U.S. House of Representatives…
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1952
Italian-American race car driver and actor (born 1884)
Raffaele "Ralph" DePalma was an American racing driver who won the 1915 Indianapolis 500. DePalma won the 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911 American AAA national dirt track championships and is credited with winning 25…
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1956
American politician and librarian (born 1893)
Nellah Izora Massey Bailey was an American politician and librarian. She was the first lady of Mississippi from 1944 to 1946 and the Mississippi state tax collector from 1948 to 1956. A member of the Democratic Party,…
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1956
officer of the Greek Navy and director of the Greek Radio Orchestra (born 1913)
Pyrros Spyromilios was a Greek officer of the Greek Navy in World War II and later director of the Greek Radio Orchestra.
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1961
American baseball player (born 1885)
Grover Cleveland "Slim" Lowdermilk was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox between 1909 and…
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1968
Soviet Commander during the Winter War and the Eastern Front of World War II (born 1894)
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and one of the most prominent Red Army commanders during the Second World War.
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1970
English golfer (born 1897)
Percy Alliss was one of the leading English professional golfers in the 1920s and 1930s, winning many tournaments in Britain and Continental Europe. He was also the father of commentator and former golfer Peter Alliss.
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1975
American photographer and director (born 1890)
Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. In 1936, he…
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1976
1978
American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered Insulin (born 1899)
Charles Herbert Best, was an American-Canadian medical scientist and one of the co-discoverers of insulin with Frederick Banting. He served as the chair of the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the…
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1978
Czech poet and author (born 1905)
Vladimír Holan was a Czech poet. He was known for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimistic views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s.
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1980
American sprinter and long jumper (born 1913)
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting Olympic records in each event. He is widely regarded as one of the…
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1980
English author and playwright (born 1889)
Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, was a British writer and playwright best known for the 1935 story National Velvet.
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1981
Australian author and academic (born 1902)
Christina Stead was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a member…
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1983
American actor and director (born 1925)
William Gerald Paris was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and for directing the majority of the…
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1986
Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1908)
Sir William McMahon was an Australian politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and previously held various…
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1988
Greek columnist, political and social analyst and historian (born 1905)
Theofylaktos Papakonstantinou was a Greek columnist, political and social analyst and historian. He used the pen name Petros Monastiriotis.
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1991
American actor and martial artist (born 1965)
Brandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist. Establishing himself as a rising action star in the early 1990s, Lee landed what was to be his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in the supernatural superhero…
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1993
Lithuanian-American songwriter (born 1900)
Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen.
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1993
1995
Italian automobile designer and engineer (born 1905)
Dante Giacosa was an Italian automobile designer and engineer responsible for a range of Italian automobile designs — and for refining the front-wheel drive layout to an industry-standard configuration. He has been…
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1996
American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1958)
Jeffrey Lee Pierce was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and author. He was one of the founding members of the post-punk band the Gun Club, and released material as a solo artist.
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1996
first Chief Minister of Sarawak, Malaysia.
Stephen Kalong Ningkan was a Malaysian politician who served as the first Chief Minister of Sarawak from 1963 to 1966.
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1997
American lawyer, activist, and politician (born 1920)
Bella Abzug, nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm,…
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1998
1998
American pianist (born 1933)
Joel Ryce-Menuhin was an American pianist, who later became a Jungian psychologist in private practice.
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1998
Russian linguist and ethnographer (born 1922)
Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov was a Soviet and Russian linguist, epigraphist, and ethnologist. He is best known for the key role he played in the decipherment of the Maya script, the writing system of the Maya…
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1999
German-born French photographer and photojournalist (born 1908)
Gisèle Freund was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is a expanded…
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2000
English guitarist and member of the band Toby (born 1952)
Adrian Fisher was an English guitarist and a member of the bands Toby, Sparks and Boxer. He played on Sparks' first two albums under Island Records, Kimono My House and Propaganda.
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2000
English footballer (born 1967)
David Carlyle Rocastle was an English professional footballer who played as a midfielder in the roles of a playmaker and a winger.
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2001
American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)
Clifford Glenwood Shull was an American physicist.
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2001
English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (born 1928)
Barry Took was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series Bootsie and Snudge, the radio comedy Round the Horne and…
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2002
Indian activist and politician (born 1924)
Moturu Udayam was an Indian politician and women's rights activist. She was the General Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Sangham for eighteen years, and then the honorary president of the organisation between 1992…
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2002
Argentine Archaeologist (born 1913)
Carlos Joaquín Gradin, also known as Carlos Gradín, was an Argentine surveyor and archaeologist. He carried out numerous studies in the Patagonian region, and is known for his extensive studies of Cueva de las Manos. He…
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2002
English-Canadian mathematician and academic (born 1907)
Harold Scott MacDonald "Donald" Coxeter was a British-Canadian geometer and mathematician. He is regarded as one of the greatest geometers of the 20th century.
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2003
American actress (born 1918)
Anne Gwynne was an American actress who was known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films. Gwynne was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II. She was the…
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2003
Danish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (born 1949)
Tommy Seebach, born Tommy Seebach Mortensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a popular Danish singer, composer, organist, pianist and producer. He is best known as front man of Sir Henry and his Butlers and for numerous…
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2003
American soldier (born 1965)
Stephen "Scott" Helvenston was a US Navy SEAL. He was working as a security contractor for Blackwater Security when he was killed in the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush within days of arriving in Iraq.
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2004
Filipino lawyer and politician (born 1905)
Justiniano Solis Montano Sr. was a Filipino lawyer and politician who was elected for one term to the Philippine Senate and for multiple terms as a member of the House of Representatives.
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2005
American businessman (born 1920)
Franklin Parsons Perdue, born in Salisbury, Maryland, was for many years the president and CEO of Perdue Farms, now one of the largest chicken-producing companies in the United States.
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2005
American saxophonist and composer (born 1931)
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in the year of their death.
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2006
Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher (born 1921)
Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields of family…
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2007
American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (born 1911)
Julius "Jules" Dassin was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued his career. He was…
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2008
American equipment manager (born 1926)
William Bond Keightley was the equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team, a position he held for 48 years. Archived 2024-12-13 at the Wayback Machine Known affectionately to most as "Mr.…
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2008
Argentinian lawyer and politician, 46th President of Argentina (born 1927)
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as president of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the National Reorganization…
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2009
Indian-Singaporean lawyer and judge (born 1911)
Choor Singh Sidhu, known professionally as Choor Singh, was a Singaporean lawyer who served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and, particularly after his retirement from the bench, a philanthropist and writer…
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2009
American journalist (born 1922)
Jerald Franklin terHorst was an American journalist who served as the 14th White House Press Secretary during the first month of Gerald Ford's presidency. His resignation in protest of Ford's unconditional pardon of…
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2010
Welsh rugby union player (born 1945)
Roger Addison was a Welsh rugby union player. A prop forward, he represented Wales at youth level and played club rugby for Pontypool RFC. He suffered a serious neck injury during a match in 1966 that left him…
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2010
American boxer and trainer (born 1922)
Gilbert Thomas Clancy was a Hall of Fame boxing trainer and one of the most noted television boxing commentators of the 1980s and 1990s.
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2011
Australian journalist and author (born 1935)
Alan John Fitzgerald was an Australian author, journalist and satirist. He was known for his unwavering opposition to the Australian republican movement and worked alongside Tony Abbott during Abbott's tenure as…
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2011
the first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces (born 1920)
Mary Greyeyes Reid was a Canadian World War II servicewoman. A Cree from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, she was the first First Nations woman to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces. After joining the…
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2011
Norwegian footballer and coach (born 1921)
Oddvar Ingolf Hansen was a Norwegian footballer and coach, who represented Brann in his hometown Bergen.
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2011
Scottish singer and actress (born 1941)
Isabella Margaret MacAskill was a heritage activist and traditional Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher, often referred to as the "Gaelic diva".
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2011
American businessman and philanthropist (born 1927)
Henry Taub was an American businessman and philanthropist of Hungarian-Jewish descent who was a co-founder of ADP.
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2011
New Zealand-Australian nurse and politician (born 1943)
Judith Anne Adams was a New Zealand-born Australian politician, midwife, nurse, and farmer, who served as a member of the Australian Senate between 2005 and 2012, representing the state of Western Australia.
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2012
American physicist and academic (born 1914)
Dale Raymond Corson was an American physicist and academic administrator who was the eighth president of Cornell University.
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2012
American stained glass artist (born 1914)
Bernard Otto Gruenke was an American stained glass artist who produced one of the first faceted glass windows in the United States in 1949. He was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
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2012
American baseball player (born 1930)
Gerald Thomas Lynch, nicknamed "the Hat", "Lynch the Pinch" and "the Allison Park Sweeper", was an American professional baseball outfielder who ranked among the most prolific pinch hitters in Major League Baseball…
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2012
2012
American economist and academic (born 1950)
Halbert Lynn White Jr. was the Chancellor's Associates Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and…
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2012
French archbishop (born 1920)
Charles-Amarin Brand was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
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2013
Australian singer and politician (born 1936)
Ernest Francis Bridge, AM was an Australian parliamentarian and country music singer. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1980 to 2001, representing the electorate of Kimberley, first as…
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2013
American illustrator (born 1926)
Robert J. "Bob" Clarke was an American illustrator whose work appeared in advertisements and MAD Magazine. The label of the Cutty Sark bottle is his creation. Clarke was born in Mamaroneck, New York. He resided in…
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2013
Iranian lawyer and politician, Iranian Minister of Interior (born 1917)
Ahmad Sayyed Javadi was an Iranian lawyer, political activist and politician, who served as interior minister and justice minister. He was the first interior minister after the 1979 revolution in Iran.
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2013
Russian ice hockey player (born 1980)
Dmitri Viktorovich Uchaykin was a Russian ice hockey left-winger.
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2013
Spanish economist, historian, and academic (born 1931)
Gonzalo Anes Álvarez de Castrillón was a Spanish economist, professor and historian. He was director of the Royal Academy of History.
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2014
Belgian painter (born 1923)
Roger Somville was a modern Belgian painter. He defended realism against modern abstract art, which he believed de-humanize human beings.
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2014
Australian painter, historian, and curator (born 1931)
Elizabeth Ann Dewar Churcher was an Australian arts administrator, best known as director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997. She was also a painter in her own right earlier in her life.
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2015
Japanese author and illustrator (born 1983)
Cocoa Fujiwara was a Japanese manga artist and illustrator from Fukuoka Prefecture. Her debut was with a work called Calling, which she made when she was fifteen. She chose not to go to high school so that she could…
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2015
Colombian lawyer and politician (born 1937)
Carlos Gaviria Díaz was a Colombian lawyer, professor and politician. He served as the 5th Chief Magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, where he served as a Magistrate from 1993 to 2001. After retiring from…
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2015
Czech-English historian, author, and academic (born 1934)
Dalibor Vesely was a Czech-born architectural historian and theorist who was influential through his teaching and writing in promoting the role of hermeneutics and phenomenology as part of the discourse of architecture…
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2015
Scottish comedian, actor and screenwriter (born 1930)
Ronald Balfour Corbett was a Scottish comedian and actor. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC Television comedy sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971–87), becoming known for his meandering chair…
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2016
German politician (born 1927)
Hans-Dietrich Genscher was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and…
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2016
Iraqi-born English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (born 1950)
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was an Iraqi and British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied…
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2016
Hungarian author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)
Imre Kertész was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was the…
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2016
British writer and television broadcaster (born 1932)
Denise Robertson was a British writer and television broadcaster. She made her television debut as the presenter of the Junior Advice Line segment of the BBC's Breakfast Time programme in 1985, though she is best known…
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2016
American artist and LGBT rights activist (born 1951)
Gilbert Baker was an American artist, designer, activist, and vexillographer, best known as the creator of the rainbow flag.
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2017
American artist (born 1933)
James Albert Rosenquist was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advertising and…
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2017
inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks (born 1933)
Milton "Nick" Newton was the inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks. Newton blocks are considered by many to be the best in the world, used at many major track meets like the Mt. SAC Relays.
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2018
American rapper (born 1985)
Ermias Joseph Asghedom, known professionally as Nipsey Hussle, was an American rapper, songwriter, actor, activist, and entrepreneur. Emerging from the West Coast hip-hop scene in the mid-2000s, Hussle self-released his…
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2019
Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher (born 1956)
Gita Ramjee was a Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher in HIV prevention. In 2018, she was awarded the ‘Outstanding Female Scientist’ award from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials…
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2020
2021
Bangladeshi teacher and parliamentarian (born 1952)
Muhammad Wakkas was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, teacher, former Member of Parliament and State Minister. He was the founder of Jamia Imdadia Madaninagar Madrasa, the largest madrasa in South Bengal, accommodating…
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2021
former American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player (born 1933)
Shirley Burkovich was an American professional baseball infielder, outfielder and pitcher who played from 1949 through 1951 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)…
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2022
French fashion photographer (born 1943)
Patrick Demarchelier was a French fashion photographer.
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2022
New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law (born 1945)
Moana Jackson was a New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law, the Treaty of Waitangi and international indigenous issues. He was an advocate and activist for Māori rights, arguing that the New Zealand…
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2022
Italian mercenary and actor (born 1937)
Tullio Moneta was an Italian actor and mercenary. He acted in 15 films between 1970 and 1990, starring in the feature film The Lion's Share. He also played a role in the Afrikaans language film Aanslag op Kariba in…
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2022
American actress (born 1927)
Barbara Rush was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. In 1954, she won the Golden Globe Award for most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film It Came from Outer…
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2024
American television actress (born 1946)
Sian Barbara Allen was an American actress who mainly appeared on television throughout the 1970s. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, Allen studied at the Pasadena Playhouse before appearing in her first screen role on…
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2025
English code breaker (born 1923)
Charlotte Elizabeth Webb was an English code breaker who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II from the age of 18. In 1941 she joined the British Auxiliary Territorial Service. She said, of joining the top-secret…
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2025
Canadian politician and diplomat, 14th Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1937)
Stephen Henry Lewis was a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster and diplomat who served as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) from 1970 to 1978. Elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario…
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2026
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Notable deaths
Who died on March 31?
Stanley J. Korsmeyer — American oncologist (1950–2005)
FeaturedStanley J. Korsmeyer
Death year2005
Known forBorn and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and later the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
Deaths on this date132 (32 BC – 2026)
Explore March 31
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on March 31 in History
2023
A historic tornado outbreak occurs in the American Midwest and South. Wikipedia →
2018
Start of the 2018 Armenian revolution. Wikipedia →
2016
See all events on March 31
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station. Wikipedia →
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