20121776 Club

Phelps swims past a 48-year-old record; London gives him his 19th medal

The Baltimore swimmer, in his fourth Olympics, finishes the Games with 22 career medals in all.

Larisa Latynina's medal count had stood since 1964, untouched through eleven Olympiads. At the London Aquatics Centre, Michael Phelps, competing in his fourth Games, added to a tally he'd built in Athens and Beijing, pushing past the Soviet gymnast's 18 medals medals. He closed out the 2012 Olympics with four gold medals and two silver, bringing his career total to 22 medals overall, and beat Ryan Lochte along the way in the 200-meter individual medley on August 2. His last race in London, the 4x100-meter medley relay on August 4, ended in gold…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club

$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime

A nineteen-year-old Frenchman becomes a major general; Congress asks for no pay in return

Lafayette crossed an ocean against his king's wishes to join a war that was not his own.

1991

Bush and Gorbachev sign a treaty to cut the world's largest nuclear arsenals

Nine years of talks end with limits of 6,000 warheads and 1,600 missiles and bombers on each side.

17901776 Club

A Philadelphia potash maker becomes the first American to hold exclusive rights to an invention.

Read this as a member →

19481776 Club

The battleship that survived Pearl Harbor and an atomic blast could not survive its own Navy's target practice.

Read this as a member →

Read the full July 31 edition →Everything that happened on July 31 →

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

Phelps swims past a 48-year-old record; London gives him his 19th medal

This story is held for members.

A nineteen-year-old Frenchman becomes a major general; Congress asks for no pay in return

Bush and Gorbachev sign a treaty to cut the world's largest nuclear arsenals

Washington signs the nation's first patent, for a better way to make potash

Radioactive and unwanted, the Nevada finally goes down under naval gunfire

Apple's iPhone goes on sale; thousands who camped for days outside stores are first in line

Trump steps across the DMZ line; no sitting president has stood on North Korean soil before today

Atlantis clears the tower; the shuttle program's last mission is airborne

Atlantis lifts off with Quest airlock; station finally has its own door to open space

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.