July 31
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1975: The search for Jimmy Hoffa begins
On this day in 1975, Jimmy Hoffa’s wife reported him missing. An American labor leader who served as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 to 1971, Hoffa was one of the most controversial labor organizers of his time. His disappearance is one of the most enduring unsolved cases in the United States. The search for his remains spans five decades and thousands of leads, but it’s never turned up a single piece of confirmed evidence.
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Featured Event
NASA
Lunar Roving Vehicle first used on the Moon
On this day in 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts James B. Irwin and David Scott first used the four-wheeled battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle to extensively explore the Moon’s surface, in particular the Hadley-Apennine site. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about visiting the Moon.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Chuck Nacke/Alamy
American economist and educator Milton Friedman, who was one of the leading proponents of monetarism in the second half of the 20th century and who was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics, was born this day in 1912.
Famous Birthdays
More on July 31
Donald Cooper/Shutterstock.com
2019
American theatrical producer and director Harold Prince—the recipient of a record-setting 21 Tony Awards, including one for lifetime achievement—died at age 91. [Take our theatre quiz.]
Jeffrey Mayer—WireImage/Getty Images
2012
At the Summer Games in London, American swimmer Michael Phelps captured an unprecedented 19th career Olympic medal when he helped the U.S. team win the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay; he surpassed the record set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. [Sort fact from fiction in our swimming quiz.]
Carl Van Vechten Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. van 5a52740)
2012
American novelist, playwright, and essayist Gore Vidal, who was noted for his irreverent and intellectually adroit novels, died at age 86. [Name the novelist in our quiz.]
Xinhua/Alamy
2006
Because of health problems, longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed over provisional power to his brother Raúl; the latter served as the country’s acting president until officially assuming the post in 2008. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Caribbean.]
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
1965
British author J.K. Rowling, creator of the immensely popular Harry Potter series, was born. [Test your knowledge of famous authors.]
AP
1921
Whitney M. Young, Jr., who spearheaded the drive for equal opportunity for African Americans in industry and U.S. government service while he was head of the National Urban League (1961–71), was born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky. [Test your knowledge of African American history.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1912
Largely because of Black boxer Jack Johnson’s success against white opponents, Congress institutes censors on boxing films. [Take our quiz to test your knowledge about boxing.]
© Photos.com/Getty Images
1786
Scottish poet Robert Burns’s first volume of verse, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect , is published and is an immediate success.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-01466)
1667
The Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and transferred New Netherland (now New York and New Jersey) to England. [Take our history of war quiz.]
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
1556
St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church, died in Rome. [Take our quiz about the history of Roman Catholicism.]