On this day in History - Jul 31

0780 - The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781)
1009 - Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV
1099 - El Cid, dies (b. 1044). Spanish warrior.
1108 - King Philip I of France dies
1396 - William Courtenay, dies. Archbishop of Canterbury
1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, was born (d. 1467). Duke of Burgundy
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.
1508 - Na'od, dies killed in battle. Emperor of Ethiopia.
1547 - King Francis I of France dies (b. 1494)
1556 - Ignatius Loyola, dies (b. 1491). Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits
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.
1726 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, dies (b. 1695). Swiss mathematician.

1735 - Morte do poeta Basílio da Gama
1750 - D. João V de Portugal dies. King of Portugal
1784 - Denis Diderot, dies (b. 1713). French philosopher and encylopedist
1790 - First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins.
1803 - John Ericsson, was born (d. 1889). Swedish inventor and engineer.

1811 - Morte de Miguel Hidalgo. Herói nacional mexicano.
1816 - George Henry Thomas, was born (d. 1870). American general.

1818 - Morte do escritor russo Nikolay Novikov
1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
1865 - Nascimento de Afonso de Bragança, Duque do Porto.

1872 - Nascimento, no Porto, de Ângelo de Lima (Ângelo Vaz Pinto Azevedo Coutinho de Lima) (m. 14 Ago 1921). Poeta português.

1873 - Nascimento de Augusto César Ferreira Gil. Escritor português.
1875 - Andrew Johnson, dies (b. 1808). 17th President of the United States
1884 - Friedrich Robert Helmert, was born (d. 15 Jun 1917). German geodesist and an important writer on the theory of errors.
1886 - Franz Liszt, dies. Hungarian composer.

1900 - José Manuel Cayetano Marroquín Ricaurte assume a Presidência da Colômbia
1901 - Jean Dubuffet, was born (d. 1985). Painter and sculptor.
1901 - Henriqueta Brieba, was born in Barcelona (d. 18 Sep 1995). Actress
1904 - Brett Halliday, was born (d. 1977). American mystery writer.
1911 - George Liberace, was born (d. 1983). Musician.
1912 - Milton Friedman, was born. American economist. Recipient of the 1976 "Nobel" Prize in economics
1912 - Irv Kupcinet, was born (d. 2003). American newspaper columnist.
1913 - William Todman, was born. Game show producer
1914 - Louis de Funès, was born (d. 1983). Actor and comedian.
1914 - Jean Jaurès, dies (b. 1859). French politician.
1916 - Bill Todman, was born (d. 1979). Game show producer.
1917- The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
1917 - Francis Ledwidge, dies. Irish poet
1918 - Paul D. Boyer, was born. American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Hank Jones, was born. Pianist
1919 - Curt Gowdy, was born. Sports announcer
1919 - Primo Levi, was born (d. 1987). Author, chemist
1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14).
1921 - Whitney Young, was born (d. 1971). Civil rights activist.
1923 - Ahmet Ertegun,was born. Record company executive
1928 - Kurt Sontheimer, was born. Political scientist
1929 - Don Murray, was born. Aactor
1930 - Oleg Popov, was born. Clown
1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
1931 - Kenny Burrell, was born. Guitarist.

1933 - Cees Nooteboom was born in The Hague. Dutch author, novelist ("Rituals" "Berlin Notes"). In 1993 he was awarded the European Prize for Literature.
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.
1937 - Charles Martine dies. Apache scout.
1939 - France Nuyen, was born. Actress
1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, was born. Politician
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."
1943 - William Bennett, was born. Former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar
1943 - Susan Flannery, was born. Actress
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, was born. Actress
1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, dies. French pilot and writer
1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1946 - Gary Lewis,was born. Singer/musician Gary Lewis & The Playboys
1946 - Bob Welch, was born. Rock and roll musician
1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

1950 - Morte da violoncelista portuguesa Guilhermina Suggia
1951 - Japan Airlines is established.
1951 - Evonne Goolagong, was born. Tennis star
1951 - Barry Van Dyke, was born. Actor
1952 - Alan Autry, was born. American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California
1952 - Helmuts Balderis, was born. Latvian ice-hockey player
1953 - Robert Taft, dies. U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate
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.
1958 - Bill Berry, was born. Rock and roll musician (of the band R.E.M.)
1958 - Mark Cuban,was born. Billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner
1959 - Stanley Jordan, was born. Jazz guitarist
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.
1962 - Wesley Snipes, was born. Actor
1964 - Jim Corr, was born. Singer, musician ("The Corrs")
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).
1965 - J. K. Rowling, was born. Novelist
1966 - Dean Cain, was born. Actor
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1972 - Paul-Henri Spaak, dies. Prime minister of Belgium
1973 - A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89
1974 - Jonathan Ogden, was born. American football player
1974 - Luca Tiengo, was born. Italian guitar player. Member of Ledel
1974 - Emilia Fox, was born. English actress
1975 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.

1975 - Jody Ann Paterson was born in Balikpapan, Indonesia.Playboy Playmate of the Month October 1999.
1976 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
1976 - Annie Parisse, was born. American actress
1977 - Tim Couch, was born. American football quarterback
1978 - Justin Wilson, was born. Racing driver
1980 - Mohd. Rafi, dies (b. 1924). Indian playback singer
1981 - Ira Losco, was born. Maltese singer.

1986 - Karl Lagerfeld receives the "Golden Fingerhut"
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 killg 113.
1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium dies.
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.
2001 - Poul Anderson, dies. Science fiction author

2001 - Portugal - Morte de Francisco da Costa Gomes. Presidente da República (1974-1976)
2002 - Portugal - Inicio da 2ª edição da Minho Campus Party.

2002 - O Prémio Camões é entregue à escritora portuguesa Maria Velho da Costa

2002 - A África do Sul subscreve o Protocolo de Kyoto
2003 - WON is shut down
2003 - Guido Crepax, dies. Italian comics artist
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.