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 in Rome (b. 1491). Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1795 - Basílio da Gama dies in Lisbon (b. 22 Jul 1740 in São José do Rio das Mortes, Minas Gerais, Brazil). Poet.
• 1803 - John Ericsson was born (d. 1889). Swedish inventor and engineer.
• 1811 - Miguel Hidalgo dies. Mexican national heroe.
• 1816 - George Henry Thomas was born (d. 1870). American general.
• 1818 - Nikolay Novikov dies. Russian writer
• 1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
• 1865 - Nascimento de Afonso de Bragança, Duque do Porto.
• 1872 - Ângelo de Lima (Ângelo Vaz Pinto Azevedo Coutinho de Lima) was born in Oporto (d. 14 Ago 1921). Portuguese poet.
• 1873 - Augusto César Ferreira Gil was born at Lordelo do Ouro, Oporto (d. 26 Feb 1929). Portuguese poet.
• 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 takes place as President of Colombia
• 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). American Civil rights activist who was head of the National Urban League (1961–71).
• 1923 - Ahmet Ertegun was born. Record company executive
• 1928 - Kurt Sontheimer was born. Political scientist
• 1929 - Don Murray was born. Actor
• 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 - Guilhermina Suggia dies. Portuguese cellist
• 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
• 1979 - Carlos Marchena was born. Spanish football player.
• 1980 - Mohd. Rafi dies (b. 1924). Indian playback singer
• 1981 - Ira Losco was born. Maltese singer.
• 1981 - Omar Torrijos dies. Panamanian military leader.
• 1986 - Karl Lagerfeld receives the "Golden Fingerhut"
• 1986 - Chiune Sugihara dies (b. 1900). Japanese diplomat.
• 1986 - Teddy Wilson dies (b. 1912). American jazz pianist
• 1987 - A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
• 1988 - Francisco José dies. Portuguese singer.
• 1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killg 113.
• 1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium dies.
• 1994 - Portugal is the European Champion in football U-18, beating Germany on penalty kicks.
• 1994 - A UN Security Council resolution authorized the use of “all necessary means” to restore democracy to Haiti.
• 1995 - Henrique Santana dies. Portuguese actor.
• 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 - Francisco Costa Gomes dies in Lisbon (b. in Chaves, 1914). President of Portugal (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
• 2004 - Virginia Grey dies (b. 1917). American actress.
• 2004 - Laura Betti dies (b. 1927). Italian actress.
• 2005 - Wim Duisenberg dies (b. 1935). Dutch banker and 1st president of the European Central Bank.
• 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
• Dia Mundial do Orgasmo