Historical timeline for July 31

A De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser collide over Soldotna, Alaska, killing all seven people on board both aircraft, including state representative Gary Knopp.

Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.

Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.

East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board.

Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.

Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.

Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface.

FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.

China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.

Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.

Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board.

The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.

The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.

Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.

A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.

The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.

A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723, crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing 89.

The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.

Apollo program: The Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.