By The Associated Press

              - Today is Saturday, July 31, the 212th day of 1999. There are 153
                days left in the year.

              - On July 31, 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French
                nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.
              - In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere,
                Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Trinidad.
              - In 1556 St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus -
                the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers - died in Rome.
              - In 1875 the 17th president of the U.S., Andrew Johnson, died in
                Carter Station, Tenn., at age 66.
              - In 1919 Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted.
              - In 1948 President Truman helped dedicate New York International
                Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild
                Field.
              - In 1953 Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican," died
                in New York at age 63.
              - In 1964 the American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of
                the moon's surface.
              - In 1972 Thomas Eagleton withdrew as Democratic presidential
                candidate George McGovern's running-mate following disclosures he
                had once undergone psychiatric treatment.
              - In 1981 the leader of Panama, Gen. Omar Torrijos, died in a plane
                crash. A seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended.

              - Ten years ago a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly
                videotape purportedly showing the body of American hostage William
                R. Higgins dangling from a rope, a day after his kidnappers
                threatened to kill him.
              - Five years ago the U.N. Security Council authorized member states to
                use "all necessary means" to oust the military leadership in Haiti.
              - One year ago President Clinton said he would "completely and
                truthfully" answer prosecutors' questions about Monica Lewinsky in
                testimony to be beamed by closed-circuit TV to a grand jury. IBM's
                Russian subsidiary agreed to pay $8.5 million in federal fines for
                selling powerful computers ultimately destined for a Russian nuclear
                weapons laboratory.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman is 87.
              - Sportscaster Curt Gowdy is 80.
              - Actor Don Murray is 70.
              - Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 68.
              - Actor Geoffrey Lewis is 64.
              - Actress France Nuyen is 60.
              - Actress Susan Flannery is 56.
              - Singer Lobo is 56.
              - Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 55.
              - Movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 55.
              - Singer Gary Lewis is 53.
              - Rock singer Bob Welch is 53.
              - Tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 48.
              - Actor Barry Van Dyke is 48.
              - Actor James Read is 46.
              - Actor Michael Biehn is 43.
              - Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets) is 42.
              - Rock musician Bill Berry is 41.
              - Actor Wesley Snipes is 37.
              - Actor Dean Cain is 33.
              - Actor Loren Dean is 30.
              - Actor Robert Telfer is 22.