Reuters Today in History for March 31 LONDON (Reuters) - Here are some notable events from this date in history:
1492 - Jews in Spain were given three months to accept Christianity or leave.
1837 - English landscape painter John Constable died.
1855 - Charlotte Bronte, British author of ``Jane Eyre,'' died in pregnancy.
1870 - In the United States, Thomas Peterson-Mundy became the first black to vote under the 15th Amendment passed by Congress in February 1870 which required all southern states to allow blacks to vote.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower in Paris was inaugurated.
1917 - The U.S. purchase of the Danish West Indies for $25 million, agreed the previous August, took effect. They were renamed the Virgin Islands.
1918 - Daylight saving time went into effect throughout the United States for the first time.
1955 - Angus Young, lead guitarist with heavy metal band AC/DC, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1959 - The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.
1971 - U.S. Lieutenant William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced to 20 years, for the killings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.
1971 - Actor Ewan McGregor, who starred in such films as ''Trainspotting'' and ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,'' born in Scotland.
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.
1983 - An earthquake devastated the Colombian city of Popayan, killing at least 500 people.
1986 - A Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed into a mountainside in central Mexico en route to Los Angeles. All 166 people on board were killed.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact, which held Eastern Europe under tight Kremlin control for 36 years, formally ceased to exist as a military alliance when Soviet commanders surrendered their powers.
2000 - Disgraced Spanish financier Mario Conde was sentenced to 10 years in jail for his part in the 1993 failure of Banesto bank.
