31st of July

The 212th day of the year is today, and there are only 153 days remaining.

30 BC - The Battle of Alexandria occurs, where Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.

781 AD - The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji happens.

1498 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

1726 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, the famous Swiss mathematician dies at the early age of 31.

1777 - The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of 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.

1790 - The very first United States patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

1800 - German chemist and founder of organic chemistry, Friedrich Wohler is born.

1875 - The 17th President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, dies at the age of 66.

1919 - The German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, the document that governs Germany from this date until 1933, and it technically remained in effect throughout the existence of the Third Reich.

1932 - The Nazi Party (NSDAP) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.

1941 - Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Goring, 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 population."

1961 - At the famous Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.

1965 - J. K. Rowling, British author and creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, is born today.

1975 - Jimmy Hoffa, American labor leader, disappears from the parking lot of a restaurant, Machus Red Fox, in suburban Detroit. 

1987 - A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, that kills 27 people and causes $330 million in damages.

1992 - Thai Airways International Flight 311 rashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.

1999 - NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the moon, thus endings its mission to detect frozen water on the surface of the celestial body that orbits our home.