This Day in History for July 31 – First US Patent Issued and More

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history:

1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII (More info)

1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad (More info)

1790 – The first US patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a fertilizer-making process (More info)

1954 – Mount Godwin-Austen (K2), the world’s second-highest peak, is climbed for the first time (More info)

1964 – Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes (More info)