Died On This Date

July 31

Reeves, Jim
b. August 20, 1923 d. July 31, 1964
Nicknamed "Gentleman Jim," he was one of the great voices in music. His aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player ended due to an ankle injury so he turned to singing and working as a disc jockey for KWKH, Shreveport, Louisiana, the home of the Louisiana Hayride. His breakthrough single came in 1953 with a song called Mexican Joe. That same year he officially joined the cast of the Louisiana Hayride and in 1955 he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Cause of death: Plane crash.

Johnson, Andrew
b. December 29, 1808 d. July 31, 1875
17th United States President. The first President to be tried for impeachment. After President Johnson notified Congress on February 21, 1868, that he had removed Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War and replaced him with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas, it took the House of Representatives only three days to impeach him for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Meanwhile, Stanton refused to abandon his office and had Thomas arrested for attempting to exercise the duties of the Secretary of War. Cause of death: Stroke

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine Marie Roger de
b. June 29, 1900 d. July 31, 1944
Author, Inventor. He wrote "Wind, Sand and Stars" (1939), and the children's classic "The Little Prince" (1943). Went missing on a flight over the Mediterranean in 1944 and his body was never recovered. The flowerbed around his memorial is laid out in the shape of his drawing of the Little Prince.