1498: Christopher Columbus became the first European to explore the islands of Trinidad during his third voyage in the Western Hemisphere.
1657: Mughals conquered the Kalyani fort of Bijapur.
1658: Mughal emperor Aurangzeb proclaimed himself king of the Mughal empire.
1940: Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary freedom fighter, was executed by the British in London.
1956: Jim Laker became the first bowler to take all 10 wickets in a Test inning.
1964: The first clear photographs of the moon were taken by the Ranger 7 spacecraft.
1992: Georgia joined the United Nations.
1992: Ramon Magsaysay Award presented to Satar player Pt. Ravi Shankar.
2000: The Lok Sabha had passed the Chhattisgarh ‘State formation, Bill’.
2006: Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother, Raul.
2009: Pakistan’s Supreme Court had declared the emergency imposed in 2007 by the former Pak President Pervez Musharraf as unconstitutional under Article 279 of the Constitution.
2012: Michael Phelps (19 medals in swimming) broke the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals (18 medals) won at the Olympics.
Famous Birthdays – July 31
1704: Gabriel Cramer, a Genevan mathematician.
1880: Munshi Premchand, an Indian writer.
1907: Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi, an Indian mathematician, statistician, philologist, historian, and polymath.
1941: Amarsinh Chaudhary an Indian politician. He became the first Adivasi to serve as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
1947: Mumtaz, an Indian Hindi film actress.
1965: J. K. Rowling, a British writer, and philanthropist.
1992: Kiara Advani, an Indian actress.
Death Anniversaries - July 31
1865: Jagannath Shankarsheth Murkute, an Indian philanthropist and educationalist.
1875: Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States.
1940: Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary belonging to the Ghadar Party.
1980: Mohammed Rafi, an Indian film playback singer.
2014: Nabarun Bhattacharya, an Indian writer in the Bengali language.
762: Caliph al-Mansur established the city of Baghdad.
1898: Cornflakes developed by William Kellogg.
1930: Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup.
1962: The Trans Canada Highway, the world’s largest national highway with a length of about 8,030 km, was opened.
1966: England won the World Cup for the first time, defeating West Germany in the eighth FIFA World Cup.
1971: Apollo 15 landed on the moon.
2000: Kannada matinee idol Dr. Rajkumar was kidnapped from his farmhouse at Gajanur in the Talavadi taluk of Erode district, Tamil Nadu, by forest brigand Veerappan.
2001: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Indian water expert Rajendra Singh.
2006: The world’s longest-running music show ‘Top of the Pops’ was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
Famous Birthdays – July 30
1822: Wajid Ali Shah, the eleventh and last King of Awadh.
1863: Henry Ford, an American industrialist and business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company.
1886: S. Muthulakshmi, the first female legislator of India.
1947: Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-American actor, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and former politician who served as the 38th Governor of California.
1973: Sonu Nigam, an Indian singer, and composer.
1973: Sonu Sood, an Indian film actor, producer, and humanitarian.
1982: James Anderson, an English international cricketer.
Death Anniversaries - July 30
1771: Thomas Gray, an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor.
1898: Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany.
1930: Joan Gamper, a Swiss football pioneer, versatile athlete, and club president.
1960: Gangadharrao Deshpande, an Indian Independence activist.
1983: Vasantrao Deshpande, a Hindustani classical vocalist.
