TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1498 - Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, arrived at the island of Trinidad.

1865 - Queensland’s first railway line opens.

1900 - Western Australia votes to join the Commonwealth of Australia.

1902 - 96 men and boys are killed in Australia’s worst industrial accident at Mount Kembla colliery.

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.

1942 - The town of Mossman in far north Queensland is bombed by the Japanese.

1945 - Pierre Laval of France surrendered to Americans in Austria.

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.

1980 - China’s population reached 1 billion.

1989 - The Game Boy handheld video game device was released in the US.

1991 - US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Birthdays

Maximilian II 1527 - Holy Roman Emperor

George Liberace 1911 Musician and television performer, older brother of entertainer Liberace

Don Murray 1929 - Actor Kenneth Earl “Kenny” Burrell 1931 - Jazz guitarist Geoffrey Lewis 1935 - Actor France Nuyen 1939 - Actress John West 1939 - Musician (Gary Lewis and the Playboys)

Lobo (Roland Kent LaVoie) 1943 - Singer, songwriter

Susan Flannery 1939 Actress

Geraldine Chaplin 1944 Actress

Bob Welch 1946 - Musician (Fleetwood Mac)