Daily Archives: July 31, 2014

Country singer Jim Reeves dies in plane crash 50 years ago this hour (July 31 1964)


Video: 'EXCLUSIVE! Jim Reeves Plane Crash Video'

(Friday, July 31, 1964, 4:52 p.m. local time) — Country singer-songwriter Jim Reeves, 40, and his manager, Dean Manuel, were killed today when the private plane Reeves was piloting crashed in bad weather near Nashville. Continue reading Country singer Jim Reeves dies in plane crash 50 years ago this hour (July 31 1964)

Anti-war French Socialist leader Jean Jaurès assassinated while dining 100 years ago tonight (July 31 1914)


Video: 'The Great War episode 1 Exposion' (July 31, 1914, at 48:31)

(Friday, July 31, 1914; during World War I) — Jean Leon Jaures, the French Socialist leader who tried to prevent the First World War, was assassinated tonight in a Parisian café, Le Croissant, 146 rue Montmartre, by Raoul Villain, a 29-year-old French nationalist.

Ranger 7 reaches the moon, transmits pictures back to Earth 50 years ago this hour (July 31 1964)


Video: 'Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon 1964 NASA JPL First Successful US Lunar Spacecraft'

(Friday, July 31, 1964, 16:50:00 UTC) — Ranger 7 radioed to earth today the first close-up pictures of the moon — a historic collection of 4,000 pictures one thousand times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.