March 31 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by its designer, Gustave Eiffel, during the Universal Exhibition of Arts and Manufacturers.
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William Calley, pictured in 1969, was convicted in 1971 for his role in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. File Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army
In 1906, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association) was established.
In 1918, daylight saving time went into effect in the United States for the first time.
In 1948, the U.S. Congress passed the Marshall Aid Act, a plan to rehabilitate war-ravaged Europe.
In 1954, the U.S. Air Force Academy was established at Colorado Springs.
File Photo by Marc Piscotty/UPI
In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-occupied Tibet and was granted political asylum in India.
In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced he wouldn’t seek re-election and simultaneously ordered the suspension of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.
In 1971, U.S. Army Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the deaths of 22 Vietnamese civilians in what was called the My Lai Massacre. Public opinion polls and news reports indicated that most Americans believed the sentence was too severe; many said Calley was a scapegoat. His sentence was gradually reduced and he was paroled in 1974.
File Photo courtesy of the U.S. government
In 1991, the Warsaw Pact formally ended, with Soviet commanders surrendering their powers in an agreement between pact members and the Soviet Union.
In 1995, Major League Baseball players went back to work, ending the longest strike in league history. The lockout, which began Aug. 12, 1994, ended the rest of the 1994 season.
In 1998, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia after unrest in the Serbian province of Kosovo turned violent.
In 2005, Terri Schiavo, a 41-year-old Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, died 14 days after removal of her feeding tube amid a legal struggle over her fate that reached the White House and Supreme Court.
In 2007, Pakistan successfully tested its Hataf-II Abdali ballistic missile, believed capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
In 2017, mudslides killed more than 200 people after heavy rains in Colombia.
In 2019, rapper Nipsey Hussle died in a shooting outside his Los Angeles clothing store.
In 2021, the Biden administration reversed a Trump-era ban on transgender Americans serving in the U.S. military.
File Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI