On this day in History - Jul 31

• 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
• 0431 - Election of Pope Sixtus III.
• 0781 - The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).
• 0855 - Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal dies (b. 0780). Muslim Jurisprudent.
• 0904 - Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.
• 1009 - Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV.
• 1099 - El Cid dies (b. 1044). Spanish warrior.
• 1108 - King Philip I of France dies.
• 1143 - Emperor Nijo of Japan was born (d. 1165).
• 1396 - Philip III, Duke of Burgundy was born (d. 1467).
• 1396 - William Courtenay dies (b. 1342). Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1423 - Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant - The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
• 1451 - Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
• 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 (b. 1494). Emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1527 - Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor was born (d. 1576).
• 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.
• 1598 - Alessandro Algardi was born (d. 1654). Italian sculptor and architect.
• 1653 - Thomas Dudley dies (b. 1576). Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1655 - Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it would hold for six years.
• 1658 - Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India.
• 1667 - The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1702 - Jean Denis Attiret was born (d. 1768). French Jesuit missionary and painter.
• 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.
• 1704 - Gabriel Cramer was born (d. 1752). Swiss mathematician.
• 1718 - John Canton was born (d. 1772). English physicist.
• 1724 - Noël François de Wailly was born (d. 1801). French lexicographer.
• 1726 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli dies (b. 1695). Swiss mathematician.
• 1737 - Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales was born (d. 1813).
• 1741 - Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
• 1750 - King John V of Portugal dies (b. 1689).
• 1777 - The United States Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."
• 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
• 1825 - William S. Clark was born (d. 1886). American senator and scholar.
• 1835 - Henri Brisson was born (d. 1912). French statesman.
• 1835 - Paul du Chaillu was born (d. 1903). French explorer.
• 1837 - William Quantrill was born (d. 1865). American Civil War rebel guerrilla leader.
• 1843 - Peter Rosegger was born (d. 1918). Austrian poet.
• 1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
• 1858 - Richard Dixon Oldham was born (d. 1936). British geologist.
• 1860 - Mary Vaux Walcott was born (d. 1940). American artist and naturalist.
• 1864 - Louis Hachette dies (b. 1800). French publisher.
• 1865 - The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.
• 1865 - Afonso de Bragança was born. Duke of Porto (Portugal).
• 1867 - Sebastian S. Kresge was born (d. 1966). American merchant and philanthropist.
• 1872 - Ângelo de Lima (Ângelo Vaz Pinto Azevedo Coutinho de Lima) was born in Porto (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.
• 1880 - Munshi Premchand was born. Indian Author.
• 1883 - Fred Quimby was born (d. 1965). American film producer.
• 1884 - Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was born (d. 1945). German politician.
• 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 (b. 1811). Hungarian composer.
• 1887 - Hans Freyer was born (d. 1969). German sociologist.
• 1892 - Joseph Charbonneau was born (d. 1959). French Canadian Roman Catholic archbishop of Montreal.
• 1894 - Fred Keenor was born (d. 1972). Welsh footballer.
• 1900 - José Manuel Cayetano Marroquín Ricaurte takes place as President of Colombia.
• 1901 - Jean Dubuffet was born (d. 1985). French painter and sculptor.
• 1901 - Henriqueta Brieba was born in Barcelona (d. 18 Sep 1995). Spanish-born Brazilian actress.
• 1904 - Brett Halliday was born (d. 1977). American mystery writer.
• 1911 - George Liberace was born (d. 1983). American 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.
• 1912 - Bill Brown was born (d. 2008). Australian cricketer.
• 1913 - The Balkan States sign an armistice at Bucarest.
• 1913 - Bryan Hextall was born (d. 1984). Canadian hockey player.
• 1913 - William Todman was born. Game show producer.
• 1914 - Louis de Funès was born (d. 1983). French actor and comedian.
• 1914 - Jean Jaurès dies (b. 1859). French politician.
• 1916 - Billy Hitchcock was born (d. 2006). Baseball player, coach, and official.
• 1916 - Sibte Hassan was born. Pakistani activist, journalist, and writer.
• 1916 - Bill Todman was born (d. 1979). American game show producer.
• 1917 - The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
• 1917 - Francis Ledwidge dies (b. 1881). Irish poet.
• 1917 - Hedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans) dies (b. 1887). Welsh poet.
• 1918 - Paul D. Boyer was born. American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1918 - Hank Jones was born. American pianist.
• 1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14)
• 1919 - Curt Gowdy was born. American sports announcer
• 1919 - Primo Levi was born (d. 1987). Italian author and chemist
• 1921 - Whitney Young was born (d. 1971). American Civil rights activist who was head of the National Urban League (1961–71).
• 1921 - Peter Benenson was born (d. 2005). Founder of Amnesty International.
• 1922 - Hank Bauer was born (d. 2007). American baseball player and manager.
• 1923 - Ahmet Ertegün was born (d. 2006). Turkish-born record company executive.
• 1923 - Jimmy Evert was born. American tennis coach and father of Chris Evert.
• 1926 - Hilary Putnam was born. American philosopher.
• 1928 - Kurt Sontheimer was born. Political scientist.
• 1929 - Don Murray was born. American actor.
• 1929 - José Santamaria was born. Uruguayan footballer.
• 1929 - Lynne Reid Banks was born. British author.
• 1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
• 1930 - Oleg Popov was born. Russian clown.
• 1931 - Kenny Burrell was born. American guitarist.
• 1931 - Nick Bollettieri was born. American tennis coach.
• 1932 - The NSDAP wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
• 1932 - Ted Cassidy was born (d. 1979). American actor.
• 1932 - John Searle was born. American philosopher.
• 1933 - Cees Nooteboom was born in The Hague. Dutch author, novelist ("Rituals" "Berlin Notes"). In 1993 he was awarded the European Prize for Literature.
• 1935 - Geoffrey Lewis was born. American actor.
• 1935 - Yvon Deschamps was born. French Canadian author, comedian and humorist.
• 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.
• 1936 - Vic Davalillo was born. Venezuelan baseball player.
• 1936 - Sir Richard Greenbury was born. British retailing giant.
• 1937 - Charles Martine dies. Apache scout.
• 1938 - Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanta (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
• 1938 - Archaeologists discovered engraved plates of gold and silver from King Darius in Persepolis.
• 1939 - France Nuyen was born. French actress.
• 1940 - A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collides with a multi-car freight train heading the opposite way, killing 43 people.
• 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."
• 1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary was born. Indian politician.
• 1943 - Lobo was born. American singer and songwriter.
• 1943 - Sab Shimono was born. Japanese-American actor.
• 1943 - William Bennett was born. 3rd. U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar.
• 1943 - Susan Flannery was born. American actress.
• 1943 - Hedley Verity dies (b. 1905). English Test cricketer.
• 1944 - Geraldine Chaplin was born. American actress.
• 1944 - Jonathan Dimbleby was born. U.K. journalist and television presenter.
• 1944 - Robert C. Merton was born. Leading Scholar and Nobel Prize Winner.
• 1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery dies (b. 1900). French pilot and writer.
• 1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
• 1945 - John K. Giles attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison.
• 1945 - Gary Lewis was born. American drummer and vocalist (Gary Lewis & the Playboys)
• 1945 - William Weld was born. 68th Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1946 - Bob Welch was born. American musician.
• 1946 - Karen Zerby was born. American religious leader (Children of God).
• 1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
• 1950 - Lane Davies was born. American actor.
• 1950 - Steve Miller was born. American writer.
• 1950 - Guilhermina Suggia dies. Portuguese cellist.
• 1951 - Japan Airlines is established.
• 1951 - Evonne Goolagong was born. Australian tennis player.
• 1951 - Barry Van Dyke was born. American actor.
• 1952 - Chris Ahrens was born. American ice hockey player.
• 1952 - João Barreiros was born. Portuguese writer.
• 1952 - Alan Autry was born. American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California.
• 1952 - Helmuts Balderis was born. Latvian ice-hockey player.
• 1953 - James Read was born. American actor.
• 1953 - Ted Baillieu was born. Australian Politician
• 1953 - Robert Taft dies (b. 1889). U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate.
• 1954 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
• 1954 - Derek Smith was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1954 - Onofre Marimón dies (b. 1923). Argentine racing driver.
• 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).
• 1956 - Bill Callahan was born. American football coach.
• 1956 - Deval Patrick was born. 71st Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1956 - Bill Callahan was born. American football coach.
• 1956 - Michael Biehn was born. American actor.
• 1957 - Daniel Ash was born. Gothic rock artist in such bands as Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets.
• 1957 - Dirk Blocker was born. American actor.
• 1957 - Leon Durham was born. Baseball player.
• 1958 - Bill Berry was born. American drummer (R.E.M.).
• 1958 - Mark Cuban was born. American businessman, producer, and basketball team owner (Dallas Mavericks).
• 1959 - Stanley Jordan was born. American jazz guitarist.
• 1960 - Dale Hunter was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 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 - John Chiang was born. American politician.
• 1962 - Kevin Greene was born. Professional American football player.
• 1962 - Wesley Snipes was born. American actor.
• 1963 - Brian Skrudland was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1963 - Fatboy Slim was born. British musician.
• 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).
• 1964 - Jim Corr was born. Irish singer and musician (The Corrs).
• 1964 - Jim Reeves dies (b. 1923). American singer.
• 1965 - John Laurinaitis was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1965 - J. K. Rowling was born. British novelist (her most famous character, Harry Potter was also born this day, but in 1980).
• 1965 - Julian Richards was born. British film director.
• 1965 - Scott Brooks was born. American basketball player.
• 1966 - Dean Cain was born. American actor.
• 1966 - Bud Powell dies (b. 1924). American jazz pianist.
• 1967 - Minako Honda was born (d. 2005). Japanese singer and musical actress.
• 1967 - Mitsuo Iwata was born. Japanese seiyū.
• 1969 - David Cash was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1969 - Kenneth D. Schisler was born. American politician.
• 1970 - Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
• 1970 - Ahmad Akbarpour was born. Iranian writer.
• 1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
• 1971 - Gus Frerotte was born. American football player.
• 1971 - John Lowery (John 5) was born. American guitarist.
• 1972 - Northeast Airlines flies its last flight before being integrated into Delta Air Lines the next day.
• 1972 - Paul-Henri Spaak dies (b. 1899). Prime minister of Belgium.
• 1973 - A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
• 1973 - Chandra North was born. American supermodel.
• 1973 - Nathan Brown was born. Australian rugby league player
• 1974 - Emilia Fox was born. English actress.
• 1974 - Jonathan Ogden was born. American football player.
• 1974 - Luca Tiengo was born. Italian guitar player. Member of Ledel
• 1975 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
• 1975 - Allan von Schenkel was born. American musician.
• 1975 - Mike Lincoln was born. American baseball player.
• 1975 - Randy Flores was born. American baseball player.
• 1975 - Simon Hirst was born. British radio DJ (hit40uk).
• 1975 - Jody Ann Paterson was born in Balikpapan, Indonesia. Playboy Playmate of the Month October 1999.
• 1976 - Viking program: Viking 1 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo.
• 1976 - Joshua Cain was born. American guitarist (Motion City Soundtrack).
• 1976 - Paulo Wanchope was born. Costa Rican footballer.
• 1976 - Annie Parisse was born. American actress.
• 1977 - Tim Couch was born. American football quarterback.
• 1978 - Justin Wilson was born. English race car driver.
• 1978 - Will Champion was born. English drummer (Coldplay).
• 1978 - Zeta Makripoulia was born. Greek actress, model and TV presenter.
• 1979 - B. J. Novak was born. American actor.
• 1979 - Carlos Marchena was born. Spanish footballer.
• 1979 - J. J. Furmaniak was born. American baseball player.
• 1979 - Jade Kwan was born. Hong Kong singer.
• 1979 - Per Krøldrup was born. Danish footballer.
• 1980 - Mils Muliaina was born. New Zealand and Waikato rugby player.
• 1980 - Mohd. Rafi dies (b. 1924). Indian playback singer.
• 1980 - Pascual Jordan dies (b. 1902). German physicist.
• 1981 - General Omar Torrijos of Panama dies in a plane crash.
• 1981 - 42-day strike of Major League Baseball ends in the United States.
• 1981 - Eric Lively was born. American actor.
• 1981 - Ira Losco was born. Maltese singer.
• 1981 - J.Son Dinant was born. American comedian.
• 1981 - Matthew Sanders was born. American singer (Avenged Sevenfold).
• 1982 - Blessing Mahwire was born. Zimbabwean cricketer.
• 1982 - Melanie Vallejo was born. Australian TV actress.
• 1984 - Glenn Holt was born. American football player.
• 1986 - Karl Lagerfeld receives the "Golden Fingerhut".
• 1986 - Evgeni Malkin was born. Russian hockey player.
• 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.
• 1987 - Brittany Byrnes was born. Australian actress.
• 1987 - Michael Bradley was born. American soccer player.
• 1988 - 32 people were killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapsed in Butterworth, Malaysia.
• 1988 - Francisco José dies. Portuguese singer.
• 1988 - Trinidad Silva dies (b. 1950). American actor.
• 1990 - Olga Galchenko was born. Russian juggler.
• 1990 - Albert Leduc dies (b. 1902). French Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1991 - The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai and kills 7 officers, 1 of severely wounded (after a head shot) becomes disabled.
• 1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killg 113.
• 1993 - King Baudouin I of Belgium dies (b. 1930) .
• 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.
• 1996 - Seagram Miller dies (b. 1970). American rapper.
• 1999 - Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector - NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
• 2001 - Poul Anderson dies (b. 1926). American science fiction author
• 2001 - Francisco Costa Gomes dies in Lisbon (b. in Chaves, 1914). 16th President of Portugal (1974-1976)
• 2001 - Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin dies (b. 1910).
• 2002 - Portugal - Inicio da 2ª edição da Minho Campus Party.
• 2002 - O Prémio Camões é entregue à escritora portuguesa Maria Velho da Costa.
• 2002 - South Africa signs Kyoto Protocol.
• 2003 - WON is shut down.
• 2003 - Guido Crepax dies (b. 1933). 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.
• 2006 - Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana [La Pequeña Habana in Spanish], Miami, Florida, where many Cuban-Americans participated.
• 2006 - Miminhos a Toda a Hora (blog) and Blog of Blogs (Directory of Blogs) are founded.
• 2006 - Paul Eells dies (b. 1935). "Voice of the Arkansas Razorbacks" sportscaster for 38 years.
• 2007 - Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
• Ka Hae Hawai‘i - Hawaiian Flag Day.
• Hari Pahlawan - Malaysian warrior's day.
• Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola founder of the Jesuits.
• 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.