Did you know
Patrick Francis Healy was a Jesuit priest and earned a PhD, a rare achievement for African-Americans at the time.
July 31 in History
1874 — Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University
July 31 spans 54 recorded events across recorded history, from 398 to 2014. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
54 events
398 – 2014
Today in history
More major events on July 31
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1991 The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles. Read story Source
- 1790 The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process. Source
- 1667 The treaty of Breda ends the second Anglo-Dutch War and grants England in possession of New Amsterdam. Source
- 1498 On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad. Source
Did you know
Healy Hall, the flagship building of Georgetown University, was named in his honor due to his significant contributions to the institution.
Did you know
Healy's presidency at Georgetown University had a lasting impact on the university's development and growth.
Did you know
Georgetown University, where Healy served as president, is a private research university located in Washington, D.C.
Did you know
Healy's legacy as the 'second founder' of Georgetown University reflects his influential role in shaping the university's history and identity.
398
End 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.
War in late antiquity
The Gildonic War was a rebellion in the year 398 led by Comes Gildo against Roman emperor Honorius. The revolt was subdued by Stilicho, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire.
432
Election of pope Sixtus III following the death of pope Celestine I four days prior.
Head of the Catholic Church from 432 to 440
Pope Saint Sixtus III, also called Xystus III, was the bishop of Rome from 31 July 432 to his death on 18 August 440.
768
Antipope Constantine II is arrested by primicerius Christopher and Lombard troops send to aid him by king Desiderius.
8th-century antipope
Antipope Constantine II was a Roman prelate who claimed the papacy from 28 June 767 to 6 August 768.
781
The 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).
Volcano in Japan
Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of 3,776.24 m.
1009
Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
Head of the Catholic Church from 1009 to 1012
Pope Sergius IV was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 31 July 1009 to his death. His temporal power was eclipsed by the patrician John Crescentius.
1201
Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
Usurper of the Byzantine Empire (died 1201)
John Komnenos, nicknamed "the Fat", was a Byzantine noble who attempted to usurp the imperial throne from Alexios III Angelos in a short-lived coup in Constantinople on 31 July 1201.
1423
Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: A Franco-Scottish army is defeated by the Anglo-Burgundians at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
Medieval Anglo-French conflicts, 1337–1453
The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the late Middle Ages.
1451
Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
15th-century French government official and merchant
Jacques Cœur was a French government official and state-sponsored merchant whose personal fortune became legendary and led to his eventual disgrace. He initiated regular trade routes between France and the Levant.
1492
All remaining Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
1492 decree expelling Jews from Spain
The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, ordering the expulsion of unconverted Jews from the Crowns of Castile…
1498
On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506)
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish transatlantic voyages in the name of the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European…
1618
Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.
Dutch Republic stadtholder and Prince of Orange (1567–1625)
Maurice of Orange was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic—except Friesland—from 1585 until his death.
1655
Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
Conflict in Eastern Europe
The Polish–Russian War of 1654–1667 was a major conflict between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1658
Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.
Mughal emperor from 1658 to 1707
Alamgir I, commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, was the sixth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707.
1667
The treaty of Breda ends the second Anglo-Dutch War and grants England in possession of New Amsterdam.
Peace ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Peace of Breda, or Treaty of Breda was signed in the Dutch city of Breda, on 31 July 1667.
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.
English writer, merchant and spy (1660–1731)
Daniel Defoe was an English writer, journalist, merchant and spy. He is famous for his novels Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724).
1715
Seven 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.
The 1715 Treasure Fleet was a combination of two Spanish treasure fleets returning from the New World to Spain, the "Nueva España Fleet", under Captain-General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, and the "Tierra Firme Fleet",…
1741
Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
Holy Roman Emperor from 1742 to 1745
Charles VII was elector of Bavaria from 26 February 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 to his death on 20 January 1745. He was also King of Bohemia from 1741 to 1743.
1763
Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's War.
Indigenous people of North America
The Odawa are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.
1777
The 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."
The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and Revolutionary War, which established American independence from…
1790
The first U.S.
patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for publishing an enabling…
1856
Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.
City in Canterbury, New Zealand
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of 407,800, and a metropolitan population of 556,500.
1865
The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
Railway line with a width less than the standard
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than 1,435 mm standard gauge. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
1904
Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.
1904–1905 conflict in East Asia
The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire.
1917
World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
Global conflict from 1914 to 1918
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers.
1932
The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
Far-right political party in Germany (1920–1945)
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism.
1938
Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
Country in Southeastern Europe
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea.
1938
Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
Chemical element with atomic number 79 (Au)
Gold is a chemical element; its chemical symbol is Au and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright-metallic-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal.
1941
The 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."
Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
1941
World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers.
1945
Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
French politician (1883–1945)
Pierre Jean Marie Laval was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vichy France.
1948
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F.
Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. It is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay.
1948
USS 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.
Dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy
USS Nevada (BB-36), the third United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships.
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.
American uncrewed lunar space missions in the 1960s
The Ranger program was a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon.
1966
The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.
Pleasure cruiser sinking off the Cornish coast in 1966
MV Darlwyne was a pleasure cruiser, a converted Royal Navy picket boat, that disappeared off the Cornish coast on 31 July 1966 with its complement of thirty-one.
1970
Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
Daily amount of rum given to Royal Navy sailors; abolished in 1970
A rum ration was a daily amount of rum given to sailors aboard naval ships. The Royal Navy, alongside several Commonwealth navies, were best known for the practice.
1971
Apollo program: the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1961–1972 American crewed lunar exploration program
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was conceived in 1960 in the Dwight D.
1972
The 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.
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.
1973
A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
Airline of the United States
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its largest in terms of total passengers…
1975
The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
1975 mass murder in Northern Ireland
Five people, including three members of The Miami Showband, were killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, on 31 July 1975 on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland.
1987
A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.
1987 tornado in Alberta, Canada
The Edmonton tornado, also known as Black Friday to Edmontonians, was a powerful and devastating tornado that ripped through the eastern parts of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and parts of neighbouring Strathcona County on…
1988
Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
1988 disaster in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia
The Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse was a disaster of the Penang Ferry Service which occurred on 31 July 1988, at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry Terminal in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
1991
The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.
Country in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991.
1992
The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
Country in Eastern Europe and West Asia
Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia, and is today generally regarded as part of Europe.
1992
Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
1992 aviation accident in Nepal
Thai Airways International Flight 311 (TG311/THA311) was a scheduled flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport.
1992
China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.
1992 passenger plane crash in Nanjing, China
China General Aviation Flight 7552 was a China General Aviation flight from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport to Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport.
1992
Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.
1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S.
1997
FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.
1997 aircraft accident in New Jersey
FedEx Express Flight 14 was a scheduled cargo flight from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey, via Malaysia, Taiwan, and Alaska.
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.
Solar system exploration program by NASA
The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office.
2006
Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
Leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and statesman who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011.
2007
Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
1969–2007 British military operation in Northern Ireland during the Troubles
Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history.
2008
East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board.
2008 aviation accident in Minnesota
East Coast Jets Flight 81 was a business jet flight operated by East Coast Jets that crashed on July 31, 2008 while attempting a go-around at Owatonna Degner Regional Airport near Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight…
2012
Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
American swimmer (born 1985)
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He won more Olympic medals than any other athlete, a total of 28 medals across four Olympic Games.
2014
Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
Industrial disaster in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night.