Why is July 31st Important?
1991: Superpowers to cut nuclear warheads
The US and the Soviet Union sign the Start treaty to reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads by about a third.
1998: UK imposes total ban on landminesThe British Government announces a total ban on landmines, a month before the first anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.
1962: Violence flares at right-wing rallyFormer fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley is assaulted at a rally in London's east end.
1973: Chaotic meeting of Belfast AssemblyLoyalists disrupt the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the first elected body since the British imposed direct rule in March.
1987: Newspaper caught in Spycatcher rowThe Government sues the Sunday Telegraph over secret service memoirs.
Events
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.
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.
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.
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 Airlines 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
1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1901 - Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1911 - George Liberace, musician (d. 1983)
1912 - Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics
1912 - Irv Kupcinet, newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
1913 - William Todman, game show producer
1914 - Louis de Funès, actor and comedian (d. 1983)
1916 - Bill Todman, game show producer (d. 1979)
1918 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Hank Jones, pianist
1919 - Curt Gowdy, sports announcer
1919 - Primo Levi, author, chemist (d. 1987)
1921 - Whitney Young, civil rights activist (d. 1971)
1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive
1928 - Kurt Sontheimer, political scientist
1929 - Don Murray, actor
1930 - Oleg Popov, clown
1931 - Kenny Burrell, guitarist
1939 - France Nuyen, actress
1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, politician
1943 - William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar
1943 - Susan Flannery, actress
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, actress
1946 - Gary Lewis, rock and roll musician
1946 - Bob Welch, rock and roll musician
1951 - Evonne Goolagong, tennis star
1951 - Barry Van Dyke, actor
1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California
1952 - Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice-hockey player
1958 - Bill Berry, rock and roll musician (of the band R.E.M.)
1958 - Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner
1959 - Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist
1962 - Wesley Snipes, actor
1964 - Jim Corr, singer, musician ("The Corrs")
1965 - J. K. Rowling, novelist
1966 - Dean Cain, actor
1974 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1974 - Luca Tiengo, Italian guitar player
1977 - Tim Couch, American football quarterback
1981 - Eric Lively, actor
1981 - Ira Losco, Maltese singer
Deaths
1099 - El Cid, Spanish warrior
1108 - King Philip I of France
1396 - William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
1547 - King Francis I of France (b. 1494)
1556 - Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits
1784 - Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encylopedist (b. 1713)
1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1886 - Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer
1914 - Jean Jaurès, French politician (d. 1859)
1917 - Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet
1937 - Charles Martine, Apache scout
1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer
1953 - Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate
1980 - Mohd. Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium
2001 - Poul Anderson, science fiction author
2003 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist
Holidays and observances
La Hae Hawai‘i - Hawaiian Flag Day
Republic of the Congo - Upswing of the Revolution
Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
A few hardcore devotees of Harry Potter celebrate Harry James Potter's birthday on this date. The novelist J. K. Rowling, writer of the Harry Potter books, chose this date as the fictional character's birthday as it is her own birthday (see above).
