What to remember about July 31st…
- 1777 Continental Congress commissions Marquis de Lafayette as an unpaid Major General in the Continental Army
- 1875 Former 17th President of the United States Andrew Johnson dies in Tennessee of a suspected stroke (b. 1808)
- 1912 American economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman is born in Brooklyn, New York
- 1941 Herman Goering sends order to Heydrich to create a plan for the “final solution of the Jewish situation”; Holocaust planning begins
- 1965 English author J.K. Rowling is born; creator of the Harry Potter books series
- 1971 Astronauts from Apollo 15 take first ride aboard the Lunar Rover on the surface of the Moon
- 2007 Operation Banner, the British occupation of Northern Ireland, ends after 38 years
