On July 31, 1763, James Kent, first professor of law at Columbia College, Chancellor of New York, and author of a four-volume set of Commentaries on American Law, was born near Brewster, NY. Learn more about James Kent.

On July 31, 1919, the Constitution of the German Reich was signed in Weimar, Germany as the country's post-empire foundational law. The document set up a full democracy in Germany with a President, Parliament, and independent judiciary. It also made Germany the first nation to give women the right to vote. The so-called Weimar Republic lasted until the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933. Learn more about the Weimar Republic.