July 31 in history — What Happened Today in History

The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.

Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

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.

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

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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.

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

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."

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

Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.

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.

Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player

Victoria Azarenka, Belarusian tennis player

Alexis Knapp, American actress

Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player

A. J. Green, American football player

Charlie Carver, American actor and writer

Michael Bradley, American soccer player

Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player

Brian Orakpo, American football player

Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer

Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist

Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player

DeMarcus Ware, American football player

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (born 1955)

Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (born 1928)

Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (born 1940)

Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (born 1910)

Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1927)

Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (born 1954)

Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (born 1926)

Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (born 1925)

Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (born 1948)

Jeff Bourne, English footballer (born 1948)

Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (born 1920)

Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (born 1922)

Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (born 1917)