On This Day — 31 July

2014

Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.

2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions

2012

Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.

Michael Phelps

2008

East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board.

East Coast Jets Flight 81

2007

Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.

Operation Banner

2006

Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.

Fidel Castro

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.

Discovery Program

1997

FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.

FedEx Express Flight 14

1992

The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.

Georgia (country)

1992

Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.

Thai Airways International Flight 311

1992

China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.

China General Aviation Flight 7552

1992

Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.

Space Shuttle program

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.

Soviet Union

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.

Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse

1987

A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.

Edmonton tornado

1975

The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.

Miami Showband killings

1973

A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.

Delta Air Lines

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

1971

Apollo program: the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

Apollo program

1970

Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.

Rum ration

1966

The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.

Loss of MV Darlwyne

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.

Ranger program

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

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.

USS Nevada (BB-36)

1945

Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.

Pierre Laval

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."

The Holocaust

1941

World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.

World War II

1938

Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).

Bulgaria

1938

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.

Gold

1932

The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.

Nazi Party

1917

World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.

World War I

1904

Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.

Russo-Japanese War

1874

Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.

Patrick Francis Healy

1865

The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.

Narrow-gauge railway

1856

Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.

Christchurch

1790

The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

Patent

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."

Second Continental Congress

1763

Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's War.

Odawa

1741

Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.

Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor

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.

1715 Treasure Fleet

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.

Daniel Defoe

1658

Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.

Aurangzeb

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.

Polish–Russian War (1654–1667)

1618

Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.

Maurice, Prince of Orange

1498

On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

Christopher Columbus

1492

All remaining Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.

Alhambra Decree

1451

Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.

Jacques Cœur

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.

Hundred Years' War

1201

Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.

John Komnenos the Fat

1009

Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.

Pope Sergius IV

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).

Mount Fuji

-30

Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.

Battle of Alexandria (30 BC)