Today in World War II History—July 31, 1944

Aerial view of Florence, Italy, 1944 (US Army Center of Military History)

French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Toulouse, France, 1933 (public domain via Agence France-Presse)
75 Years Ago—July 31, 1944: Soviet Army reaches East Prussian border.
Germans destroy all bridges in Florence, Italy, except historic Ponte Vecchio, which could only handle foot traffic anyway.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, famed aviator and the author of The Little Prince, is killed when his P-38 Lightning (flying for the Free French) crashes into the Mediterranean off Marseille.