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July 31
July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining, as the final day of July.
Events
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1009 - Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV
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1423 - Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant - The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
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1498 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
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1588 - The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
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1667 - The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
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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.
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1790 - First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins.
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1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
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1917 - The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
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1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14)
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1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
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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."
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1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
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1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
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1954 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
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1973 - A Delta Airlines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89
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1975 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
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1976 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
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1987 - A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
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1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
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1996 - MIL-STD-1750A is declared inactive for use in new designs.
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1999 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
Births
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1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
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1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
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1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
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1901 - Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
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1911 - George Liberace, musician (d. 1983)
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1912 - Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics
- 1912 - Irv Kupcinet, newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
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1913 - William Todman , game show producer
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1914 - Louis de Funès, actor and comedian (d. 1983)
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1916 - Bill Todman, game show producer (d. 1979)
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1918 - Hank Jones, pianist
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1919 - Curt Gowdy, sports announcer
- 1919 - Primo Levi, author, chemist (d. 1987)
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1921 - Whitney Young, civil rights activist (d. 1971)
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1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive
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1928 - Kurt Sontheimer , political scientist
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1929 - Don Murray, actor
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1930 - Oleg Popov, clown
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1931 - Kenny Burrell, guitarist
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1939 - France Nuyen, actress
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1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, politician
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1943 - William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar
- 1943 - Susan Flannery, actress
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1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, actress
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1946 - Gary Lewis , rock and roll musician
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1946 - Bob Welch, rock and roll musician
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1951 - Evonne Goolagong, tennis star
- 1951 - Barry Van Dyke, actor
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1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California
- 1952 - Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice-hockey player
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1958 - Bill Berry, rock and roll musician (of the band R.E.M.)
- 1958 - Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner
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1959 - Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist
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1962 - Wesley Snipes, actor
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1964 - Jim Corr, singer, musician ("The Corrs")
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1965 - J. K. Rowling, novelist
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1966 - Dean Cain, actor
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1974 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player
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1974 - Luca Tiengo , Italian guitar player
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1977 - Tim Couch, American football quarterback
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1981 - Eric Lively , actor
- 1981 - Ira Losco, Maltese singer
Deaths
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1099 - Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar ("El Cid"), Spanish warrior
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1108 - King Philip I of France
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1396 - William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
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1547 - King Francis I of France (b. 1494)
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1556 - Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits
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1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
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1886 - Franz Liszt, composer
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1914 - Jean Jaurès, French Socialist politician (d. 1859)
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1917 - Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet
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1937 - Charles Martine , Apache scout
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1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer
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1953 - Robert Taft, Senator from Ohio, former candidate for President of the United States, son of William Howard Taft, "Mr. Republican"
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1980 - Mohd. Rafi, Bollywood playback singer. (b. 24 December1924)
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1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium
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2001 - Poul Anderson, science fiction author
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2003 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist
Holidays and observances
External links
July 30 - August 1 - June 30 - August 31 -- listing of all days
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