On March 31, 1854, US Commodore Matthew Perry and representatives of the Japanese government signed the Convention of Kanagawa. The terms of the treaty marked the end of Japan’s 500 years of self-imposed isolation by opening the Ports of Shimoda and Hakodate. Four years later, Japanese-American relations were further expanded by the Treaty of Amity [...]

On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain signed a decree expelling Jews from his kingdom. Read a contemporary account of the expulsion, originally written in Hebrew by an Italian Jew in 1495.

On March 30, 1867, the US and Russia signed a treaty ceding Alaska to the United States for a payment of $7,200,000 in gold. Review the terms of a Treaty concerning the Cession of the Russian Possessions in North America by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias to the United States of America, [...]

On March 30, 1856, representatives of Great Britain, France, Sardinia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Paris of 1856, ending the Crimean War. The treaty confirmed Russia’s loss of power and territory a result of the war. The Black Sea region and some Russian islands were demilitarized, and Russia lost its influence [...]

On March 29, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing US atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The couple was sentenced to death on April 3 under the Espionage Act of 1917, 18 U.S.C 794. They were then executed two years later on June 19, 1953 in New York State’s Sing Sing Prison. [...]

On March 29, 1867, the British Parliament passed the British North America Act, a constitutional document creating a united Dominion of Canada. It went into effect on July 1 that year.

On March 28, 1898, the US Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the US to Chinese immigrants was a US citizen and could not be deported under the terms of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Read US v. Wong Kim Ark and learn more about the Chinese Exclusion Act.

On March 28, 1808, English jurist Thomas Hare was born in the United Kingdom. After being admitted to the Bar in 1833, Hare became a campaigner for electoral reform. He created the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system of proportional representation used in many democratic countries today. He was also an early law reporter, recording important [...]

The Mexican army executed more than 400 Texian prisoners of war on March 27, 1836, during the Texas Revolution, in an event that would become known as the Goliad Massacre. A decree passed in December 1835 allowed Mexican soldiers under General Antonio López de Santa Anna to shoot any foreigners in rebellion. Texian Colonel James [...]

On March 27, 1958, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev became the new Premier of the USSR, replacing Joseph Stalin as the Soviet leader. During his rise to power, Khruschev denounced crimes of the Stalinist regime and the “cult of personality” surrounding his predecessor. While in office as Soviet Premier, Khruschev oversaw some of the most famous and [...]