March 31 - Easter Sunday

Today is Easter Sunday! If you're religious, that means celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. If you're not religious, it means a well-deserved break to spend time with family. If you're neither, it's just another day!

Here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history:

- University of McGill College (forerunner of McGill University) received its charter in 1821
- Québec City and Montréal were incorporated as cities in 1831
- Mining executive Noah Timmins, for whom the town of Timmins, Ont, is named, was born in Mattawa in 1867
- The First issue of the Toronto Mail was published in 1872
- The Eiffel Tower officially opened - commemorating the French Revolution - in 1889
- The Manitoba School Act abolished publicly funded support for separate schools for Catholics in 1890. The aggrieved French minority argued that the Act violated the agreements under which Manitoba entered Confederation.
- A city-wide survey revealed that there were 45 cars in Montréal in 1904. That number would increase to 102 the next year, forcing the Québec government to change its law on cars.
- Hockey player Gordon (Gordie) Howe was born in Floral, Saskatchewan in 1928
- The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film for the next thirty eight years in 1930
- 150 swans died in the Niagara waterfall in 1932
- Newfoundland entered the Dominion of Canada as the 10th province through an Act of Westminster in 1949. The first session of the legislature was held at St John's on July 13.
- Jimi Hendrix burned his guitar for the first time in London in 1967
- Explorer 1 re-entered the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit in 1970. Also in 1970, the federal government banned the sale and export of all perch and pickerel from Lake Erie because of mercury contamination of the fish.
- "Carol & Company", starring Carol Burnette, premiered on NBC-TV in 1990
- Perrin Beatty was appointed president and chief executive of the CBC, accepting a mandate to absorb a 25% cut in the corporation's funding in 1995

Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History". Happy Easter, everyone!