WHAT HAPPENED ON 31. JULY
Want to find out what all happened on 31. July

The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia. (31. July 1865)

The Balkan States signs an armistice at Bucharest. (31. July 1913)

German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14. (31. July 1919)

The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time. (31. July 1930)

New York, New York experimental television station W2XAB (now known as WCBS) begins broadcasts. (31. July 1931)

The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections. (31. July 1932)

Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia). (31. July 1938)

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis. (31. July 1938)

Doodlebug Disaster: A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collides with a multi-car freight train heading in the opposite direction, killing 43 people. (31. July 1940)

The Holocaust: under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question." (31. July 1941)

Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria. (31. July 1945)

At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated. (31. July 1948)

USS Nevada (BB-36) is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships. (31. July 1948)

First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio. (31. July 1954)

Jim Laker becomes the first man to take all 10 wickets in a Test match innings as he returns figures of 10/53 in the Australian 2nd innings. This combined with his 9/37 in the first innings gave him match figures of 19/90 in the 4th Test at Old Trafford. (31. July 1956)

At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in Major League Baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain. (31. July 1961)

Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes. (31. July 1964)

Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy. (31. July 1970)

Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover. (31. July 1971)

The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy. (31. July 1972)