Table of Contents
July 31 (Calendar Day — Gregorian)
July 31 stands at the close of summer’s seventh month as one of the most historically charged dates on the Gregorian calendar. It is the 212th day of the year — the 213th in a leap year — and marks the final page of July, with 153 days still remaining before the year draws to a close. That simple position on the calendar, however, tells only a fraction of the story.
Few dates carry the same breadth of human experience. On July 31, Christopher Columbus set foot on the island of Trinidad in 1498, becoming the first European to reach its shores during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere. Centuries later, the United States and the Soviet Union used this same date to sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a landmark agreement that placed verified limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time. In between those moments, the date has witnessed the fall of empires, the birth of great minds, and the end of long-standing traditions — among them, the Royal Navy’s centuries-old daily rum ration, abolished on a July 31 now remembered as Black Tot Day.
The date also belongs to some of history’s most remarkable individuals. J.K. Rowling, the British author whose Harry Potter series became the best-selling book series in history, was born on July 31 — a birthday she famously shared with her fictional creation, Harry Potter himself. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist whose ideas reshaped global monetary policy, shares the same birth date. So does Peter Benenson, the English lawyer who founded Amnesty International, one of the world’s most respected human rights organizations.
| Topic Name | July 31 |
| Type | Calendar Day (Gregorian Calendar) |
| Position in Year | 212th day of the year (213th in leap years) |
| Days Remaining | 153 days remaining until end of year |
| Month | July — 7th month of the Gregorian calendar |
| Preceding Day | July 30 |
| Following Day | August 1 |
| Last Day of July | Yes — July 31 is the final day of July |
| Zodiac Sign | Leo ♌ (July 23 – August 22) — ruled by the Sun |
| Birthstone | Ruby — known as the king of gems; second hardest natural gemstone |
| Season (Northern Hemisphere) | Summer |
| Season (Southern Hemisphere) | Winter |
| Most Notable Historical Event | Christopher Columbus discovers Trinidad — first European to reach the island (1498) |
| Key Historical Events | Battle of Alexandria — Mark Antony defeated (30 BC); Oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (781); Alhambra Decree expels Jews from Spain (1492); Aurangzeb proclaimed Mughal Emperor (1658); First U.S. Patent issued to Samuel Hopkins (1790); Battle of Passchendaele begins — WWI (1917); Göring orders Final Solution plan — Holocaust (1941); JFK Airport dedicated (1948); Ranger 7 sends first Moon close-up photos (1964); Black Tot Day — Royal Navy ends rum ration (1970); Apollo 15 astronauts first to ride lunar rover (1971); START I Treaty signed — US & USSR (1991); Michael Phelps breaks all-time Olympic medal record (2012); India’s largest power outage — 620 million affected (2012) |
| Most Famous Birthday | J.K. Rowling (born 1965) — British author, creator of the Harry Potter series |
| Notable Births | Milton Friedman (1912, Nobel Prize economist); Primo Levi (1919, Holocaust author); Peter Benenson (1921, founder of Amnesty International); Stephanie Kwolek (1923, inventor of Kevlar); Ahmet Ertegun (1923, founder of Atlantic Records); Robert C. Merton (1944, Nobel Prize economist); Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1951, tennis champion); Mark Cuban (1958, entrepreneur); Wesley Snipes (1962, actor); Fatboy Slim (1963, DJ); J.K. Rowling (1965, author); Antonio Conte (1969, football manager); Victoria Azarenka (1989, tennis champion); Lil Uzi Vert (1995, rapper) |
| Notable Deaths | Ignatius of Loyola (1556, founder of Jesuits); Denis Diderot (1784, philosopher); Andrew Johnson (1875, 17th U.S. President); Franz Liszt (1886, composer & pianist); Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1944, author of The Little Prince); Mohammed Rafi (1980, Indian singer); Baudouin, King of Belgium (1993); Gore Vidal (2012, author); Bill Russell (2022, NBA legend); Angus Cloud (2023, actor) |
| Key Holidays & Observances | National Avocado Day; National Mutt Day; Harry Potter Birthday; World Ranger Day; International Lifeguard Appreciation Day; Black Tot Day; Mary Prince Day; Uncommon Instruments Awareness Day; Shredded Wheat Day; System Administrator Appreciation Day (last Friday of July); National Talk in an Elevator Day (last Friday of July) |
| Religious Observances | Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Roman Catholic); Baháʼí Feast of Kamál (Perfection); Feast of Peter Chrysologus; Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Punjab & Haryana, India) |
| Harry Potter Connection | July 31 is the fictional birthday of Harry Potter — deliberately chosen by J.K. Rowling, who shares this birthday |
July 31 — History, Birthdays & Facts
A complete reference of every notable event, birth, death, holiday & observance on this date
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