1656 (July 31 Old Style)
Russians seize from Swedes Dinaburg (later renamed into Borisoglebov).
1705 (July 30 Old Style)
The start of the Astrakhan uprising.
Astrakhan was full of rumors all summer long. The tsar died, that is why chiefs lost the Christian faith, started shaving their beards and wearing European outfits. Then terrible news appeared that weddings would be abolished for the next seven years and all their daughters and sisters would be bestowed to Germans sent from Kazan. Residents of Astrakhan decided not to wait for this decree to come and celebrated a hundred of weddings on Sunday, July 29. People, warmed with wine, were easy to get involved in a rebellion, and some 300 gathered at night and stormed into the city’s Kremlin killing several people to ring the alarm.
1745 (July 30 Old Style)
Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky and Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov swear in as professors of the Academy of Sciences at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in St. Petersburg to become Russia’s first academicians. This decision was approved by the Senate a few days before.
1787 While Empress Catherine II traveled to Crimea accompanied by Austrian Empror Joseph II, Turkey decided to start war on Russia to gain the territory. First months of hostilities were unfortunate for Russia: its fleet was crushed by a storm in the Black Sea, prince Potemkin lost heart and kept the field flabbily. Suvorov took over the commandment in a year and a half to win a number of dazzling victories making the Turks sign the Treaty of Jassy in 1791.
1812 (July 29 Old Style)
Count Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov is awarded the title of the prince of the Russian Empire for merit.
1992 Russian President B. N. Yeltsin signs a decree to create a new branch of troops – Military Space Troops, which actually existed since the launch of the first satellite.
Births
1697 Alexander Borisovich KURAKIN
(13.10.1749)
prince, diplomat and senator.
1702 Stepan Fyodorovich APRAXIN
(17.8.1758)
Field Marshall General.
1737 Anton Pavlovich LOSENKO(4.12.1773)
painter and drawer, director of St. Petersburg Academy of Beaux Arts. He executed mainly history paintings (Vladimir Faces Rogneda) and portraits.
1839 Alexander Grigoryevich STOLETOV
(27.5.1896)
physicist.
1860 Sergey Dmitrovich SAZONOV
(25.12.1927)
diplomat, foreign minister in 1910-16. He represented Admiral Kolchak after the October revolution in Paris as foreign minister.
1865 Alexander Kostantinovich GLAZUNOV
(21.3.1936)
composer.
1890 Serafima Germanovna BIRMAN
(11.4.1976)
theater and cinema actress, theater director.
1906 Vadim Svyatoslavovich SINYAVSKY
(3.7.1972)
sportscaster.
1918 Nikolay Zakharovich KARAKULOV
He was the first Soviet athlete to become European champion, Honored Master of Sports. He won the 200m race at the first after-war European championships (Oslo, 1946) with 21.6 sec. He became the European champion again four years later in the relay team 4x100m.
1929 Gennady Ivanovich BUKHARIN
Honored Master of Sports, bronze medalist at the 1956 Olympics in 10,000m single canoeing. He became the first Soviet canoeist to win the World Championships in 1958 (1,000m and 10,000m).
1929 Oleg Alexandrovich STRIZHENOV
Actor (Gad-Fly, Forty-First, Mexican, Extrajudicial, To Earth, Poste Restrantre), People’s Artist of the USSR.
1935 Giya Alexandrovich KANCHELI
Georgian composer and People’s Artist of the USSR (1988).
1937 Andrey Andreevich BIBA
(19.2.2000)
Ukrainian football player, mid-fielder, captain of Dynamo Kyiv and Honored Master of Sports.
He became champion of the USSR three times, won the USSR Cup twice, was named the country’s best player in 1966. On the one hand, the decision was unexpected (Biba played for the national team but it occupied only the 4th place at the World Cup in 1966), on the other hand the award underlined his role in the famous team headed by Viktor Maslov.
1937 Anatoly Alexandrovich SOBCHAK
(19.2.2000)
lawyer, mayor of St. Petersburg (1991-1996), one of the most prominent politicians of perestroyka and post-perestroyka times.
1940 Veniamin Borisovich SMEKHOV
Actor.
1955 Alexander Viktorovich BUBNOV
Football player, defender of Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Moscow and USSR national team.
1956 Evgeny Alexeevich PANFILOV
(13.7.2002)
ballet master and leader of Evgeny Panfilov Ballet (Perm).
1956 Sergey SUKHORUCHENKOV
Bicycle racer, 1980 Olympic gold medalist in a group race, winner of the Peace Bicycle Race of 1979.
Deaths
1706 Fyodor Alexeevich GOLOVIN
(1650)
count, diplomat and a close associate of Peter I.
1745 Grigory Petrovich CHERNYSHEV
(31.1.1672)
military leader, statesman, count and an associate of Peter I. He took part in Azov campaign, distinguished himself in battles of the Great Northern War (1700-1721), he was governor of Azov, Livonia and Moscow government.
1748 Vasily Anikitovich REPNIN
(1696)
prince, general-feldzeichmeister and Great Chamberlain. His father Anikita Ivanovich was Field Marshall General under Peter I, his son Nikolay became Field Marshall in the times of Catherine II.
1807 Mikhail Nikitovich MURAVYEV
(5.11.1757)
senator, public figure and writer. He was the tutor of the future Emperor Alexander I and his brother Konstantin, curator of the Moscow University where the Society of History and Antiquities in his times. Both of his sons, Nikita and Alexander, became participants of the Decembrist revolt. Contemporaries appreciated him as a writer and poet giving a credit to his humanities.
1970 Nikolay Robertovich ERDMAN
(16.11.1900 or 1902)
playwright (Mandate, Suicide), screenwriter (Jolly Fellows, Volga-Volga, The Bold , Fire, Water and Copper Pipes).
1984 Anatoly Mikhailovich AKIMOV
(6 or 7.4.1915)
football player, goalkeeper, two-times champion of the USSR in Spartak FC and Honored Master of Sports.
2001 Stanislav Iosifovich Rostotsky
(21.4.1922)
cinema director (Make It to Monday, Dawns Are Quiet Here, White Bim Black Ear).
