NOW & THEN
31 JULY
Mark Antony achieved a minor victory over Octavian in the Battle of Alexandria, but most of his army subsequently deserted, leading to his suicide.
Oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad.
The Pilgrim Fathers departed Leiden for England, before heading to America.
British public inland postal services were established.
Daniel Defoe was put in a pillory for seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but was pelted with flowers.
A fire in Stockholm, Sweden destroyed 1,000 houses.
The first edition of Robert Burns’s poems was published by John Wilson, Kilmarnock.
Benjamin Chambers patented the breech loading cannon.
Henry Perky patented shredded wheat.
Dr Hawley Crippen and Ethel Le Neve were arrested aboard the SS Montrose for the murder of his wife. He was the first criminal to be captured by the use of wireless telegraphy.
Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) began.
Ralph Samuelson, 18, rode the first pair of water skis.
Parliament passed the Unemployment Insurance Act.
Discus thrower Halina Konopacka of Poland became the first woman to win a track and field Olympic gold medal.
Hitler’s National Socialists won largest number of seats in the Reichstag.
Oxfam charity founded at a meeting in the Oxford University Church of St Mary’s.
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare was created.
K2 in the Himalayas was first climbed by an Italian expedition.
Anti-chinese uprising began in Tibet.
Israel welcomed its one millionth immigrant.
US Ranger 7 spacecraft transmitted first close-up pictures of the Moon to Earth.
A Rolling Stones concert in Ireland was halted after 12 minutes due to a riot.
Cigarette advertising on television in Britain was banned.
‘Black Tot Day’ was the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
More than 400 people, including 275 Iranian pilgrims, died in clashes with security police in holy city of Mecca.
A class F4 tornado raged through Edmonton, Canada, killing 27 people.
The last Playboy club closed in Lansing, Michigan.
Bosnia-herzegovina declared independence.
Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact in Moscow.
A Thai airbus crashed into a mountain at Katmandu, with the loss of 113 lives.
Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to brother Raúl.
Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, came to an end.
BIRTHDAYS
Andrew Marr, political commentator and broadcaster, 60; Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster, author and historian, 75; Lynne Reid Banks, author, 90; Evonne Goolagong Cawley MBE, Wimbledon tennis champion, 68; Geraldine Chaplin, actress, 75; John Chillas, Scottish golfer, 68; Lord James Douglas-hamilton (Baron Selkirk of Douglas), MP 1974-97, 77; Derek Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager, 52; Wesley Snipes, actor, 57; Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), DJ, 56; Victoria Azarenka, tennis player, 30; Emilia Fox, actress, 45.
ANNIVERSARIES
1816 Thomas Jackson Rodman, military inventor of ‘shaped’ gunpowder; 1886 Fred Quimby, Tom and Jerry producer; 1912 Professor Milton Friedman, economist and Nobel laureate; 1914 José Ignacio Domecq, sherry maker; 1923 Stephanie Kwolek, US chemist, inventor of Kevlar; 1947 Richard Griffiths OBE, actor.
1556 St Ignatius of Loyala, founder of the Jesuits; 1886 Franz Liszt, composer; 1875 Andrew Johnson, US president 1865-1869; 1964 Jim Reeves, singer-songwriter; 2009 Sir Bobby Robson CBE, football manager; 2012 Gore Vidal, author.