July 31Birthdays & History

On this day: July 31 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 398End of the Gildonic rebellion after Gildo's forces are defeated by forces loyal to Western Roman Emperor Honorius under Gildo's brother Mascezel and Gildo's subsequent death.Europe
2. 432Election of pope Sixtus III following the death of pope Celestine I four days prior.Europe
3. 768Antipope Constantine II is arrested by primicerius Christopher and Lombard troops sent to aid him by king Desiderius.Europe
4. 781The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: Sixth day of the seventh month of the first year of the Ten'o (天応) era).Asia
5. 1009Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.Europe
6. 1201Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.Europe
7. 1423Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: A Franco-Scottish army is defeated by the Anglo-Burgundians at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.Europe
8. 1451Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.Europe
9. 1492All remaining Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.Europe
10. 1498On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.EuropeLatin America
11. 1618Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.Europe
12. 1655Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.Europe
13. 1658Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.Asia
14. 1667The treaty of Breda ends the second Anglo-Dutch War and grants England in possession of New Amsterdam.Europe
15. 1703Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.Europe
16. 1715Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.EuropeLatin AmericaNorth America
17. 1741Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.Europe
18. 1763Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's War.Europe
19. 1777The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, 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."North America
20. 1790The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.North America
21. 1856Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.Oceania
22. 1865The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.Oceania
23. 1874Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.AfricaNorth America
24. 1904Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.AsiaEurope
25. 1917World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.Europe
26. 1932The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.Europe
27. 1938Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.Middle East
28. 1938Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).EuropeMiddle East
29. 1941The 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."Europe
30. 1941World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.Europe
31. 1945Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.Europe
32. 1948USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.North America
33. 1948At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.North America
34. 1964Ranger 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.World
35. 1966The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappears off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.Europe
36. 1970Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.Europe
37. 1971Apollo program: The Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.World
38. 1972The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.EuropeMiddle East
39. 1973A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723, crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing 89.North America
40. 1975The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.Europe
41. 1987A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.North America
42. 1988Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.Asia
43. 1991The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.North AmericaEurope
44. 1992The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.Europe
45. 1992China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.Asia
46. 1992Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.Europe
47. 1992Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board.Asia
48. 1997FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.North America
49. 1999Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface.North America
50. 2006Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.Latin America
51. 2007Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.Europe
52. 2008East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board.North America
53. 2012Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.Europe
54. 2014Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.Asia
55. 2020A De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser collide over Soldotna, Alaska, killing all seven people on board both aircraft, including state representative Gary Knopp.North America

Source: Wikipedia "July 31" / CC BY-SA 4.0