Browse events, births, deaths and holidays on July 31 throughout history.
On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two peopl…
Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He won more Olympic medals than any other athlete, a total of 28 medals across four Olympic Games. Phelps also ho…
Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
East Coast Jets Flight 81 was a business jet flight operated by East Coast Jets that crashed on July 31, 2008 while attempting a go-around at Owatonna Degner Regional Airport near…
East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight…
Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous dep…
Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation…
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and statesman who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, president…
Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Progr…
Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission…
FedEx Express Flight 14 was a scheduled cargo flight from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey, via Malaysia, Taiwan, and Alaska. On July 31, 1997, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flying t…
FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.
Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia, and is today generally regarded as pa…
The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
Thai Airways International Flight 311 (TG311/THA311) was a scheduled flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International…
Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
China General Aviation Flight 7552 was a China General Aviation flight from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport to Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport. On July 31, 1992, the Yakovlev Yak-4…
China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transpo…
Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered…
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its disso…
The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with…
The Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse was a disaster of the Penang Ferry Service which occurred on 31 July 1988, at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry Terminal in Butter…
Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in…
The Edmonton tornado, also known as Black Friday to Edmontonians, was a powerful and devastating tornado that ripped through the eastern parts of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and par…
A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.
Five people, including three members of The Miami Showband, were killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, on 31 July 1975 on the A1 road at Buskh…
The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack…
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being i…
A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston,…
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland …
The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the…
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was concei…
Apollo program: the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
A rum ration was a daily amount of rum given to sailors aboard naval ships. The Royal Navy, alongside several Commonwealth navies, were best known for the practice. It was abolish…
Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
MV Darlwyne was a pleasure cruiser, a converted Royal Navy picket boat, that disappeared off the Cornish coast on 31 July 1966 with its complement of thirty-one. Twelve bodies and…
The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.