July 31

July 31 is the 212th day of the year, 153 days remaining

1790 - First U.S. patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

1932 - The NSDAP wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.

1945 - John K. Giles attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison.

1951 - Japan Airlines is established.

1964 - 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.

1981 - General Omar Torrijos of Panama dies in a plane crash.

1999 - Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector - NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.

Birthday

1843 - Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rosegger

1912 - Milton Friedman, American economist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman

1930 - Oleg Popov, Russian clown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Popov