History of 31 July
1919 – Germany’s Weimar Constitution was adopted.
1928 – MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time. He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, “White Shadows on the South Seas.”
1932 – Enzo Ferrari retired from racing. In 1950 he launched a series of cars under his name.
1945 – Pierre Laval of France surrendered to Americans in Austria.
1948 – U.S. President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
1955 – Marilyn Bell of Toronto, Canada, at age 17, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
1959 – The Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) was founded. The group is known for being an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization.
1961 – The first tie in All-Star Game major league baseball history was recorded when it was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain at Boston’s Fenway Park.
1964 – The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon’s surface.
1971 – Men rode in a vehicle on the moon for the first time in a lunar rover vehicle (LRV).
1980 – China’s population reached 1 billion.
1981 – The seven-week baseball players’ strike came to an end when the players and owners agreed on the issue of free agent compensation.
1982 – Yugoslavia imposed a six-month freeze on prices.
1989 – A pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a videotape reportedly showing the hanged body of American hostage William R. Higgins.
1989 – The Game Boy handheld video game device was released in the U.S.
1991 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
1995 – The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire Capital Cities/ABC in a $19 billion deal.
Disney movies, music and books
1999 – The spacecraft Lunar Prospect crashed into the moon. It was a mission to detect frozen water on the moon’s surface. The craft had been launched on January 6, 1998.
2007 – The iTunes Music Store reached 2 million feature length films sold.
2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
Celebrating Birthday Today
1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
1981 – Vernon Carey, American football player
1981 – Paul Whatuira, New Zealand rugby league player
1982 – Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player
1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
1985 – Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer
1985 – Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist
1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player
1986 – Brian Orakpo, American football player
1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
1988 – Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belorussian tennis player
1991 – Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player
1992 – José Fernández, Cuban baseball player (d. 2016)
1992 – Ryan Johansen, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Kyle Larson, American race car driver
1994 – Lil Uzi Vert, American hip hop artist