July 31
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July 31 is the 212th day of the year (213th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 153 days remaining after July 31 until the end of the year.
[change] Events
- 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781)
- 1009 – Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV
- 1423 – Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant – The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
- 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
- 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
- 1667 – The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
- 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
- 1790 – First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
- 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
- 1917 – The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
- 1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14)
- 1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
- 1936 – The International Olympic Committee announces that the 1940 Summer Olympics were to be held in Tokyo. However, the games were given back to the IOC after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and were eventually cancelled altogether because of World War II.
- 1941 – Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
- 1945 – Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
- 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
- 1951 – Japan Airlines is established.
- 1954 – First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
- 1956 – Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first-class match (the previous best was seventeen.
- 1961 – At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.
- 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes).
- 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
- 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89
- 1975 – In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
- 1976 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
- 1987 – A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
- 1992 – A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
- 1992 – The Republic of Georgia joins the United Nations.
- 1996 – MIL-STD-1750A is declared inactive for use in new designs.
- 1999 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
- 2003 – WON is shut down.
[change] Births
- 1737 – Princess Augusta of Great Britain (d. 1813) (sources vary between July 31 and August 31)
- 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish engineer (d. 1889)
- 1825 – William S. Clark, American senator and scholar (d. 1885)
- 1835 – Henri Brisson, French politician (d. 1912)
- 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (d. 1918)
- 1880 – Munshi Premchand, Indian writer (d. 1936)
- 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist (d. 2006)
- 1914 – Louis de Funes, French actor and comedian (d. 1983)
- 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American chemist
- 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist (d. 2010)
- 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian author and chemist (d. 1987)
- 1921 – Peter Benenson, British founder of Amnesty International (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Hilary Putnam, American philosopher
- 1931 – Ivan Rebroff, German singer (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (d. 1979)
- 1932 – John Searle, American philosopher
- 1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, British journalist and TV presenter
- 1951 – Evonne Goolagong, Australian tennis player
- 1956 – Deval Patrick, American politician
- 1958 – Bill Berry, American musician
- 1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor
- 1965 – J.K. Rowling, British author (Harry Potter)
- 1966 – Dean Cain, American actor
- 1966 – Valdas Ivanauskas, Lithuanian footballer and football manager
- 1967 – Minako Honda, Japanese singer and musical actress (d. 2005)
- 1974 – Emilia Fox, British actress
- 1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer
- 1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Michael Bradley, American footballer
- 1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belarussian tennis player
[change] Deaths
- 1099 – El Cid, Spanish warrior (b. 1044)
- 1396 – William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1508 – Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
- 1556 – Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits (b. 1491)
- 1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1695)
- 1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encyclopedist (b. 1713)
- 1875 – Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
- 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer (b. 1811)
- 1914 – Jean Jaurès, French politician (b. 1859)
- 1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet (b. 1881)
- 1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (disappeared on this date) (b. 1900)
- 1953 – Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate (b. 1889)
- 1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
- 1980 – Mohd. Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
- 1981 – Omar Torrijos, military leader of Panama (b. 1929)
- 1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
- 1990 – Albert Leduc, French-Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1993 – King Baudouin I of Belgium (b. 1930)
- 2001 – Poul Anderson, science fiction author (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (b. 1933)
- 2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch banker and economist (b. 1935)
- 2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
