Armed conflicts and attacks

• Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
  • Pirates kidnap some crew members of a Danish-owned ship which they later abandon near São Tomé and Príncipe. (Al Arabiya)

Disasters and accidents

• Indore stepwell collapse
  • At least 35 people are killed and 18 others injured after a stepwell collapses during prayers at a Hindu temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. (BBC News)
• Weather of 2023
  • The Storm Prediction Center issues a high risk convective outlook, the first high risk issued in over 2 years, ahead of an expected severe weather outbreak across the Mississippi River valley. (Storm Prediction Center)
• Three people are killed as multiple avalanches occur in Norway's far-north region. (AFP via Barron's)

March 31: Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927); International Transgender Day of Visibility

• 1146 – French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux preached a sermon to a crowd at a council in Vézelay, with King Louis VII of France in attendance, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade.
• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan and members of his crew participated in the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines.
• 1800 – After fighting through the night the French Navy ship of the line Guillaume Tell surrendered to a British squadron in the Malta Channel.
• 1930 – To avoid government censorship, Hollywood movie studios instituted their own set of industry censorship guidelines, popularly known as the Hays Code.
• 1942 – Second World War: Because of a mutiny by Indian soldiers against their British officers, Japanese troops captured Christmas Island without any resistance.