July 31

From Freepedia

July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining, as the final day of July.

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1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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.
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.

Births

1143 - Emperor Nijo of Japan (d. 1165)
1396 - Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1527 - Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, (d. 1576)
1598 - Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect (d. 1654)
1702 - Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter (d. 1768)
1704 - Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (d. 1752)
1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1843 - Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (d. 1918)
1860 - Mary Vaux Walcott, American artist and naturalist (d. 1940)
1887 - Hans Freyer, German sociologist (d. 1969)
1901 - Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1904 - Brett Halliday, American writer (d. 1977)
1911 - George Liberace, American musician (d. 1983)
1912 - Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1912 - Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
1914 - Louis de Funès, French actor and comedian (d. 1983)
1916 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979)
1918 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Hank Jones, American pianist
1919 - Curt Gowdy, American sports announcer
1919 - Primo Levi, Italian author and chemist (d. 1987)
1921 - Whitney Young, American civil rights activist (d. 1971)
1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-born record company executive
1929 - Don Murray, American actor
1930 - Oleg Popov, Russian clown
1931 - Kenny Burrell, American guitarist
1933 - Cees Nooteboom, Dutch writer
1939 - France Nuyen, French actress
1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician
1943 - William Bennett, U.S. Secretary of Education
1943 - Susan Flannery, American actress
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
1944 - Robert Carhart Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1946 - Bob Welch, American musician
1950 - Steve Miller, American writer
1951 - Evonne Goolagong, Australian tennis player
1951 - Barry Van Dyke, American actor
1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and Mayor of Fresno, California
1952 - Helmuts Balderis, Latvian hockey player
1952 - João Barreiros, Portuguese writer
1958 - Bill Berry, American musician (R.E.M.)
1958 - Mark Cuban, businessman, producer, and American basketball team owner
1959 - Stanley Jordan, American jazz guitarist
1962 - Wesley Snipes, American actor
1962 - Kevin Greene, professional American football linebacker
1964 - Jim Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs)
1965 - J. K. Rowling, English novelist
1965 - John Laurinaitis, American professional wrestler
1966 - Dean Cain, American actor
1969 - David Cash (Kid Kash), American professional wrestler
1971 - Gus Frerotte, American football player
1974 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1974 - Emilia Fox, English actress
1976 - Annie Parisse, American actress
1977 - Tim Couch, American football player
1978 - Justin Wilson, English race car driver
1981 - Ira Losco, Maltese singer
1986- Yukojin, Famous Hairnester