March 31

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1596: French mathematician René Descartes, after whom the Cartesian coordinate system was named, was born. 1727: Sir Isaac Newton died.  1811: Robert Bunsen, of laboratory burner fame, was born. 1842: Henry Shrapnel, inventor of the Shrapnel Shell which exploded in the air, died. 1851: Leon Foucault demonstrated his pendulum experiment at the Pantheon of Paris. 1889: The Eiffel Tower officially opened in Paris. 1890: Nobel laureate Sir Lawrence Bragg, developer of the Bragg law of x-ray diffraction, was born. 1918: For the first time in the U.S. Daylight Savings Time went into effect. 1966: The Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first spacecraft to enter a lunar orbit. 1996: Radio Canada International's final shortwave broadcast was made. 1999: Ford completed the purchase of Volvo Car and incorporated Volvo it as part of the Premier Auto Group.