Portal:United States/Anniversaries/July/July 31

1777 – Congress passes a resolution that commissions French aristocrat Lafayette (pictured) as a major-general of the United States army. Lafayette would become a key military leader in the Revolutionary War.
1790 – Samuel Hopkins is issued the first patent issued by the government of the United States.
1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time.
1961 – At Fenway Park in Boston, the first tie in a Major League Baseball All-Star Game occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.
1964 – The space probe Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon. The images are a thousand times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1976 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, which had been taken by the Viking 1 satellite.

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