Born on July 31
July 31 birthdays & history
If you were born on July 31, you share a birthday with J. K. Rowling, Milton Friedman and Louis de Funès. July 31 babies are Leo, with ruby as their birthstone and the larkspur as their birth flower. July 31 is the 213th day of the year in leap years (212th in other years).
Famous people born on July 31
- 1965J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer
- 1912Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1914Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter
- 1919Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author
- 1880Premchand, Indian author and playwright
- 1929Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and writer
- 1947Richard Griffiths, English actor
- 1989Victoria Azarenka, Belarusian tennis player
- 1962Wesley Snipes, American actor and producer
- 1901Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor
What happened on July 31
- 1009Sergius IV became the 142nd pope, succeeding John XVIII.
- 1856Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.
- 1865The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
- 1874Patrick Francis Healy was inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, becoming the first African-American president of a predominantly white university in the United States.
- 1924A private senator's bill by Herbert Payne to introduce compulsory voting in Australia became law.
- 1938Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
- 1948At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
- 1954A team of Italian climbers became the first to reach the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain.
- 1964Ranger 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.
- 1966The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the coast of Cornwall with the loss of all 31 people aboard.
- 2006Following intestinal surgery, Fidel Castro provisionally transferred the duties of the Cuban presidency to his brother Raúl.
- 2012The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting more than 620 million people, or about 9 percent of the world's population.
Also observed on July 31
- End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
- Treasury Day (Poland)
- Warriors' Day (Malaysia)
Questions, answered
What star sign is July 31?
People born on July 31 are Leo. Their birthstone is ruby and their birth flower is the larkspur.
Which famous people were born on July 31?
J. K. Rowling (1965), Milton Friedman (1912), Louis de Funès (1914), Primo Levi (1919), Premchand (1880), Oriana Fallaci (1929) were all born on July 31.
What happened on July 31 in history?
Among other things: in 1966, The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the coast of Cornwall with the loss of all 31 people aboard; in 2006, Following intestinal surgery, Fidel Castro provisionally transferred the duties of the Cuban presidency to his brother Raúl; in 2012, The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting more than 620 million people, or about 9 percent of the world's population.
Can I get a newspaper front page from July 31?
Yes. The Birthday Gazette makes a personalised vintage-style front page for any July 31 birth year, with their name in the headline, events, famous birthdays and typical US prices. The preview is free and the print files cost $9.
Events, birthdays and observances are adapted from Wikipedia contributors, “July 31”, English Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (shortened and filtered). Ranking uses Wikidata (CC0). Sources.