I suppose that by many historical standards perhaps the biggest event to ever happen on July 31 was the Mamluk victory at Acre that ended the Crusades in 1291. After 6 formal crusades, and a number of informal ones, the crusaders were driven out of Palestine. But the historical event that really caught my eye in the local paper's "Today in History" column is that on this day in 1777 the 19 year old Marquis de Lafayette was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. Given our country's views of immigrants, 19 year olds and the French, it's tough to imagine that such a thing was ever possible.
Posted by armand at July 31, 2005 12:34 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs