On this day — March 31

Brown at the Palomar Observatory.

In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.

Texas.

an Airbus A310-300, crashes near Balotesti, Romania, killing all 60 people on board.

1999. Resumption by China of the Exercise of Sovereignty over Macao

the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.