Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 31
This is a list of selected July 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
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Daniel Defoe -
Lunar Rover-Manned land vehicle (NASA) -
Lunar Prospector -
Raúl Castro
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola | neutrality disputed |
| 1658 – Having defeated his brothers in a war of succession, Aurangzeb was crowned the sixth Mughal Emperor. | unreferenced section |
| 1667 – The Second Anglo-Dutch War between England and the United Provinces ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda in the Dutch city of Breda. | refimprove |
| 1930 – The Shadow, one of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, debuted as the mysterious narrator of a radio program. | needs more footnotes |
| 1971 – Apollo program: The first Lunar Rover was used during the Apollo 15 mission to the moon. | confusing |
| 1999 – NASA's Lunar Prospector was deliberately crashed into the Shoemaker crater near the Moon's south pole in an unsuccessful attempt to detect the presence of water. | needs more footnotes |
| 2007 – The Troubles: Operation Banner, the British armed forces' operation in Northern Ireland, ended after 38 years with a military stalemate and ceasefire. | needs more footnotes |
Eligible
- 1703 – English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the High Church Tories.
- 1777 – The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution allowing French nobleman Marquis de Lafayette to enter the American revolutionary forces as a Major General.
- 1917 – First World War: The Battle of Passchendaele began near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium, with the Allied Powers aiming to force German troops to withdraw from the Channel Ports.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to handle "the final solution of the Jewish question".
- 1972 – The Troubles: Free Derry, an autonomous self-declared area of Derry, Northern Ireland, was brought to an end by the British Army's Operation Motorman.
- 1975 – The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were killed in County Down, Northern Ireland.
- 1991 – The Soviet Union and the United States signed the bilateral START I treaty, the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, which eventually removed 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.
- 1991 – Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit troops killed seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai in the most serious attack of their campaign against Lithuanian border posts.
- 2002 – Hamas detonated a bomb at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine students and injuring about 100 more.
July 31: Ka Hae Hawai'i Day (Flag Day) in Hawaii
- 1201 – John Komnenos the Fat briefly seized the throne of the Byzantine Empire from Alexios III Angelos, but he was soon caught and executed.
- 1423 – Hundred Years' War: The English and their Burgundian allies were victorious over the French at the Battle of Cravant near Auxerre, France.
- 1948 – New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport was dedicated as New York International Airport.
- 1954 – A team of Italian climbers led by Ardito Desio became the first to reach the summit of K2 (pictured), the world's second-highest mountain.
- 2006 – Following intestinal surgery, Fidel Castro provisionally transferred the duties of the Cuban presidency to his brother Raúl.