What Do You Know About July 31st?

July 31st is a significant day in history. Here are some of the events that happened on this day:

- In 30 BC, the Battle of Alexandria took place, where Mark Antony achieved a minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserted, leading to Octavian's invasion of Egypt. 

- In 1498, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad on his third voyage.

- In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed from Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America. 120 of them had decided to cross the Atlantic in search of greater freedom. Starting from Holland they had stopped at Southampton to reorganise their expedition. On the beach pious co-religionaries kneel to pray divine favour on their enterprise. Ahead of the pilgrims, across thousands of miles of sea, was a precarious home in their new colony of New England. In a few years it was to attract nearly 20,000 English Puritans, and become the origin of the New England settlements of North America.

- In 1790, the first US patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

- In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts James B. Irwin and David Scott first used the four-wheeled battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle to extensively explore the Moon's surface, in particular the Hadley-Apennine site. 

These are just a few of the many events that happened on July 31st.