First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JULY 31th

Leo Tolstoy, Quote

“History would be an excellent thing if only it were true.”

~ Leo Tolstoy

Wikiquote (Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (September 9 [O.S. August 28] 1828 – November 20 [O.S. November 7] 1910, also known as Leo Tolstoy), a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays.)

This Day in History

July 31st, 30 BC

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
30 BC - Battle of Alexandria; Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Ancient roman statue ● Detail of Head from Roman Statue of Antinous, credit Corbis ● Statue of Neptune, Trevi Fountain, Rome ● International Sand Sculpture Festival, FIESA 7 ancient Rome.
Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

July 31st, 781

The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji: The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji.

Wikipedia  Photo: Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchii

July 31st, 1423

Hundred Years' War: Treaty of Brétigny; is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War

Hundred Years' War:
1423 - Battle of Cravant: the French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.

Wikipedia  Painting: "Morning of the Battle of Agincourt, 25th October 1415", painted by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843); King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc enters Orléans (painting by J.J. Sherer, 1887); Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester. By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.

July 31st, 1492

The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect

Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.

Wikipedia  Painting: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella receiving Columbus in the Alhambra. (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon (not from the Kingdom of Navarre) and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.

July 31st, 1498

Christopher Columbus' fleet of three ships sets sail from Spain in 1492, credit Kean Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Christopher Columbus discovers Trinidad on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

Wikipedia  Paintings: Christopher Columbus' fleet of three ships sets sail from Spain in 1492. credit Kean Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images; Christopher Columbus pointing to land in the New World; Romantic Painting of Christopher Columbus arriving to the Americas Primer desembarco de Cristóbal Colón en América, by Dióscoro Puebla 1862.

July 31st, 1715

A Spanish treasure fleet of 10 ships under Admiral Ubilla leaves Havana Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 9 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida

A Spanish treasure fleet of 10 ships under Admiral Ubilla leaves Havana Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 9 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.

Wikipedia  National Park Service The Spanish Treasure Fleets of 1715 and 1733: Disasters Strike at Sea

July 31st, 1763

Pontiac's War, Pontiac's Conspiracy, or Pontiac's Rebellion was a war that was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of elements of Native American tribes primarily from the Great Lakes region, the Illinois Country, and Ohio Country who were dissatisfied with British postwar policies in the Great Lakes region after the British victory in the French and Indian War (1754–1763).

American Indian Wars / French and Indian War, Pontiac's War:
1763 - Battle of Bloody Run; Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops.

Wikipedia  Pontiac's War; The Indians lacked the manpower for a direct assault. (They planned on starving the inhabitants.) ● The Siege of Pittsborough was lifted shortly after the Battle of Bushy Run on August 5-6, 1763 ● Native American tribesmen gaze down upon Fort Pitt in May 1763. ● Peace negotiations between Colonel Bouquet and tribal leaders in October 1764. credit Brookline Connection.

July 31st, 1919

World War I: Collage

Post World War I:
1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution. The constitution declared Germany to be a democratic parliamentary Republic.

Wikipedia  Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.

July 31st, 1938

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great Persepolis.

Wikipedia  Photo: Keith Garner, holding one of two gold tablets excavated from the foundation walls of the Audience Hall (the Apadana) of the palace of King Darius the great King of Persia (521- 486 B.C.).

July 31st, 1941

World War II, The Holocaust

World War II: Holocaust;
1941 - Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders SS to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution. of the Jewish question".

Wikipedia  Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.

July 31st, 1971

Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi)

Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

Wikipedia  Photo: Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.
The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi).

July 31st, 1992

Airliners Crash: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the 'Miracle on the Hudson' navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP

Aviation accidents and incidents:
1992 - China General Aviation Flight 7552; from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport to Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport crashes after taking off, killing 108 of the 116 people on board.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP

July 31st, 1999

NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the 'saddle' region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid

NASA's 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.

Wikipedia  Image: NEAR Shoemaker (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year.

July 31st, 2002

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2002 - Hebrew University of Jerusalem is attacked when a bomb explodes in a cafeteria, killing 9.

Wikipedia  Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)