July 31
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Events on This Day
1790 - The first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont. Mr. Hopkins did not get Patent #1 as thousands of patents were issued before someone came up with the bright idea to number them. The inventor patented a process for making potash and pearl ashes.1792 - Construction started with the laying of the cornerstone in the first building to be used solely as a U.S. Government building. It was the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
1845 - The French Army introduced the saxophone to its military band. The musical instrument was the invention of Adolphe Sax of Belgium.
1928 - MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time. He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. Leo’s dialogue was more extensive than the film’s, whose only spoken word was, “Hello.”
1932 - The George Washington 25-cent coin was put into circulation by the U.S. Mint on this day.
1933 - Listeners turned up the radio to hear the announcer introduce “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!” The show was one of the longest-running adventure programs on radio, continuing until 1951. Armstrong was Hudson High School’s football hero and the hero who saved the day from dastardly villains. Somehow, these adventures would take Jack and his cousins, Betty and Bill Fairfield to exotic locales where they would make use of industrialist Uncle Jim's yacht and a hydroplane they referred to as the Silver Albatross.
1942 - Harry James and his band recorded the classic I’ve Heard that Song Before, for Columbia Records. Helen Forrest sang on the million-seller.
1948 - New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport wasn’t always named that. In fact, on this day, U.S. President Harry S Truman dedicated the airport as International Airport at Idlewild Field.
1949 - After a three-month standoff, the British warship HMS Amethyst made its escape down the Yangtze River. All of this, after having been refused safe exit by the Chinese Communists.
1954 - Mount Godwin-Austen (K2) in the Himalayas was first climbed by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
1955 - Marilyn Bell of Toronto, Canada, at age 17, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
1961 - The first tie in All-Star Game history was recorded as the second All-Star Game of the year (there were two a year back then) was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain at Boston’s Fenway Park.
1964 - Country Music Hall of Famer Jim Reeves died when his single-engine Beechcraft crashed near Nashville, TN. Gentleman Jim started as a DJ, first at KGRI in Henderson, Texas; then at KWKH in Shreveport, LA (the home of the Louisiana Hayride in the early 1950s). His first hit was Mexican Joe in 1953. Reeves became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1955. He had his own TV series on ABC in 1957. He was in the 1963 film, Kimberley Jim. Reeves bought a radio station in Henderson, Texas, which became very successful. Hits by Jim Reeves include Four Walls, He’ll Have to Go, I’m Getting Better, Am I Losing You, Welcome to My World and I Guess I’m Crazy.
1969 - Pope Paul VI visited Uganda. It was the first time a pontiff had visited Africa.
1970 - The Houston Astros sent ex-New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton down to the minor leagues. Ten days after joining the Oklahoma City farm team, Bouton retired from baseball. He authored several baseball books including Ball Four. Bouton also became a sportscaster in New York City for WABC and WCBS-TV.
1971 - The first men to ride in a vehicle on the moon did so on this day in the LRV (lunar rover vehicle). This example of a lunar dune buggy carried Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin for five miles on the lunar surface. Their first stop at the rim of Elbow Crater was televised back to Earth to millions of viewers. The moon ride lasted two hours and the astronauts were heard to exclaim, “There’s some beautiful geology out there!”
1972 - Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, withdrew from the ticket with presidential candidate George McGovern following disclosure that Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment for depression. Eagleton was replaced by Sargent Shriver, who, incidentally, was the only Democratic vice-presidential nominee who did not serve in Congress at any point in his or her career.
1974 - One of the President Nixon’s main men, John Ehrlichman was sentenced to prison for his role in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Ellsberg was the Pentagon consultant who leaked the Pentagon Papers (which purportedly told Americans how and why the U.S. really got into the Vietnam War). Ehrlichman also created the White House unit that was called the ‘plumbers’ because it was intended to plug leaks.
1978 - Orchestra leader and producer Enoch Light died in New York City at age 70. He had led an orchestra called the Light Brigade beginning in 1935. His biggest hit was Summer Night in 1937. Enoch Light was always interested in the technical techniques, and he struck it rich with the advent of stereo recording. He created Command Records, which released albums like Persuasive Percussion and Provocative Percussion in the early 1960s. These were popular with stereo owners because of their ping-pong (left channel to right to left) effects.
1981 - The seven-week baseball players’ strike came to an end as the players and owners agreed on the issue of free agent compensation.
1981 - General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama, was killed in a plane crash.
1984 - Prince was big at the box office with the autobiographical story of the Minneapolis rock star, Purple Rain. The flick grossed $7.7 million in its first three days of release on 917 movie screens. The album of the same name was the top LP in the U.S., as well.
1985 - Spring Hill, Tennessee was selected as the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant. General Motors announced that it expected to produce up to 500,000 Saturns a year beginning in 1989. Some 14,000 jobs were created to operate the new auto plant.
1988 - Willie Stargell was selected as Baseball Hall of Famer #200. Stargell had 475 career homers, twice leading the NL (48 in 1971, 44 in 1973). He drove in 1540 runs, scored 1195 and had 2232 hits with a lifetime batting average of .282. His inspirational leadership contributed greatly to Pittsburgh Pirate world championships in 1971 and 1979, when he shared NL MVP honors. His #8 was retired by the Pirates in 1982.
1990 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers became the 20th major leaguer to win 300 games as he led his team to victory over the Milwaukee Brewers 11-to-3.
1991 - U.S. President George Bush (I) and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact known as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) at a Moscow summit. It was the first treaty to mandate reductions by the superpowers.
1992 - Olympic swimming world records set this day: Jeff Rouse: 100m backstroke (53.86 sec); Kieren John Perkins: 1500m free style (14:43.4); Tamas Darnyi: 200m backstroke (first swimmer to break 2 minutes in 200m: 1:59.36); Yang Wenyi 50m freestyle (24.79 sec). Also this day, Summer Sanders became the first American athlete to win four medals at the Barcelona Olympics as she won the gold in the women’s 200-meter butterfly.
1993 - Belgium’s King Baudouin I died at 62 years of age. He was succeeded by his brother, Prince Albert.
1995 - The Walt Disney Co. announced that it would pay some $19 billion to buy Capital Cities/ABC Inc., creating a major entertainment and media company. The deal included the ESPN sports cable network.
1996 - Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 was released to manufacturers for preinstallation on server PCs.
1998 - Movies debuting in the U.S.: BASEketball, a comedy starring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny Mccarthy, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine, Dian Bachar, Bob Costas, Trevor Einhorn, Al Michaels and Mark Goodson; and the romantic Ever After: A Cinderella Story, with Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott, Jeanne Moreau, Jeroen Krabbe, Patrick Godfrey, Megan Dodds, Melanie Lynskey, Timothy West, Judy Parfitt and Richard O'brien.
1999 - The U.S. heat wave -- linked to at least 94 deaths -- continued. As Chicago baked in 100-degree weather, thousands of hot and sweaty residents were forced to endure the heat without air conditioning or fans, due to sporadic power outages and brownouts.
2000 - Intel Corporation broke the one gigahertz barrier. The computer processor giant introduced a Pentium III that ran at 1.13 GHz.
2000 - The Republican National Convention opened in Philadelphia. It would nominate Texas Governor George W. Bush as its presidential candidate.
2002 - In Chicago’s South Side, a mob beat Anthony Stuckey (49) and Jack Moore (62) to death after their van veered over a curb and injured three women. (Seven people were charged Aug 3 with first degree murder.)
2003 - The Vatican launched a global campaign against gay marriages. The church warned Catholic politicians that support of same-sex unions was “gravely immoral”.
2003 - The Tony Award-winning (Best Musical) Avenue Q opened at the Golden Theatre on Broadway. The show was notable for the use of puppets, animated by unconcealed puppeteers, alongside the human actors. With 2,534 performances, Avenue Q ranked 24th (as of July 2018) on the list of longest running shows in Broadway history. It ended its Broadway run on September 13, 2009.
2004 - Deaths on this day: actress Virginia Grey died in Los Angeles. She was 87 years old. Grey appeared in over 100 films and 40 TV shows; and Italian film actress Laura Betti died at 70 years of age. Her debut was in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita 1960).
2005 - Monsoon rains returned to Mumbai, India, just as it was attempting to recover from recent floods (death toll was estimated at near 1,000 people).
2006 - SanDisk Corp. of Milpitas, CA (flash storage maker) agreed to buy msystems Ltd. (flash disk pioneers) of Kefar Saba, Israel for $1.35 billion in stock.
2007 - English historian Norman Cohn died at 92 years of age. Cohn’s 1957 book, Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages drew parallels between millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of 20th-century totalitarianism.
2008 - California Governor Schwarzenegger ordered the layoffs of thousands of state workers along with steep pay cuts for most other state employees to ease the state’s budget gap of $15.2 billion.
2009 - Motion pictures opening in U.S. theatres: Aliens in the Attic, with Ashley Tisdale, Robert Hoffman, Carter Jenkins, Austin Butler, Ashley Boettcher, Henri Young, Regan Young, Tim Meadows, Gillian Vigman and Kevin Nealon; Funny People, starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Bana and Andy Dick; The Cove, with Richard O’Barry; and Thirst, starring Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun and Kim Ok-bi.
2009 - Turkey’s navy commandos aboard a frigate captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia’s coast. Turkish commandos had captured five other pirates in a similar operation in the Gulf during the previous week.
2009 - Venezuelan regulators revoked the broadcast rights of 34 radio stations for allegedly failing to submit the proper paperwork to the broadcasting regulator, deepening a rift between President Hugo Chavez’s government and the private media.
2010 - An explosion ripped through a workers’ dormitory area in Linfen city, Shanxi province, China. The blast killed 17 people at the Liugou mine, a coal mine notorious for mining disasters.
2011 - Tens of thousands of famine-stricken refugees were cold and drenched after torrential rains pounded their makeshift structures in Somalia. The World Food Program said it could not reach 2.2 million Somalis who live in al-Shabab controlled territory in south-central Somalia.
2012 - The Japanese operator of the nuclear power plant devastated in the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami received a 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) government bailout, effectively putting the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan, under government ownership.
2012 - U.S. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Poland’s economy was a model of small government and free enterprise that other nations should emulate as they struggle with recession. The Poland visit was his final stop on a three-nation tour designed to boost his foreign policy resume with voters back home.
2013 - The Smurfs 2 opened in U.S. theatres. The animated fantasy comedy features the voices of Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Jayma Mays, Jacob Tremblay, Nancy O’Dell, Karim Babin, Gaston Morrison, Jocelyn Blanchard, Erika Rosenbaum, Carolina Bartczak, James A. Woods, Henri Pardo, Vanessa Matsui and Dusan Dukic.
2013 - A U.S. federal appeals court ruled that football players may sue Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, California, over the use of players’ images in its video games. Although the video games did not use players’ names, EA Sports used the same jersey numbers, heights, weights, skin tones, hair colors and home states in the in-game bios, not only without their permission, but without compensation.
2014 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Act 10, Governor Scott Walker’s 2011 law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.
2014 - The World Health Organization reported the deaths of 57 more people from Ebola in west Africa. The fatality toll from the epidemic rose to 729, including 339 in Guinea, 156 in Liberia and 233 in Sierra Leone.
2015 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres included: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and America Olivo; The Seventh Dwarf, with Cameron Elvin, Peyton List and Norm MacDonald; Best of Enemies, starring Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow and Dick Cavett; The End of the Tour, with Mamie Gummer, Jesse Eisenberg and Anna Chlumsky; and Northmen - A Viking Saga, starring Ed Skrein, Ryan Kwanten and James Norton.
2015 - California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency as 18 large wildfires raged in San Diego and 14 other counties. A blaze in the Cajon Pass forced the closure of several lanes of the Interstate 15 Freeway. And one of the fires killed a responding firefighter. “California’s severe drought and extreme weather have turned much of the state into a tinderbox,” Brown said. “Our courageous fire fighters are on the front lines and we’ll do everything we can to help them.”
2016 - After Khizr Khan gave a blistering denunciation of Donald Trump at the Democratic national convention, the week-long public spat between Khan -- the Muslim father of a U.S. Army captain killed in the Iraq War -- and the GOP nominee reached a boiling point. Khan responded directly to Trump, who questioned his wife Ghazala Khan’s non-speaking role at the convention and suggested that it was because their Muslim faith prevented her from talking. “For this candidate for presidency to not be aware of the respect of a Gold Star Mother standing there, and he had to take that shot at her, this is height of ignorance,” Khan said. “This is why I showed him that Constitution. Had he read that, he would know what status a Gold Star Mother holds in this nation. This country holds such a person in the highest regard. And he has no knowledge, no awareness.” Khan said that he believed Trump was a person totally incapable of empathy. “I want his family to counsel him, teach him some empathy,” he said. “He is a black soul. And this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country.”
2017 - Discovery, the cable network group (TLC and Animal Planet), agreed to buy Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of the Food Network, HGTV and other channels. Experts said the $14.6 billion deal was meant to secure a foothold in pay-TV streaming services.
2017 - POTUS Donald Trump’s drug commission urged him to deal with the U.S. opioid drug epidemic saying some 142 deaths occured each day from drug overdoses.
2018 - Iranian officials rejected POTUS Trump’s offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and “a humiliation” after he acted to reimpose sanctions on Tehran following his withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal. Iran’s foreign minister said that Washington should blame itself for ending talks with Tehran when it withdrew from the nuclear deal. “U.S. can only blame itself for pulling out and leaving the table ... Threats, sanctions and PR stunts won’t work,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
2019 - Kelly Craft (57), wife of wealthy coal magnate, Joseph Craft III, won Senate confirmation as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Craft was a prominent supporter of George W. Bush, who appointed her an alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007. Her focus in that position included U.S. engagement in Africa. She had previously served as the United States ambassador to Canada, being the first woman to hold the office. Although Craft had previously said (during her tenure as ambassador to Canada) that she believed there were “good scientists on both sides” of the climate debate, during her confirmation hearing she reversed her position stating that she believed that fossil fuels and human behavior have contributed to climate change. Due to her family’s connections to the coal industry she also agreed to recuse herself from any U.N. discussions involving climate change or coal.
2019 - John Miller was released from a Pennsylvania prison after spending 22 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. A year after Miller’s case was overturned and he was freed, the 45-year-old filed a lawsuit featuring explosive claims against the five detectives who helped put him behind bars. Among other assertions, Miller and his lawyers have claimed that evidence discovered during his appeal shows that the officers were aware of demonstrably false aspects of their star witness’ version of events — but that they did not disclose evidence of the flaws, as required by law, and continued to push for Miller’s arrest and conviction. The detectives’ decision to trust David Williams — a “known liar,” the suit claimed — not only led to Miller’s wrongful incarceration, it also may have allowed the case’s true killer to become its key informant. Four years after Miller’s 1998 conviction, the suit said, Williams wrote to Miller’s mother and said that he needed to clear his conscience because he had been “living a lie.” Williams wrote that he had actually committed the murder, firing a gun in self-defense.
2020 - Movies released in the U.S. (theatres and virtual) this day included: Unhinged, starring Russell Crowe, Jimmi Simpson and Gabriel Bateman; Cut Throat City, starromg Eiza González, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes; Killer Raccoons 2: Dark Christmas in the Dark, with Yang Miller, Ron Lynch and Tom Lyons; Save Yourselves!, starring Sunita Mani, John Reynolds and Ben Sinclair; She Dies Tomorrow, with Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams and Kentucker Audley; Summerland, starring Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Penelope Wilton; and Words on Bathroom Walls, with AnnaSophia Robb, Walton Goggins and Andy Garcia.
2020 - The United States sold its ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv, Israel for $67 million to U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The sale, not known publicly for several months, was a Trump attempt to cement his controversial decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem -- and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
2020 - Twitter permanently suspended the account of David Duke, a former leader of the radical white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan. This, as the social media company increased the curbing of hateful content on its website.
2020 - Monsoon floods swamped large parts of densely populated Bihar state in India and displaced more than 300,000 people -- and killed at least 24 people. The crisis exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymied the state’s response to the pandemic. Bihar had recorded 48,197 coronavirus cases including 282 deaths.
2021 - Zoom Video agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated users’ privacy rights. Zoom had shared personal data with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and let hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing.
2021 - At the Covid-delayed Olympic games in Tokyo: 1)U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel won the 100m butterfly in world record time of 49.45; 2)U.S. swimming superstar Katie Ledecky won the women’s 800m gold for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympics, claiming the distance 800/1500m double; 3)The first mixed-gender event to be featured in an Olympic swim program saw Great Britain team of Kathleen Dawson, Adam Peaty, James Guy & Anna Hopkin winning the mixed 4×100m medley relay in world record time of 3:37.58; 4)Jamaican sprinters Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson hit the trifecta in the women’s 100m final; Thompson-Herah retained the 100 m title.
2022 - Deaths on this day included: 1)Bill Russell, the basketball legend who led the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA championships, died at 88 years of age. Before his professional career, Russell led the Univ of San Francisco Dons to two NCAA championships, and won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the U.S. team at the 1956 Summer Games. Russell became the NBA's first Black head coach in 1966. Russell also was an outspoken civil rights activist. In 2011, then-President Barack Obama awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. 2)Nichelle Nichols, the actress best known for playing Starship Enterprise communications officer Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, died of heart failure. She was 89. Nichols was one of the first Black women with a leading role on a network TV series, and her portrayal of the highly educated, beautiful, and businesslike Uhura helped break down barriers for Black women in Hollywood who were rarely given such powerful roles. NASA credited her with inspiring thousands of women and minorities to apply to the space program.
2022 - Northern California’s McKinney fire, fueled by high temperatures and winds, exploded to become the state’s biggest wildfire of the year. The blaze started in the Klamath National Forest and within 3 days had spread to over 51,000 acres burned, with 0 percent containment.
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Birthdays on This Day July 31
1867 - S.S. (Sebastian Spering) Kresge
merchant: S.S. Kresge’s five & dime stores [now Kmart]; died Oct 18, 19661911 - George Liberace
musician: violinist, conductor; administrator of Liberace Museum; brother of pianist/entertainer Liberace; died Oct 16, 19831913 - Bryan Hextall
Hockey Hall of Famer: New York Rangers: Stanley Cup [1940]; Art Ross Trophy winner [1941-1942]; died Jul 25, 19841915 - Chet Forrest
songwriter, composer: It’s a Blue World, Donkey Serenade, Strange Music, And This Is My Beloved, Stranger in Paradise, Night of My Nights; died Oct 10, 19991916 - Bill (William) Todman
game show producer: Goodson-Todman Productions: The Price is Right, To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, I’ve Got a Secret, What’s My Line; died Jul 29, 19791918 - Hank Jones
pianist: accompanied Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald; led Hank Jones Trio; died May 16, 20101919 - Curt Gowdy
sports commentator: ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO; voice of NY Yankees, Boston Red Sox [1949-1966]; TV play-by-play: AFL, NFL, major league baseball, World Series, All-Star Games, Rose Bowls, Super Bowls, Olympics, NCAA Final Fours; host: The American Sportsman; radio station owner: WCGY-FM, Lawrence [Boston] MA; recipient of George Foster Peabody Award for achievement in radio and TV [1970]; Curt Gowdy Award presented by Hall of Fame Board of Trustees for meritorious contributions by the media; Curt Gowdy State Park [Wyoming] named after him [1971]; died Feb 20, 20061922 - Hank (Henry Albert) Bauer
baseball: NY Yankees [World Series: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958: 4 home runs/all-star: 1952, 1953, 1954], KC Athletics; manager: NY Yankees, KC Athletics; died Feb 9, 20071923 - Ahmet Ertegün
Atlantic Records co-founder; chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; described as one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry; co-founder of the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League; brother of producer Nesuhi Ertegun; died Dec 14, 20061929 - Don Murray
actor: Bus Stop, Knots Landing, The Outcasts, Baby the Rain Must Fall, Peggy Sue Got Married, Advice and Consent1931 - Kenny Burrell
guitarist: played with Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman; own combos; jazz professor: UCLA1932 - Ted Cassidy
actor: The Addams Family, Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, Greatest Heroes of the Bible, Goin’ Coconuts, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Trigger Law, The Last Remake of Beau Geste; died Jan 16, 19791937 - John Sellers
jockey: winner: Kentucky Derby [1961: on Carry Back], Belmont Stakes [1965: on Hail To All], Brooklyn Handicap [1965: on Pia Star]; died Jul 2, 20101939 - France Nuyen (Vannga)
actress: The Joy Luck Club, South Pacific, Diamond Head, St. Elsewhere1939 - John West
musician: keyboards: group: Gary Lewis and the Playboys: This Diamond Ring1942 - Daniel Boone
songwriter, singer: Beautiful Sunday1943 - Susan Flannery
Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress: Days of Our Lives [1975], The Bold and the Beautiful [2000, 2002]; Dallas, Anatomy of a Seduction1944 - Geraldine Chaplin
actress: Nashville, Rosalind, Chaplin, Dr. Zhivago, The Wedding; daughter of comedian Charlie Chaplin1945 - Gary Lewis (Levitch)
singer: group: Gary Lewis and the Playboys: This Diamond Ring; entertainer Jerry Lewis’ son1946 - Bob Welch
guitarist, singer: group: Fleetwood Mac; solo: Sentimental Lady; died Jun 7, 20121947 - Karl Green
musician: guitar, harmonica: group: Herman’s Hermits: I’m into Something Good, Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, I’m Henry VIII, I Am, Listen People, A Must to Avoid, Leaning on the Lamp Post1950 - Lane Davies
actor: Santa Barbara, Lois and Clark, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital1951 - Evonne Goolagong
tennis champ: Australian Open [1974, 1975, 1976, 1977]; Wimbledon [1971, 1980]; French Open [1971]1951 - Barry Van Dyke
actor: Diagnosis Murder, The Van Dyke Show, Foxfire Light, It Happened at Lakewood Manor, Casino; son of actor Dick Van Dyke1952 - Chris Ahrens
hockey: NHL: Minnesota North Stars; WHA: Edmonton Oilers1952 - Alan Autry
actor: In the Heat of the Night, Proud Men, Blue De Ville, At Close Range; mayor of Fresno California1953 - James Read
actor: Remington Steele, North and South series, Legally Blonde series, Not Another Teen Movie, Full Circle, The Other Woman, Love Crimes, Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III1956 - Mark Arden
actor: The Oblivion Boys, Charlie, Jack and Jeremy’s Police 4, Drunk and Disorderly, Carry On Columbus, Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale, Romeo and Juliet [1978]1956 - Michael Biehn
actor: The Rock, Breach of Trust, Blood of the Hunter, Tombstone, A Taste for Killing, Timebomb, Aliens, The Terminator, The Fan, Coach, The Runaways1957 - Daniel Ash
musician: guitar, singer: groups: Bauhaus, Love and Rockets1957 - Dirk Blocker
actor: Baa Baa Black Sheep [series], McBride: The Chameleon Murder, Inherit the Wind, Night of the Scarecrow, A Year in the Life, Bonanza: The Return1957 - Leon Durham
baseball: St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs [all-star: 1982, 1983], Cincinnati Reds1958 - Bill Berry
musician: drums: group: R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe, Talk about the Passion, So Central Rain, [Don’t Go Back To] Rockville, Seven Chinese Brothers1958 - Mark Cuban
billionaire entrepreneur, owner of Dallas Mavericks [NBA] basketball team; founded MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com; TV shark: ABC’s Shark Tank1962 - Wesley Snipes
actor: Demolition Man, Rising Sun, Major League, Sugar Hill, White Men Can’t Jump, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, One Night Stand, U.S. Marshals, The Player1963 - Norman (Quentin) Cook
singer: groups: The Housemartins: Caravan of Love; Beats International: Dub Be Good To Me; Freakpower: Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out; Mighty Dub Katz, Pizzaman, Norman Cook Presents Wildski, Fried Funk Food; Fatboy Slim: Better Living through Chemistry, The Rockafeller Skank, You've Come A Long Way, Baby1963 - Brian Skrudland
hockey [center]: Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, NY Rangers, Dallas Stars1965 - Scott Brooks
basketball [guard]: California-Irvine; NBA: Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, NY Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers1965 - J.K. Rowling
author: Harry Potter novels, films; more1966 - Dean Cain
actor: Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Las Vegas, Hit the Floor1967 - Rudolf Martin
actor: NCIS, Lautlos, The Scoundrel’s Wife, Swordfish, Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, Bedazzled, Watershed, Fall1967 - Tony Massenburg
basketball [forward]: Univ of Maryland; NBA: SA Spurs, Charlotte Hornets, Boston Celtics, LA Clippers, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, NJ Nets, Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings1971 - Gus Frerotte
football [quarterback]: Univ of Tulsa; NFL: Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins1972 - Jason Gildon
football [defensive end]: Oklahoma State Univ; NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars1974 - Emilia Fox
actress: The Other Boleyn Girl, Pride and Prejudice [1995 Pride and Prejudice [1995 TV Mini-Series], The Pianist, Merlin, Silent Witness1975 - Randy Flores
baseball [pitcher]: Univ of Southern California; Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals1975 - Annie Parisse
actress: Law & Order, As the World Turns, Beverly Hills S.U.V., Person of Interest, The Following, The Tested, Price Check, One for the Money1975 - Ruben Patterson
basketball [forward]: Univ of Cincinnati; NBA: LA Lakers, Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trail Blazers1976 - Marty Booker
football [wide receiver]: Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins1978 - Zac Brown
musician: guitar: lead vocalist: Zac Brown Band: Chicken Fried, Toes, Highway 20 Ride, Free, As She’s Walking Away [w/Alan Jackson], Colder Weather, Knee Deep [w/Jimmy Buffet], Keep Me in Mind, No Hurry, Goodbye in Her Eyes1978 - Will Champion
musician: drums: group: Coldplay: Sparks, Fix You, Don’t Panic, Warning Sign, Clocks, Help Is Around the Corner, Everything’s Not Lost1979 - B.J. Novak
actor: The Office, Inglourious Basterds, Saving Mr. Banks1981 - Eric Lively
actor: So Weird, The Butterfly Effect 2, The L Word, Sex and Breakfast, American Pie1982 - DeMarcus Ware
football [defensive end, linebacker]: NFL: Dallas Cowboys [2005−2013]; Denver Broncos [2014-2016]: 2015 Super Bowl 50 champs1986 - Evgeni Malkin
hockey [center]: NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins [2006- ]: 2009 Stanley Cup champs1989 - Alexis Knapp
singer, actress: Pitch Perfect film series, Project X, Ground Floor1998 - Rico Rodriguez
actor: Modern Family
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day July 31
1948You Can’t Be True, Dear (facts) - The Ken Griffin Orchestra (vocal: Jerry Wayne)
Woody Woodpecker Song (facts) - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Gloria Wood & The Campus Kids)
1957
1966
1975
1984
1993
2002
2011
2020
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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