- What happened on July 31?
Current Calendar Page for July 31, 2024
Name Day
Germanus, Ignatius, Justinus
Historical Events
2009 - Britta Steffen sets a world record (52.07 seconds) in the 100m freestyle swim and wins her first world championship title in Rome.
1969 - Pope Paul VI visits Uganda, marking the first-ever papal visit to Africa.
1959 - Nationalist Basques found the underground organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in Bilbao. Until its dissolution in 2018, ETA killed over 800 people in terrorist attacks.
1944 - French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ("The Little Prince") embarks on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean from Corsica, from which he does not return.
1914 - A few days before the outbreak of World War I, French socialist and pacifist Jean Jaurès is assassinated by a nationalist fanatic in a Parisian café.
Birthdays
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin (80), British actress ("Mother Teresa", "Family Reunion", "Doctor Zhivago")
1942 - Hartmut Mehdorn (82), German manager, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH 2013-2015, CEO of Air Berlin AG 2011-2013, CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG 1999-2009
1933 - Cees Nooteboom (91), Dutch writer ("Rituals", "The Following Story", "All Souls' Day")
1884 - Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician and resistance fighter, was sentenced to death and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1945 after the failure of the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt
Deaths
1969 - Alexandra, German singer ("My Friend, the Tree", "Gypsy Boy", "Longing"), born 1942
The history of ETA, the Nationalist Basque organization, began in Bilbao in 1959. Understanding the context, the history of July 31 also includes significant events like Britta Steffen's world record-breaking swim in 2009.
