This day in history
Every day is full of amazing anniversaries, ancient and modern! As well as today, you can also look at any other day of the year - click the arrows to select the month, then click a number to select the day.
31 July
Events
- 1750: Joseph I succeeds as king of Portugal on the death of John V.
- 1932: The Nazis win 230 seats in the election to the German Reichstag (lower legislative house). The Social Democrats gain 133, the Centre 75, the communists 89, the National People's Party 37, and others 44. The result is a stalemate, since neither Nazis nor Social Democrats will enter a coalition.
- 1950: J Sainsbury's, the British supermarket chain, opens its first self-service shop in Croydon, South London, England.
- 1960: The official end of the Malayan Emergency (British and Mayalan operations against communist insurgents in Malaya, beginning in 1948) is announced.
- 1991: The US president George Bush and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by a third.
Births and Deaths
- Ignatius de Loyola
1556: St Ignatius de Loyola, highly influential Spanish theologian, founder of the Jesuits (1534), dies in Rome, Italy (c. 65). - Robert Burns
1796: Robert Burns, national poet of Scotland, dies in Dumfries, Scotland (37). - Franz (Ferencz) Liszt
1886: Franz (Ferencz) Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer, dies in Bayreuth, Germany (74).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
