A day to remember: (January 31st) In History.

314 – Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.
1504 – France cedes Naples to Aragon.
1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.
1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1814 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1848 – John C. Fremont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.


1849 – Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846).
1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University.
1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, submitting it to the states for ratification.
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

1867 – Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board a French ship bound for Algeria
1876 – The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.



1891 – The first attempt at a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion
1915 – World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russia
1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.
1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
1919 – The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.

1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

1942 – World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to the island of Singapore.
1943 – German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II's fiercest battles.
1944 – World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 – World War II: During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.



1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1945 – World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.
1946 – Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.
1957 – Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1958 – Explorer program: Explorer 1 – The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1958 – James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
1968 – Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
1968 – Nauru gains independence from Australia.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 – Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.
1971 – The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan.
1990 – The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
1995 – President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
1996 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
1996 – Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
2000 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash: An MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 aboard.
2001 – In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2003 – The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.
2009 – In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo, days after a massive fire at a Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi killed at least 25 people.

Births

• 36 BC – Antonia Minor, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor (d. 38 AD)
• 877 – Taejo of Goryeo of Korea (d. 943)
• 1512 – King Henry of Portugal (d. 1580)
• 1543 – Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun of Japan (d. 1616)
• 1550 – Henry I, Duke of Guise (d. 1588)
• 1597 – John Francis Regis, French saint (d. 1640)
• 1624 – Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher (d. 1669)
• 1673 – Louis de Montfort, French catholic priest and saint (d. 1716)
• 1686 – Hans Egede, Norwegian Lutheran missionary (d. 1758)
• 1752 – Gouverneur Morris, American lawmaker and diplomat (d. 1816)
• 1759 – François Devienne, French composer (d. 1803)
• 1797 – Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (d. 1828)
• 1820 – William B. Washburn, American politician and 28th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1887)
• 1825 – Miska Magyarics, Slovene poet in Hungary (d. 1883)
• 1835 – King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawaiʻi (d. 1874)
• 1857 – George Jackson Churchward, British railroad engineer. (d. 1933)
• 1865 – Henri Desgrange, French sports figure and journalist (d. 1940)
• 1865 – Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1951)
• 1868 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1928)
• 1872 – Zane Grey, American novelist (d. 1939)
• 1881 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
• 1884 – Theodor Heuss, German statesman (d. 1963)
• 1889 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (d. 1958)
• 1892 – Eddie Cantor, American actor and singer (d. 1964)
• 1894 – Isham Jones, American musician (d. 1956)
• 1896 – Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 1966)
• 1902 –Nat Bailey, Canadian restaurateur (d. 1978)
• 1902 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
• 1902 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)
• 1905 – John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)
• 1911 – Eddie Byrne, British actor (d. 1981)
• 1913 – Don Hutson, American football player (d. 1997)
• 1914 – Carey Loftin, American actor and stuntman (d. 1997)
• 1914 – Faye Wright, American spiritual figure (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (d. 1994)
• 1915 – Alan Lomax, American musicologist (d. 2002)
• 1915 – Thomas Merton, American author and monk (d. 1968)
• 1915 – Garry Moore, American comedian (d. 1993)
• 1919 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player (d. 1972)
• 1920 – Stewart Udall, American politician and 37th United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 2010)
• 1920 – Bert Williams, English footballer
• 1921 – John Agar, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1921 – Carol Channing, American actress and singer
• 1921 – E. Fay Jones, American architect (d. 2004)
• 1921 – Mario Lanza, American singer (d. 1959)
• 1922 – Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Norman Mailer, American writer and journalist (d. 2007)
• 1925 – Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights activist (d. 2010)
• 1926 – Tom Alston, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1927 – Norm Prescott, American animation producer (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Chuck Willis, American singer and songwriter (d. 1958)
• 1929 – Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1929 – Jean Simmons, English American actress (d. 2010)
• 1930 – Joakim Bonnier, Swedish race car driver (d. 1972)
• 1930 – Lynn Carlin, American actress
• 1931 – Ernie Banks, American baseball player
• 1931 – Christopher Chataway, English athlete, newscaster and politician
• 1933 – Camille Henry, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1997)
• 1933 – Bernardo Provenzano, Sicilian organized crime figure
• 1934 – James Franciscus, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1934 – Bob Turner, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
• 1935 – Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer, Nobel laureate
• 1937 – Regimantas Adomaitis, Lithuanian actor
• 1937 – Andrée Boucher, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
• 1937 – Philip Glass, American composer
• 1937 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)
• 1938 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
• 1938 – James G. Watt, American politician and 43rd United States Secretary of the Interior
• 1939 – Claude Gauthier, Canadian singer and songwriter
• 1940 – Kitch Christie, South African rugby union coach (d. 1998)
• 1941 – Richard A. Gephardt, American politician
• 1941 – Gerald McDermott, American filmmaker, children’s book author & illustrator
• 1941 – Jessica Walter, American actress
• 1942 – Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress
• 1942 – Derek Jarman, British director and writer (d. 1994)
• 1944 – Connie Booth, American writer and actress
• 1944 – Charlie Musselwhite, American musician
• 1945 – Joseph Kosuth, American conceptual artist
• 1946 – Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (d. 1978)
• 1946 – Glynn Turman, American actor
• 1947 – Jonathan Banks, American actor
• 1947 – Elena Nathanael, Greek actress (d. 2008)
• 1947 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player
• 1948 – Volkmar Groß, German footballer
• 1948 – Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician
• 1949 – Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist
• 1949 – Norris Church Mailer, American model and widow of Norman Mailer (d. 2010)
• 1949 – Ken Wilber, American author
• 1950 – Alexander Korzhakov, Soviet bodyguard for Boris Yeltsin
• 1951 – Dave Benton, Aruban singer
• 1951 – Harry Wayne Casey, American singer and musician (KC and the Sunshine Band)
• 1951 – Phil Manzanera, English guitarist (Roxy Music, Quiet Sun, 801)
• 1952 – Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (d. 1969)
• 1954 – Adrian Vandenberg, Dutch musician (Whitesnake)
• 1956 – John Lydon, English singer (Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd.)
• 1957 – Shirley Babashoff, American swimmer
• 1959 – Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor
• 1959 – Kelly Lynch, American actress
• 1959 – Kelly Moore, American stock car driver
• 1960 – Grant Morrison, British comic author
• 1960 – Akbar Ganji, Iranian dissident journalist
• 1961 – Lloyd Cole, British singer
• 1962 – Sophie Muller, British music video director
• 1964 – Sylvie Bernier, French-Canadian diver
• 1964 – Jeff Hanneman, American musician (Slayer)
• 1964 – Martha MacCallum, American news anchor
• 1964 – Billey Shamrock, Swedish singer
• 1966 – Dr Umar Alisha, Indian Sufi master
• 1966 – Dexter Fletcher, English actor
• 1967 – Chad Channing, American musician
• 1967 – Fat Mike, American musician
• 1967 – Irene Wan, Hong Kong actress
• 1967 – Joey Wong, Taiwanese actress
• 1967 – Jason Cooper, English musician (The Cure)
• 1968 – Matt King, British actor and comedian
• 1968 – Patrick Stevens, Belgian athlete
• 1970 – Minnie Driver, British actress
• 1970 – Danny Michel, Canadian Musician
• 1971 – Lee Young Ae, South Korean actress
• 1971 – Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian
• 1971 – Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer
• 1971 – Patricia Velásquez, Venezuelan actress and model
• 1973 – Portia de Rossi, Australian actress
• 1974 – Wil Anderson, Australian comedian
• 1974 – Othella Harrington, American basketball player
• 1974 – Ariel Pestano, Cuban baseball player
• 1975 – Fred Coleman, American football player
• 1975 – Jackie O, Australian radio host
• 1975 – Preity Zinta, Indian actress
• 1976 – Traianos Dellas, Greek footballer
• 1976 – Tyrone Nesby, American basketball player
• 1976 – Buddy Rice, American race car driver
• 1976 – Paul Scheer, American comedian and actor
• 1977 – Mark Dutiaume, Canadian hockey player
• 1977 – Shingo Katori, Japanese actor and singer (SMAP)
• 1977 – Jim Kleinsasser, American football player
• 1977 – Bobby Moynihan, American comedian (Saturday Night Live)
• 1977 – Kate Shindle, American actress
• 1977 – Kerry Washington, American actress
• 1978 – Fabián Caballero, Argentine footballer
• 1978 – Brad Rutter, American game show contestant
• 1978 – Ray Shah, Irish radio presenter
• 1978 – Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, English noble
• 1979 – Daniel Tammet, British savant and author
• 1980 – James Adomian, American actor
• 1980 – Tiffany Limos, American actress
• 1981 – Julio Arca, Argentinian football player
• 1981 – Amrita Arora, Indian actress
• 1981 – Justin Timberlake, American singer
• 1982 – Yuniesky Betancourt, Cuban baseball player
• 1982 – Andreas Görlitz, German football player
• 1982 – Salvatore Masiello, Italian footballer
• 1982 – Allan McGregor, Scottish football player
• 1982 – Bruno Nogueira, Portuguese actor, comedian and TV host
• 1982 – Elena Paparizou, Greek singer
• 1982 – Jānis Sprukts, Latvian hockey player
• 1982 – Brad Thompson, American baseball player
• 1983 – James Sutton, British actor
• 1983 – Fabio Quagliarella, Italian footballer
• 1983 – Tom Vangeneugden, Belgian swimmer
• 1984 – Vernon Davis, American football player
• 1984 – Jeremy Wariner, American track and field athlete
• 1984 – Alessandro Zanni, Italian rugby player
• 1985 – Adam Federici, Australian footballer
• 1985 – Kalomira, Greek singer
• 1985 – Mario Williams, American football player
• 1986 – Yves Makabu-Makalambay, Belgian footballer
• 1987 – Sargon Duran, Austrian footballer
• 1987 – Kenny McKinley, American football player (d. 2010)
• 1987 – Raúl Richter, German actor
• 1988 – Justine Ozga, German tennis player
• 1990 – Nicolò De Cesare, Italian footballer
• 1990 – Jacopo Fortunato, Italian footballer
• 1990 – Kota Yabu, Japanese actor and singer
• 1992 – Tyler Seguin, Canadian hockey player
• 1996 – Joel Courtney, American film actor

Deaths

• 1398 – Emperor Sukō (b. 1334)
• 1435 – Emperor Xuande of China (b. 1398)
• 1561 – Bairam Khan, Great Mughal General, regent for Akbar
• 1561 – Menno Simons, Dutch Mennonite leader (b. 1496)
• 1580 – King Henry of Portugal (b. 1512)
• 1606 – Guy Fawkes – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (b. 1570)
• 1606 – Ambrose Rokewood – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (b. c.1578)
• 1606 – Thomas Wintour – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (b. 1571)
• 1615 – Claudio Aquaviva, Italian Jesuit (b. 1543)
• 1632 – Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (b. 1552)
• 1665 – Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (b. 1622)
• 1686 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist (b. 1604)
• 1720 – Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councillor (b. c. 1654)
• 1729 – Jakob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)
• 1736 – Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect (b. 1678)
• 1788 – Charles Edward Stuart, the exiled Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1720)
• 1790 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (b. 1718)
• 1794 – Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
• 1811 – Manuel Alberti, Argentine priest and head of state (b. 1763)
• 1815 – José Félix Ribas, Venezuelan independentist leader (b. 1775)
• 1828 – Alexander Ypsilantis, Phanariot Greek military commander and national hero of the Greek War of Independence (b. 1792)
• 1836 – John Cheyne (physician), British physician, surgeon and author (b. 1777)
• 1844 – Henri Gratien, Comte Bertrand, French general (b. 1773)
• 1856 – Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (b. 1838)
• 1888 – John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator, founder of the Salesian Society (b. 1815)
• 1892 – Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist (b. 1834)
• 1907 – Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)
• 1923 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (b. 1869)
• 1933 – John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1867)
• 1942 – Henry Larkin, American baseball player (b. 1860)
• 1942 – Rolf Wenkhaus, German actor (b. 1917)
• 1944 – Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
• 1945 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (b. 1920)
• 1954 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer and inventor of the FM radio (b. 1890)
• 1955 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
• 1956 – A. A. Milne, English author (b. 1882)
• 1966 – General Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army Officer (b. 1887)
• 1967 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (b. 1908)
• 1969 – Meher Baba, Indian guru (b. 1894)
• 1970 – Slim Harpo, American singer (b. 1924)
• 1971 – Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky, Russian literary historian, linguist (b. 1891)
• 1973 – Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel laureate (b. 1895)
• 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn, Polish-born film studio executive (b. 1882)
• 1976 – Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (b. 1941)
• 1976 – Evert Taube, Swedish author and composer (b. 1890)
• 1981 – Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (b. 1909)
• 1987 – Yves Allégret, French film director (b. 1907)
• 1989 – Sir William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond. (b. 1896)
• 1990 – Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (b. 1935)
• 1995 – George Abbott, American stage director and producer (b. 1887)
• 1997 – John Joseph Scanlan, Irish Catholic prelate (b. 1930)
• 1999 – Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1938)
• 1999 – Barış Manço, Turkish singer, composer, television producer and celebrity. (b. 1943)
• 1999 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)
• 2000 – Gil Kane, Latvian-born comic book writer (b. 1926)
• 2001 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)
• 2002 – Francis Gabreski, American, fighter pilot ace (b. 1919)
• 2004 – Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (b. 1913)
• 2006 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (The Red Shoes) and ballerina (b. 1926)
• 2007 – Kirill "Kirka" Babitzin, Finnish singer (b. 1950)
• 2007 – Lee Bergere, American actor (b. 1924)
• 2007 – Molly Ivins, American political columnist and author (b. 1944)
• 2007 – Adelaide Tambo, South African activist, widow of Oliver Tambo (b. 1929)
• 2008 – Zeltim Odie Peterson, famous pug dog (b. 1997)
• 2009 – Nagesh, Indian comedian actor in Kollywood (b. 1933)
• 2011 – Mark Ryan, 51, British musician (Adam and the Ants) (b. 1959)
• 2011 – Eunice Sanborn, 114, American supercentenarian, world's oldest living person at time of her death (b. 1896)