July 31

In literary history

• 1917Siegfried Sassoon, decorated captain and war poet, sent a declaration to his commanding officer calling the war a deliberate prolongation; it was read in Parliament and published in The Times. To avoid court-martial, the army sent him to a hospital for shell-shock.

Writers born on July 31

• Primo Levi (1919),
• J.K. Rowling (1965)

The Daily Canon for July 31

If This Is a Man by Primo Levi (1947).