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What happened in history on this day: July 31?
On July 31 in ...
- 432 - Saint Sixtus III begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 768 - Philip begins and ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 1498 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
- 1527 - Birth of Maximilian II in Vienna, Austria; Holy Roman Emperor (1546).
- 1547 - Castle of Saint Andrews surrenders to French after six-week siege.
- 1556 - Saint Ignatius of Loyola founder of Society of Jesus, dies in Rome.
- 1667 - Treaty of Breda ends second Anglo-Dutch War, ceding New York to British.
- 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.
- 1763 - Birth of James Kent Fredericksburgh New York, legal scholar (Columbia).
- 1777 - Marquis de Lafayette, age 19, made major-general of Continental Army.
- 1790 - In New York City, Attorney General Edmund Jennings Randolph issues the first U.S. patent, No. X000001, to Samuel Hopkins for "the improvement of pot ash and pearl ash".
- 1803 - Birth of John Ericsson; invented screw propeller, built USS Monitor.
- 1809 - First practical US railroad track (wooden, for horse-drawn cars), Philadelphia.
- 1813 - British invade Plattsburgh, New York.
- 1857 - Death of Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, in Paris, France.
- 1858 - In Dublin, Ireland, Richard Dixon Oldham is born; geologist and seismologist, discovered the evidence for the existence of the Earth's core.
- 1872 - C H F Peters discovers asteroids #122 Gerda and #123 Brunhild.
- 1875 - Death of Andrew Johnson in Carter County, Tennessee, USA; American politician (Representative, Tennessee, 1843-53), governor of Tennessee (1853-57), US Senator (Tennessee, 1857-62, 1875), military governor of Tennessee (1862-64), 17th US President (1865-69).
- 1894 - Birth of Roy Bargy in Michigan, USA; orchestra leader (Jimmy Durante Show).
- 1900 - Birth of Elmo Roper; pollster (Roper Poll).
- 1901 - Birth of Jean Dubuffet in France; painter (Landscape with two Personages).
- 1904 - Birth of Arthur Daley; sportswriter (New York Times - Pulitzer 1956).
- 1911 - Birth of George Liberace in Menasha, Wisconsin, USA; conductor and violinist, conducted orchestra for brother pianist Wladziu Liberace (The Liberace Show).
- 1912 - Birth of Irv Kupcinet in Chicago, Illinois, USA; TV host (At Random, Tonight! America After Dark).
- 1912 - Birth of Milton Friedman; economist (Nobel Prize 1976) (dies 2006).
- 1912 - US government prohibits movies and photos of prize fights (censorship).
- 1914 - The New York Stock Exchange closes its doors due to the war in Europe.
- 1916 - Birth of Bill Todman in New York City, New York, USA; game show producer (The Price is Right, To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, I've Got a Secret, What's My Line).
- 1919 - Birth of Curt Gowdy in Green River, Wyoming, USA; sportscaster (New York Yankees, Chicago Red Sox, ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, George Foster Peabody Award 1970, host of American Sportsman).
- 1919 - Birth of Primo Levi in Italy; chemist/writer (Survival in Aushchwitz) (dies 1987).
- 1921 - Birth of Whitney M Young Junior; civil rights leader, head of Urban League.
- 1922 - 18-year-old Ralph Samuelson rides world's first water skis (Minnesota, USA).
- 1923 - Birth of Ahmet Ertegun; CEO (Atlantic Records).
- 1925 - Unemployment Insurance Act passes in England.
- 1929 - Birth of Don Murray in California, USA; actor (Bus Stop, Advise and Consent, Endless Love, Knots Landing, Sons and Daughters).
- 1930 - Lou Gehrig grand slams as New York Yankees beat Boston Red Sox 14-13.
- 1931 - USS Constitution is recommissioned as an active vessel in the US Navy.
- 1932 - The US Mint releases the Washington quarter dollar to circulation.
- 1932 - Cleveland Municipal Stadium opens-Philadelphia Athletics beat Cleveland Indians 1-0.
- 1934 - Saint Louis Cardinals defeat Cincinnati Reds 8-6 in 18 innings, pitchers Dizzy Dean and Tony Freitos go the distant
- 1935 - Birth of Geoffrey Lewis in Plainsfield, New Jersey, USA; actor (Earl - Flo, Gun Shy, Falcon Crest).
- 1938 - New York Yankees suspend Jake Powell, after he said on Chicago radio he'd "hit every colored person in Chicago over head with a club".
- 1939 - Birth of France Nuyen in Marselles, France; actress (St. Elsewhere, Diamond Head).
- 1940 - Birth of Stanley Jaffe; film producer (Fatal Attraction).
- 1940 - Adolf Hitler meets with Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Walther von Brauchitsch, and Franz Halder. Hitler announces his intention to launch an attack on Russia in the spring of 1941.
- 1941 - Germany begins "Final Solution", genocide of Jews.
- 1943 - Birth of Susan Flannery in New York City, New York, USA; actress (Leslie Stewart - Dallas, The Bold and the Beautiful).
- 1943 - Birth of William Bennett; US Secretary of Education (1985-88)/drug czar.
- 1944 - Birth of Geraldine Chaplin in Santa Monica, California, USA; actress (Dr Zhivago, The Three Musketeers, My Cousin Rachel, Dinotopia).
- 1944 - In Warsaw, Poland, the Polish Home Army of about 2500 attempts to seize control of the city against 15,000 Germans.
- 1944 - Birth of Sherry Lansing in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actress (The China Syndrome, Black Rain).
- 1945 - Birth of Gary Lewis; singer (Gary Lewis and the Playboys - "This Diamond Ring").
- 1946 - Birth of Bob Welch; rocker (Fleetwood Mac - "Oh Well").
- 1946 - On last day of hyperinflation in Hungary, a 5-millió adópengö postage stamp costs 10 octillion pengö (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
- 1948 - US President Harry Truman dedicates Idlewild Field (Kennedy Airport), New York.
- 1949 - Lightning strikes a baseball field in Florida, kills the shortstop and third baseman.
- 1950 - Birth of Lane Davies; actor (Mason - Santa Barbara, Impure Thoughts).
- 1951 - Birth of Barry Van Dyke in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; actor (Lieutenant Dillon - Battlestar Galactica, Diagnosis Murder).
- 1951 - Birth of Evonne Goolagong in Cawley, Australia; tennis player (Wimbeldon 1971).
- 1953 - Birth of Hugh McDowell; celloist (ELO - "Telephone Line").
- 1953 - Birth of James Read; actor (Wildfire, Remington Steele).
- 1953 - Robert Taft (Senator-Republican-Ohio) (Mr Republican), dies in New York at age 63.
- 1954 - Milwaukee Braves' Joe Adcock sets record of 18 total bases (4 hours, one double).
- 1956 - Birth of Michael Biehn; actor (Magnificent Seven, Adventure Inc.).
- 1957 - Birth of Dirk Blocker in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Baa Baa Black Sheep, Ryan's Four).
- 1957 - Birth of Irina Nazariva in USSR; 4 X 400m relay (Olympic-gold-1980).
- 1957 - Birth of Daniel Ash; Singer, guitarist (Love and Rockets, Bauhaus).
- 1958 - Birth of Wally Kurth; actor (Days of Our Lives).
- 1958 - Birth of Bill Berry; drummer (R.E.M.).
- 1960 - Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, calls for a black state.
- 1961 - At Boston's Fenway Park, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the ninth inning because of rain.
- 1962 - Birth of Sandra "Sweetness" Hodge; basketball player (Harlem Globetrotters).
- 1962 - Federation of Malaysia forms.
- 1962 - Birth of Wesley Snipes; actor (Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child).
- 1963 - Birth of Norman Cook; rocker (Housemartins - "Happy Hour", "Over There").
- 1963 - Cleveland Indians tie record of four consecutive home runs (Held, Ramos, Francona, Brown).
- 1964 - Death of Jim Reeves at age 29 in single-engine plane crash near Nashville, Tennessee, USA; country music singer ("Four Walls", "He'll Have to Go", "I'm Getting Better", "Am I Losing You", "Welcome to My World", "I Guess I'm Crazy", The Jim Reeves Show on radio and TV).
- 1964 - US Ranger 7 takes 4,316 pictures before crashing on the Moon. These are the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
- 1964 - Birth of Jim Corr; guitarist (The Corrs).
- 1965 - Birth of J. K. Rowling; writer (Harry Potter books).
- 1966 - Alabamans burn products of The Beatles due to John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" remark.
- 1966 - Birth of Dean Cain; actor (Lois and Clark).
- 1966 - Death of former German General Alexander Frieherr von Falkenhausen, in Nassau, Federal Republic of Germany.
- 1968 - The Beatles close Apple Boutique, giving clothes away for free.
- 1969 - Mariner 6 flies past Mars.
- 1969 - National Guard mobilizes in racial disturbances in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- 1970 - Chet Huntley retires from NBC, ends Huntley-Brinkley Report TV show.
- 1970 - In Colombia, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurs.
- 1971 - Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin are the first men to ride in a vehicle on the Moon, televised back to Earth to millions of viewers. The Moon ride lasted two hours.
- 1972 - Chicago White Sox player Dick Allen hits two inside-the-park-homers in Minnesota.
- 1973 - ABA Virginia Squires trade Julius Erving to the New York Nets.
- 1973 - Delta Airlines DC-9 crashes in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1974 - Congress passes legislation giving the president authority to legalize private ownership of gold.
- 1975 - Birth of Annie Parisse in Anchorage, Alaska, USA; actress (Law and Order).
- 1976 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo taken by Viking 1.
- 1977 - Birth of Robert Telfer; actor (Riders in the Sky, Days of our Lives).
- 1977 - Stacy Moskowitz shot to death by Son of Sam, at age 20.
- 1978 - Death of Enoch Light at age 70; orchestra leader (Gulf Road Show with Bob Smith), concert violinist, recording engineer.
- 1979 - Birth of B.J. Novak; actor (The Office).
- 1979 - N Chernykh discovers asteroids #2402 Satpaev and #2416 Sharonov.
- 1980 - Death of the physicist, Ernst Pascual Jordan in Hannover, Germany; professor of physics, early contributor to quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics (born 1902).
- 1980 - Death of Bobby Van AKA Robert Stein of brain cancer at age 49; singer, actor, and game show panellist (Tattletales), host (Showoffs, The Fun Factory, Make Me Laugh).
- 1980 - Soyuz 37 crew returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 36.
- 1981 - Birth of M. Shadows; American singer (Avenged Sevenfold).
- 1981 - The fifty-day old baseball strike is settled as owners and players agreeing on a pooling systems for free-agents compensation. The All Star game will mark the end of baseball's first ever mid-season work stoppage.
- 1981 - Arnette Hubbard installed as president of the US National Bar Association.
- 1981 - General Omar Torrijos, president of Panama, dies in plane crash.
- 1982 - Philadelphia Phillies' second baseman Manny Trillo ends his errorless streak at 479 chances setting a major league record.
- 1982 - 53 persons, 46 of them children, die in a highway accident in Beaune in France's worst road accident.
- 1983 - Brooks Robinson, Juan Marichal, George Kell and Walter Alston are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 1983 - Birth of Blaire Stroud; country singer (3 of Hearts).
- 1984 - Death of Bill Raisch of lung cancer at age 79; one armed actor (Fred Johnson - The Fugitive TV show).
- 1984 - US men's gymnastics team wins team gold medal at Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
- 1987 - Docklands Light Railway, the first driverless railway in Great Britain, is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1987 - A Force 4-rated tornado woth 250MPH winds devastates eastern Edmonton, Alberta. Hardest hit are an industrial park and a trailer park. 27 people are killed and hundreds injured. Hundreds more are left homeless and jobless. Damage estimated at $250 million in insured property.
- 1987 - Four hundred Iranian pilgrims are killed in clashes with Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca.
- 1987 - Rockwell International awarded contract to build a 5th space shuttle.
- 1988 - Miami Dolphins beat San Francisco 49ers 27-21 in London.
- 1988 - Willie Stargell became 200th man inducted in Baseball's Hall of Fame.
- 1988 - Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Malaysia.
- 1988 - Trindad Silva of TV show Hill Street Blues, dies at age 38 in an auto accident.
- 1989 - CBC Newsworld news and information TV channel debuts on cable systems across Canada.
- 1990 - Nolan Ryan becomes the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games.
- 1991 - Death of Baudouin I, King of the Belgians (born 1930).
- 1993 - Death of Baudouin I, King of Belgium (born 1930).
- 1998 - The United Kingdom bans the importation of land mines.
- 1999 - Mark O. Barton kills nine in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1999 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.
- 2000 - (to August 3) The Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania nominates George W. Bush for U.S. President and Dick Cheney for Vice President.
- 2002 - In the south of Panama, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurs. No deaths, about 20 injured, some building damage and collapses, felt strongly in parts of Argentina and Costa Rica.
- 2002 - Torrential rains in southern Romania damage an oil pipeline near the village of Manesti, 50km north of Bucharest, spilling thousands of litres of oil into the Prahova River.
- 2004 - Death of Virginia Grey at age 87 in Los Angeles, California, USA; actress (over 100 films and 40 TV shows, Wagon Train, The Moneychangers).
- 2005 - Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg are enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Also inducted are San Diego Padres announcer Jerry Coleman, winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, and sportswriter and broadcast analyst Peter Gammon, recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
- 2005 - Death of Wim Duisenberg (born 1935), the first president of the European Central Bank. Duisenberg served his term (1998 - 2003) at its headquarters in Frankfurt.
- 2006 - Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, temporarily relinquishes power to his brother Raúl before surgery.
- 2007 - Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, the longest-running British Army operation, comes to an end.
- 2008 - Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announces the government will buy the country's third-largest bank, Banco de Venezuela, from Spain's Grupo Santander.
- 2008 - Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launches the Amazon Fund, in which foreign individuals and governments invest in preservation of the Amazon rainforest.
- 2009 - Six bombs explode outside mosques in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 29 people, injuring more than 130 people.
- 2009 - Death of former Philippine leader Corazon Aquino, of colon cancer, at age 76.
- 2011 - In Thailand over 12.8 million people are affected by severe flooding. The World Bank estimates damages at 1,440 billion baht (US$45 billion). By the end of the yeay, some areas are still six - feet underwater, and many factory areas remained closed. 790 people are killed, with 58 of the country's 77 provinces affected.
- 2012 - Death of Eugene Louis Vidal AKA Gore Vidal at age 86; American author (The City and the Pillar (1948), Myra Breckinridge, Palimpsest), playwright, screenwriter, political activist (born 1925).
- 2017 - Death of Jérôme Golmard, French tennis player (born 1973).
- 2022 - Death of Fidel Ramos at age 94; president of the Philippines.
- 2022 - Death of Ayman al-Zawahiri at age 71 by American drone in Kabul, Afghanistan; Egyptian physician, leader of al-Qaeda.
- 2022 - Death of Bill Russell at age 88; basketball player (NBA Boston Celtics, two NCAA championships, 1956 Olympics (gold)), coach, Black rights activist.
- 2023 - Death of Angus Cloud at age 25 at home in Oakland, California, USA; actor (Fezco - Euphoria TV show).
- 2023 - Death of Carol Duvall at age 97 in Traverse City, Michigan, USA; TV host (The Carol Duvall Show TV show).
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