ON THIS DAY JULY 31 2023

This Day in History: July 31

Featured Event

2012





At the Summer Games in London, American swimmer Michael Phelps captured an unprecedented 19th career Olympic medal when he helped the U.S. team win the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay; he surpassed the record set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.

Michael Phelps
American swimmer


Michael Phelps, in full Michael Fred Phelps II, (born June 30, 1985, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.), American swimmer, who was the most-decorated athlete in Olympic history with 28 medals, which included a record 23 gold. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he became the first athlete to win eight gold medals at a single Olympics. Phelps was raised in a family of swimmers and joined the prestigious North Baltimore Aquatic Club at age seven. He finished fifth in the 200-metre butterfly at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. At the 2001 U.S. spring nationals, he became at age 15 the youngest ...(100 of 904 words)


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Featured Biography

Wesley Snipes
American actor




Wesley Snipes, (born July 31, 1962, Orlando, Florida, U.S.), American actor best known for his action films, many of which feature martial arts.
Snipes spent his early years in New York City’s South Bronx. He studied martial arts from age seven, initially because he was small for his age and needed to defend himself. At age 12, after winning a small role in an Off-Broadway production of The Me Nobody Knows, he decided that performing would be the focus of his future. He studied acting, music, and dance at the High School of the Performing Arts until 1977, when his mother moved the family back to Orlando, Florida. Shortly after receiving a B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Purchase, he made his motion-picture debut in Wildcats (1986) and appeared in a number of theatrical and television productions, including Miami Vice and the soap opera All My Children.

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