View Historical Events by Day: What Happened on July 31 in History?

King William II of England, also known as William Rufus, is killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest. Some believe that his brother Henry plotted his death since shortly after his brother William's death, he rushed to be crowned king before anyone could contest him. Also, Walter Tirel, the person that killed King William, fled to France following the incident, which over time has been viewed as an admission of guilt. Yet hunting was not a particularly safe at the time with frequent hunting accidents some of which were  fatal. More

The Urca de Lima and 9 other treasure ships on their way back to Spain from Havana were all lost in a hurricane off the Atlantic coast. More than 700 seamen, including the Spanish commander, drowned. More than $15 million worth of treasure sank to the bottom of the ocean. Spain managed to recover about $4 million of the treasure. The rest remained on the ocean floor for more than 250 years. More

The Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. His Masonic membership opened many doors in Philadelphia and Lafayette's advocates included the recently arrived American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, urged Congress to accommodate the young Frenchman who had offered to serve without pay.

Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo closes the New York Stock Exchange to stop the European liquidation of American securities caused by the outbreak of WWI. After several days of selloffs, about $3 billion (equivalent to $90 billion in 2023) of foreign portfolio investments had been sold. All of the world’s financial markets also closed. The Sock market remained closed for four months opening again on December 12, 1914. Bond trading had restarted on November 28, 1914. The liquidation of European-held securities transformed the United States from a debtor nation to a creditor nation for the first time in its history. More

Delta Air Lines DC-9 Flight 723, on approach to Boston, Massachusetts slams into a seawall at the foot of the runway, spewing burning wreckage across the airport and killing 88 of the 89 people on board. The lone survivor was Leopold Chouinard, who clung to life despite severe injuries but, tragically, died in the hospital four months after the crash. More