Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
July 31
| 904 | Arabs capture Thessalonica. | |
| 1703 | English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters. | |
| 1760 | Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drives the French army back to the Rhine River. | |
| 1790 | The U.S. Patent Office opens. | |
| 1882 | Belle and Sam Starr are charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory. | |
| 1875 | Former president Andrew Johnson dies at the age of 66. | |
| 1891 | Great Britain declares territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within their sphere of influence. | |
| 1904 | The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia's Pacific coast, is completed. | |
| 1917 | The third Battle of Ypres commences as the British attack the German lines. | |
| 1932 | Adolf Hitler's Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubles its strength in legislative elections. | |
| 1944 | The Soviet army takes Kovno, the capital of Lithuania. | |
| 1971 | Apollo 15 astronauts take a drive on the moon in their land rover. | |
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Born on July 31 |
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| 1803 | John Ericsson, naval engineer and inventor, developed the screw propeller. | |
| 1816 | George Henry Thomas, Union general during the American Civil War. | |
| 1837 | William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate raider during the American Civil War. | |
| 1867 | S.S. Kresge, American businessman. | |
| 1901 | Jean Dubuffet, French sculptor and painter. | |
| 1912 | Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist. | |
| 1919 | Primo Levi, Italian writer and scientist (Survival in Auschwitz). | |
| 1921 | Whitney Young, Jr., civil rights leader and executive director of the National Urban League. | |
| 1928 | Horace Silver, jazz pianist, composer and bandleader. | |
| 1951 | Evonne Goolagong, Australian tennis player. | |
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