The Battle of Anglesey Sound. On or about 31st July 1098 Hugh de Montgomerie, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury also known as Hugh the Red, was killed by King Magnus Barefoot of Norway at Puffin Island off Anglesey. His death led to Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd who had just been defeated by Hugh, being able to reclaim his kingdom.
1415 The Southampton plot to assassinate English king Henry V and put Edmund Mortimer on the throne is uncovered.
On this day 1588, The Spanish Armada was spotted off the coast of England and beacon fires were lit across Wales and England as a warning.
1646 Royalist supporters besieged at Goodrich Castle surrender to Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War after the castle is partially destroyed by "Roaring Meg," an enormous mortar.
1703 Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet but is pelted with flowers.
1786 "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect" by Robert Burns, also known as the Kilmarnock Edition, is published by John Wilson in Kilmarnock, Scotland.
The first section of the Great Orme Tramway at Llandudno was opened on 31st July 1902, the longest funicular railway (the ascending and descending vehicles are fixed to a cable and counterbalance each other) in Britain. It is also Britain's only remaining cable operated street tramway and one of few surviving in the world. It operates between Llandudno Victoria Station to the summit of the Great Orme headland.
On 31st July 1957, The Tryweryn Bill became law, despite the fervent opposition of Welsh MPs. It gave Liverpool City Council permission to build a reservoir which would drown the Welsh speaking village of Capel Celyn near Bala. This led to increased support in the late 1950s for the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, and gave impetus to the demand for Welsh devolution. The official opening of the reservoir in 1965 was disrupted by protesters who had cut microphone wires, and the chanting protesters drowned out the speeches. In October 2005, Liverpool City Council published a public apology for the incident.
1970 Black Tot Day: the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy, which started in 1740.
1966 Two Alabama radio hosts, Tommy Charles and Doug Layton of WAQY in Birmingham, ask listeners to send in Beatles albums and merchandise to burn in response to John Lennon's remark that "Christianity will go"
31 Jul 1980 During an Eagles concert at Long Beach, California, tempers boiled over between Glen Frey and Don Felder, who spent the entire show describing to each other the beating each planned to administer backstage. "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," Frey told Felder. The group’s next album was mixed by Frey and Felder on opposite coasts after the two decided they couldn't bear to be in the same state, let alone the same studio.
