July 31



Events

Up to 1900 
 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781)
 904 - Thessaloniki falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.
 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.
 1492 - Jews are expelled from Spain, when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to land on the island of Trinidad.
 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
 1655 – Russo-Polish War of 1654 to 1667: The Russian army enters the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal Emperor of India.
 1667 – The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam gets tranferred to British control, being renamed New York. The Dutch get the previously British colony in present-day Suriname.
 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.
 1712 - Great Northern War: Danish and Swedish ships clash in the Baltic Sea, with an inconclusive result.
 1715 - An 11-ship Spanish treasure fleet is lost in a hurricane between the Florida Keys and Havana, Cuba, killing at least 1,000 people.
 1741 - Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
 1763 – Pontiac's War: The Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run.
 1790 – First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
 1865 - The first Narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.

1901  1950 
 1901 - With hot-air balloon Preussen, Arthur Berson and Reinhard Suering reach a record height of 10,800 meters.
 1913 - The Balkan States sign an armistice in Bucharest.
 1914 - French Socialist politician Jean Jaurès is assassinated in a Paris café by the Nationalist Raoul Villain.
 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.
 1932 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party wins over 38% of the vote in German elections.
 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.
 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.

1951  2000 
 1951 – Japan Airlines is established.
 1954 – First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, also involving Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. The lack of credit given to Walter Bonatti causes a lot of controversy in the years to come.
 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).
 1969 - The Mariner 6 probe flies by Mars and sends photographs to Earth.
 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
 1973 – A Delta Air Lines 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.
 1976 – Flooding on the Big Thompson River in Colorado kills 143 people.
 1977 – David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer, carries out his last murder, shooting Stacey Moskowitz.
 1981 – A 7-week strike by Major League Baseball players ends.
 1987 – A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
 1988 – 32 people are killed when a bridge collapses in Penang, Malaysia.
 1991 – The United States and Soviet Union sign the START I arms reduction treaty.
 1991 – A Soviet OMON attacks a Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai.
 1992 – China General Aviation flight 7552 crashes at take-off from Nanking, to Xiamen.
 1992 – A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
 1992 – The Republic of Georgia joins the United Nations.
 1996 – MIL-STD-1750A is declared inactive for use in new designs.
 1998 – The United Kingdom imposes a total landmine ban.
 1999 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
 2000 – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) chooses Moshe Katsav as the next President.

From 2001 
 2006 – Fidel Castro transfers power in Cuba to his brother Raul Castro.
 2007 - Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
 2008 – Scientists report that the Phoenix spacecraft had confirmed the presence of frozen water on the planet Mars.
 2012 - Michael Phelps beats Larisa Latynina's record number of Olympic medals.
 2013 - Zimbabwe holds a Presidential election. The main candidates are long-time President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe's ZANU-PF Party claims a landslide victory, but Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change declares the election null and void on the grounds of vote-rigging.
 2014 - Shortly before midnight, gas explosions occur in the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, killing at least 26 people.
 2015 - Beijing is given the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
 2017 - Los Angeles, California, volunteers to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, effectively giving the 2024 Summer Olympics to Paris.
 2017 - US President Donald Trump fires White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, only ten days after giving him the job.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1143 – Emperor Nijo of Japan (d. 1165)
 1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
 1443 - Albert III, Duke of Saxony (d. 1500)
 1526 - Augustus, Elector of Saxony (d. 1586)
 1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
 1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect (d. 1654)
 1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter (d. 1768)
 1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (d. 1752)
 1718 – John Canton, English physicist (d. 1772)
 1720 - Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon, French soldier and statesman (d. 1788)
 1724 – Noël-François de Wailly, French lexicographer (d. 1801)
 1737 – Princess Augusta of Great Britain (d. 1813) (sources vary between July 31 and August 31)
 1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman and priest (d. 1849)
 1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist (d. 1882)
 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish engineer (d. 1889)
 1804 – George Baxter, English engraver and printer (d. 1867)
 1812 – Amélie of Leuchtenberg, Empress of Brazil (d. 1873)
 1816 – Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen of the Two Sicilies (d. 1867)
 1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
 1822 – Abram Stevens Hewitt, Mayor of New York City (d. 1903)
 1824 - Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, French aristocrat (d. 1890)
 1825 – William S. Clark, American senator and scholar (d. 1885)
 1826 - George Hoadly, 36th Governor of Ohio (d. 1902)
 1828 - François-Auguste Gevaert, Belgian composer (d. 1908)
 1831 - Ilya Ulyanov, Russian teacher and father of Vladimir Lenin (d. 1886)
 1835 – Henri Brisson, French politician (d. 1912)
 1839 - Ignacio Andrade, 25th President of Venezuela (d. 1925)
 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (d. 1918)
 1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1905)
 1854 - José Canalejas, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1912)
 1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English geologist (d. 1936)
 1863 - Sidney Johnston Catts, 22nd Governor of Florida (d. 1936)
 1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter and printmaker (d. 1963)
 1875 - Kunio Yanagita, Japanese scholar (d. 1962)
 1877 - Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (d. 1970)
 1880 – Munshi Premchand, Indian writer (d. 1936)
 1886 – Fred Quimby, American movie producer (d. 1965)
 1886 - Harry Tate, American soccer player (d. 1954)
 1892 - Joseph Charbonneau, French-Canadian Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1959)
 1892 - Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist (d. 1986)

1901  1950 
 1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
 1902 - Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer (d. 1989)
 1904 - John Carberry, American cardinal (d. 1998)
 1907 – Roy Milton, American jump blues singer, drummer and bandleader (d. 1983)
 1908 - Franz Meyers, German politician (d. 2002)
 1911 – George Liberace, American musician (d. 1983)
 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist (d. 2006)
 1912 - Irv Kupcinet, American columnist (d. 2003)
 1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
 1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and comedian (d. 1983)
 1914 - Mario Bava, Italian movie director, cameraman and screenwriter (d. 1980)
 1914 – Raymond Aubrac, French Resistance activist (d. 2012)
 1916 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979)
 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American chemist (d. 2018)
 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist (d. 2010)
 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian writer and chemist (d. 1987)
 1919 - Robert Morgenthau, American lawyer (d. 2019)
 1921 – Peter Benenson, British founder of Amnesty International (d. 2005)
 1922 - Lorenzo Antonetti, Italian cardinal (d. 2013)
 1923 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-born record company executive (d. 2006)
 1923 - Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (d. 2015)
 1923 - Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist, engineer and inventor of Kevlar (d. 2014)
 1926 – Hilary Putnam, American philosopher (d. 2016)
 1927 - Bunny Carr, Irish television presenter (d. 2018)
 1928 - Bill Frenzel, American politician (d. 2014)
 1929 – Don Murray, American actor
 1929 – José Santamaría, Uruguayan footballer
 1930 - Oleg Popov, Russian clown (d. 2016)
 1931 - Nick Bollettieri, American tennis coach
 1931 – Ivan Rebroff, German singer (d. 2008)
 1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (d. 1979)
 1932 – John Searle, American philosopher
 1932 - Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern (d. 2016)
 1933 - Cees Nooteboom, Dutch writer
 1935 - Yvon Deschamps, Canadian comedian, actor and author
 1935 - Geoffrey Lewis, American actor (d. 2015)
 1937 - Isabelle Daniels, American sprinter (d. 2017)
 1938 - Saeed Saleh, Egyptian actor (d. 2014)
 1939 - Ignacio Zoco, Spanish footballer (d. 2015)
 1939 - France Nuyen, French actress
 1940 - Roy Walker, Irish comedian, actor and television host
 1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (d. 2004)
 1943 - Lobo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1943 – William Bennett, American politician
 1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, British journalist and TV presenter
 1944 - Robert C. Merton, American economist
 1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, American-British actress
 1944 - David Norris, Irish scholar, senator and activist
 1945 – William Weld, 68th Governor of Massachusetts
 1947 - Richard Griffiths, British actor (d. 2013)
 1947 - Hubert Védrine, French politician
 1948 - Russell Morris, Australian singer
 1950 - Richard Berry, French actor, director and singer

1951  1975 
 1951 – Evonne Goolagong, Australian tennis player
 1951 - Barry Van Dyke, American actor
 1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor and politician
 1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice hockey player
 1952 - Faye Kellerman, American author
 1953 – Ted Baillieu, Australian politician
 1956 – Deval Patrick, American politician, 71st Governor of Massachusetts
 1956 - Mark Arden, British actor
 1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor and movie producer
 1957 - Mark Thompson, English media executive, former Director-General of the BBC
 1957 - Daniel Ash, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1958 – Bill Berry, American musician in band R.E.M.
 1959 – Andrew Marr, British broadcast journalist
 1959 – Stanley Jordan, American jazz guitarist
 1960 - Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player
 1961 - Frank Gardner, English journalist and correspondent
 1961 - Peter O'Brien, American drummer (Orleans)
 1962 - Jackie Bird, Scottish broadcast journalist
 1962 - Stanley Jordan, American jazz guitarist
 1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor
 1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player
 1963 - Fatboy Slim, English DJ and musician
 1964 – Wendell Alexis, American basketball player
 1964 - Jean-Paul Vonderburg, Swedish footballer
 1964 – Jim Corr, Irish musician
 1965 – J. K. Rowling, British writer (Harry Potter)
 1965 - Pat Finn, American actor
 1965 - Scott Brooks, American basketball coach
 1965 - Mario Von Appen, German canoeist
 1966 - Tatsuya Ishihara, Japanese animator and director
 1966 - Yoshiyuki Matsuyama, Japanese footballer
 1966 – Dean Cain, American actor
 1966 – Valdas Ivanauskas, Lithuanian footballer and football manager
 1967 – Minako Honda, Japanese singer and musical actress (d. 2005)
 1969 - Antonio Conte, Italian footballer
 1969 - Loren Dean, American actor
 1970 - Ben Chaplin, English actor
 1971 - Christina Cox, Canadian actress
 1971 - Elivélton, Brazilian footballer
 1973 - Jacob Aagaard, Danish-Scottish chess player
 1973 – Abdulaziz Khathron, Saudi Arabian footballer
 1973 – Wail al-Shehri, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
 1974 – Emilia Fox, British actress
 1975 – Ruben Patterson, American basketball player

From 1976 
 1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer
 1978 – Will Champion, English musician (Coldplay)
 1978 - Justin Wilson, English racing driver (d. 2015)
 1978 – Zac Brown, American country music singer
 1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
 1979 - B. J. Novak, American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director
 1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby player
 1981 - Clemente Rodríguez, Argentine footballer
 1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
 1981 - M. Shadows, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)
 1982 - Hayuma Tanaka, Japanese footballer
 1982 - Mira Craig, Norwegian singer
 1982 – Michael Jung, German equestrian
 1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
 1984 - Joseph Benavidez, American mixed martial artist
 1985 - Alissa White-Gluz, Canadian singer
 1986 - Shinzo Koroki, Japanese footballer
 1987 – Michael Bradley, American footballer
 1987 – Brittany Byrnes, American actress
 1988 - Krystal Meyers, American singer-songwriter
 1988 - Michelle Sabogal, Colombian actress
 1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belarusian tennis player
 1989 - Zelda Williams, American actress
 1990 - Besart Abdurahimi, Macedonian footballer
 1992 - Lizzy, South Korean singer, dancer and actress
 1992 - Kyle Larson, American racing driver
 1996 - Blake Michael, American actor, director and producer
 2000 - Kim Sae-ron, South Korean actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 54 BC - Aurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar (b. 120 BC)
 855 - Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Arab scholar and theologian (b. 780)
 1099 – El Cid, Spanish warrior (b. 1044)
 1396 – William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
 1508 – Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
 1556 – Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits (b. 1491)
 1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1695)
 1750 – King John V of Portugal (b. 1689)
 1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encyclopedist (b. 1713)
 1805 - Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (b. 1756)
 1849 - Sandor Petofi, Hungarian poet (b. 1823)
 1875 – Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
 1884 – Kien Phuc, Vietnamese Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty (b. 1869)
 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer (b. 1811)

1901  2000 
 1914 – Jean Jaurès, French politician (b. 1859)
 1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet (b. 1881)
 1920 – Ion Dragoumis, Greek diplomat, writer and revolutionary (b. 1878)
 1929 - José de Castro, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1868)
 1940 – Udham Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1899)
 1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and writer disappeared (b. 1900)
 1952 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (b. 1880)
 1953 – Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate (b. 1889)
 1966 - Bud Powell, American pianist (b. 1924)
 1969 - Charles Edison, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1890)
 1971 - Walter P. Carter, American activist (b. 1923)
 1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
 1973 - Azumafuji Kin'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1921)
 1980 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
 1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist (b. 1902)
 1981 – Omar Torrijos, military leader of Panama (b. 1929)
 1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
 1990 – Albert Leduc, French-Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
 1993 – King Baudouin I of Belgium (b. 1930)

From 2001 
 2001 – Poul Anderson, science fiction writer (b. 1926)
 2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, 16th President of Portugal (b. 1914)
 2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (b. 1933)
 2004 - Laura Betti, Italian actress and singer (b. 1927)
 2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1907)
 2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch banker and economist (b. 1935)
 2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
 2010 – Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Italian screenwriter (b. 1914)
 2010 - Mitch Miller, American entertainer (b. 1911)
 2011 – Eliseo Alberto, Cuban-Mexican writer (b. 1951)
 2012 - Alfredo Ramos de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer (b. 1924)
 2012 – Gore Vidal, American writer (b. 1925)
 2013 - John Graves, American writer (b. 1920)
 2013 - Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (b. 1922)
 2014 - Jorge Jacobson, Argentine journalist (b. 1936)
 2014 - Kenny Ireland, Scottish actor (b. 1945)
 2014 - Warren Bennis, American scholar and academic (b. 1925)
 2014 - Mukku Raju, Indian actor (b. 1931)
 2014 - Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian author (b. 1948)
 2015 - Billy Pierce, American baseball player (b. 1927)
 2015 - Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (b. 1940)
 2015 - Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1954)
 2015 - Howard W. Jones, American physician (b. 1910)
 2015 - Richard Schweiker, American politician (b. 1926)
 2016 - Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1955)
 2016 - Fazil Iskander, Abkhazian writer (b. 1929)
 2016 - Seymour Papert, South African-American mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1928)
 2016 - Destin Onka Malonga, Congolese footballer (b. 1988)
 2017 - Liu Wen-hsiung, Taiwanese politician (b. 1954)
 2017 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress (b. 1928)
 2017 - Les Murray, Hungarian-Australian broadcaster (b. 1945)
 2017 - Francesco La Macchia, Italian sprint canoeist (b. 1938)
 2018 - Hélio Bicudo, Brazilian politician (b. 1922)
 2018 - Alex Fergusson, Scottish politician (b. 1949)
 2018 - Bassano Staffieri, Italian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1931)
 2019 - Harold Prince, American theatre director and producer (b. 1928)

Observances 
 Ka Hae Hawaii Day
 Ignatius of Loyola (Roman Catholicism)

Days of the year