July 31st

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 31st, 1556, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus -- the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers -- died in Rome.

On this date:
In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Trinidad.

In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.

In 1875, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter Station, Tennessee, at age 66.

In 1919, Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted.

In 1948, President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

In 1953, Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican," died in New York at age 63.

In 1964, the American space probe "Ranger Seven" transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.

In 1981, the leader of Panama, General Omar Torrijos, was killed in a plane crash.

In 1981, a seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended.

In 1989, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape purportedly showing the body of American hostage William R. Higgins dangling from a rope.

Ten years ago: Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers became the 20th major leaguer to win 300 games as he led his team to victory over the Milwaukee Brewers 11-to-3. Shoal Creek, a private club in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew criticism for being all-white, announced it had accepted a black businessman as an honorary member.

Five years ago: The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC Incorporated in a $19 billion deal.

One year ago: Chicago authorities said as many as 46 more residents had died as a result of a relentless heat wave that enveloped much of the nation and produced the hottest July on record in New York City.

"We tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out."

-- Henry Watson Fowler, English lexicographer-author (1858-1933).