January 31



Events

Up to 1900 
 314 - Silvester I becomes Pope.
 1504 – France cedes Naples to Aragon.
 1542 - Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first European to reach Iguazu Falls on the present-day border between Argentina and Brazil.
 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 Dock Hospital.
 1801 - John Marshall becomes Chief Justice of the United States.
 1814 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
 1846 - The city of Milwaukee is formed.
 1849 – The Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom.
 1862 - Alvan Graham Clark discovers white dwarf star Sirius B.
 1865 - American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, banning slavery.
 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
 1867 – Maronite nationalist leader Karam leaves Lebanon on board a French ship 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 city of Porto.
 1892 - At Holmenkollen, Oslo, the first ski jumping competition takes place. Norwegian Arne Ustvedt wins with at 21.5-meter jump.

1901  1950 
 1906 - A magnitude 8.8 earthquake hits Colombia and Ecuador, killing over 1,000 people.
 1915 – World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
 1917 – World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
 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 - Battle of George Square in Glasgow.
 1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
 1930 – 3M markets Scotch Tape.
 1930 - The fourth world championship in ice hockey begins in Chamonix, France.
 1936 – The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
 1942 - World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese in the Battle of Malaya.
 1943 - World War II: German field marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed two days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of the war's fiercest battles.
 1944 – World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
 1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
 1946 – Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
 1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1951  2000 
 1953 - 133 people are killed in the MV Princess Victoria ferry disaster in the Irish Sea between Belfast, Northern Ireland and Stranraer, Scotland.
 1953 - More than 2,000 people die in a storm flood on the North Sea coasts of the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom in the night to February 1.
 1956 – Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
 1957 - 8 people on the ground in Pacoima, California, are killed following a mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
 1958 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit.
 1958 – James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
 1961 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
 1966 - The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft.
 1968 – The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam attacks the United States embassy in Saigon.
 1968 – Nauru declares independence from Australia.
 1971 – Apollo program: Astronauts aboard Apollo 14 lift off for a mission to 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.
 1980 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands announces that she will leave the throne on April 30 (her birthday) of the same year, becoming the second Dutch Queen in a row to do so. Her crown passes to her daughter, Beatrix of the Netherlands.
 1988 – Super Bowl XXII: The Washington Redskins win their second championship of the 1980s, 42-10.
 1990 – The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, Russia.
 1993 – Super Bowl XXVII: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Buffalo Bills, 52-17.
 1994 - The opera house Gran Teatru Liceu in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, is destroyed by fire.
 1995 – President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
 1996 - The comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
 1996 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
 1999 – Super Bowl XXXIII: The Denver Broncos defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-19. After the game, Family Guy aired its pilot episode.
 2000 – An Alaska Airlines MD-83 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Malibu, California killing 131.

From 2001 
 2001 – In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
 2002 - The Larsen B Ice Shelf breaks off of Antarctica.
 2004 – Mystery Science Theater 3000 ends its run on the Sci-Fi Channel.
 2009 - In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and more than 200 are injured after an oil spill caught fire in Molo.
 2010 - Avatar becomes the first movie to make $2 billion worldwide.
 2011 - January 31 – February 2, 2011 North American winter storm.
 2013 - An explosion at the Pernex Executive Tower in Mexico City kills at least 33 people and injures at least 100.
 2015 - The Australia national football team wins the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, defeating the South Korea national football team 2-1 in extra time, on home soil. This is their first tournament victory since joining the Asian Federation in 2006.
 2016 - Bomb attacks in Damascus, Syria, kill at least 60 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 36 BC - Antonia Minor, daughter of Mary Antony and Octavia Minor (d. 38)
 877 - Taejo of Goryeo of Korea (d. 943)
 1512 – King Henry of Portugal (d. 1580)
 1543 – Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shogun (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)
 1707 - Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1751)
 1752 - Gouverneur Morris, American lawmaker and diplomat (d. 1816)
 1759 - Francois Devienne, French composer (d. 1803)
 1762 – Lachlan Macquarie, Scottish Governor of New South Wales (d. 1824)
 1797 – Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (d. 1828)
 1813 - Agostino Depretis, Italian statesman (d. 1887)
 1815 - Pedro Diez Canseco, Interim President of Peru (d. 1893)
 1820 - William D. Washburn, 28th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1887)
 1830 - James G. Blaine, American politician (d. 1893)
 1830 - Henri Rochefort, French writer, journalist and politician (d. 1913)
 1835 – William Charles Lunalilo, King of Hawaii (d. 1874)
 1854 - David Emmanuel, Romanian mathematician (d. 1941)
 1857 - George Jackson Churchward, English railway engineer (d. 1933)
 1865 - Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1951)
 1865 – Henri Desgrange, French sports figure and journalist (d. 1940)
 1868 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist (d. 1928)
 1872 – Zane Grey, American novelist (d. 1939)
 1873 – Melitta Bentz, German entrepreneur and inventor of the coffee filter (d. 1950)
 1881 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist (d. 1957)
 1883 - Oskar von Hindenburg, German general (d. 1960)
 1884 - Nathaniel Moore, American golfer (d. 1910)
 1884 – Theodor Heuss, first President of the Federal Republic of Germany (d. 1963)
 1884 - Hammad Amin Rasulzade, Azerbaijani statesman (d. 1955)
 1892 – Eddie Cantor, American actor and singer (d. 1964)
 1894 - Isham Jones, American saxophonist, composer and bandleader (d. 1956)
 1896 - Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 1966)
 1897 - Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (d. 1930)

1901  1925 
 1902 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician and diplomat (d. 1986)
 1902 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
 1905 – John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)
 1905 - Diana Napier, British actress (d. 1982)
 1906 - Roosevelt Sykes, American blues pianist (d. 1983)
 1908 - Atahualpa Yupanqui, Argentine singer (d. 1992)
 1909 - Miron Grindea, Romanian literary journalist and editor (d. 1995)
 1910 - Giorgio Perlasca, Italian businessman and humanitarian (d. 1992)
 1911 - Eddie Byrne, British actor (d. 1981)
 1911 - Baba Vanga, Bulgarian mystic (d. 1996)
 1913 – Walter Winterbottom, English football manager (d. 2002)
 1913 - Don Hutson, American football player (d. 1997)
 1915 - Garry Moore, American entertainer, game show host and comedian (d. 1993)
 1915 - Bobby Hackett, American cornetist and bandleader (d. 1976)
 1916 - Sangoule Lamizana, 1st President of Burkina Faso (d. 2005)
 1916 - Frank Parker, American tennis player (d. 1997)
 1917 - Fred Bassetti, American architect (d. 2013)
 1917 - Jini Dellaccio, American photographer (d. 2014)
 1919 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player (d. 1972)
 1920 – Stewart Udall, American politician (d. 2010)
 1920 – Bert Williams, English footballer (d. 2014)
 1921 – Carol Channing, American actress and singer
 1921 – Mario Lanza, American singer (d. 1959)
 1921 - John Agar, American actor (d. 2002)
 1922 - Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)
 1923 – Norman Mailer, American writer (d. 2007)
 1924 - Tengiz Abuladze, Georgian movie director (d. 1994)

1926  1950 
 1929 – Jean Simmons, British actress (d. 2010)
 1929 - Anatol Hrytskievich, Belarussian historian (d. 2015)
 1929 – Rudolf Mössbauer, German Nobel Prize-winning physicist (d. 2011)
 1931 - Christopher Chataway, British athlete, broadcaster and politician (d. 2014)
 1931 - Ernie Banks, American baseball player (d. 2015)
 1931 - Hansjörg Felmy, German actor (d. 2007)
 1933 - Camille Henry, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1997)
 1933 – Bernardo Provenzano, Italian crime boss (d. 2016)
 1934 - Ernesto Brambilla, Italian motorcycle racer and racing driver
 1934 - Bob Turner, Canadian ice hockey player
 1935 – Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer
 1937 – Philip Glass, American composer
 1937 - Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)
 1938 – Beatrix, former Queen of the Netherlands
 1938 - Lynn Carlin, American actress
 1938 - James G. Watt, American politician
 1939 - Romualdas Ozolas, Lithuanian politician (d. 2015)
 1941 - Richard Gephardt, American politician
 1941 - Charlie Musselwhite, American blues musician
 1941 - Jessica Walter, American actress
 1941 – Eugene Terre'Blanche, South African far-right politician (d. 2010)
 1942 - Derek Jarman, British director and writer
 1944 - Connie Booth, American writer and actress
 1946 - Bobby Windsor, Welsh rugby player
 1947 - Nolan Ryan, American baseball player
 1949 - Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist
 1949 - Ken Wilber, American sociologist, philosopher and writer

1951  1975 
 1951 - Harry Wayne Casey, American singer and musician
 1951 - Juan de Dios Castillo, Mexican footballer and manager (d. 2014)
 1951 - Phil Manzanera, British guitarist
 1954 - Adrian Vandenberg, Dutch musician
 1954 - Mark Slavin, Israeli wrestler (d. 1972)
 1956 – John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, British singer
 1956 - Artur Mas, Catalan politician
 1959 – Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor
 1960 – George Benjamin, British conductor and composer
 1960 - Zeljko Sturanovic, Prime Minister of Montenegro (d. 2014)
 1961 - Fatou Bensouda, Gambian lawyer
 1961 - Lloyd Cole, British singer
 1962 - Sophie Muller, British music video director
 1963 – John Dye, American actor (d. 2011)
 1964 – Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist (d. 2013)
 1964 - Dawn Prince-Hughes, American anthropologist
 1966 - Dexter Fletcher, English actor
 1966 - Jorge Gonzalez, Argentine basketball player and wrestler (d. 2010)
 1967 – Jason Cooper, English musician
 1967 – Chad Channing, American musician
 1967 - Fat Mike, American musician
 1970 – Minnie Driver, British actress
 1971 – Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian
 1971 - Lee Young-ae, South Korean actress
 1973 – Portia de Rossi, Australian actress
 1975 - Jackie O, Australian radio host

From 1976 
 1976 – Traianos Dellas, Greek footballer
 1977 - Mark Dutiaume, Canadian ice hockey player
 1977 - Eddie Gustafsson, Swedish footballer
 1977 - Bobby Moynihan, American actor and comedian
 1977 - Sergei Pareiko, Estonian footballer
 1977 - Kate Shindle, American actress
 1977 – Kerry Washington, American actress
 1978 - Fabian Caballero, Argentine footballer
 1978 - Brad Rutter, American game show contestant
 1979 – Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant
 1979 - Felix Sturm, German boxer
 1979 - Brahim Asloum, French boxer
 1980 - Jurica Vranjes, Croatian footballer
 1981 – Julio Arca, Argentine footballer
 1981 – Justin Timberlake, American singer
 1982 – Allan McGregor, Scottish footballer
 1982 – Elena Paparizou, Greek singer
 1982 - Janis Sprukts, Latvian ice hockey player
 1982 - Brad Thompson, American baseball player
 1982 - Andreas Görlitz, German footballer
 1983 – Fabio Quagliarella, Italian footballer
 1984 - Alessandro Zanni, Italian rugby player
 1984 - Jeremy Wariner, American athlete
 1985 – Adam Federici, Australian footballer
 1985 – Christophe Berra, Scottish footballer
 1985 - Laura Bechtolsheimer, German-born British equestrian
 1985 - Mario Williams, American football player
 1986 – Yves Makabu-Makalambay, Belgian footballer
 1986 - Pauline Parmentier, French tennis player
 1987 - Marcus Mumford, English musician (Mumford and Sons)
 1988 - Sidney Sam, German footballer
 1990 - Kota Yabu, Japanese actor and singer
 1990 - Cro, German singer and rapper
 1992 - Tyler Seguin, Canadian ice hockey player
 1995 - Nina Sublatti, Georgian singer
 1996 - Joel Courtney, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 743 – Muhammad al-Baqir, Shia Imam (b. 676)
 1216 - Theodore II Eirenikos, Patriarch of Constantinople
 1398 – Emperor Suko of Japan (b. 1334)
 1418 - Mircea the Elder, ruler of Wallachia (b. 1355)
 1435 – Xuande, Emperor of China (b. 1398)
 1561 - Bairam Khan, Mughal general
 1561 – Menno Simons, Dutch Mennonite leader (b. 1496)
 1580 – King Henry of Portugal (b. 1512)
 1606 – Gunpowder Plot conspirators executed:
 Guy Fawkes (b. 1570)
 Ambrose Rokewood
 Thomas Wintour (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 councilor
 1729 – Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)
 1736 – Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (b. 1678)
 1788 – Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (b. 1720)
 1790 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (b. 1718)
 1794 – Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
 1811 - Manuel Alberti, Head of State of Argentina (b. 1763)
 1815 - José Félix Ribas, Venezuelan soldier (b. 1775)
 1828 - Alexander Ypsilantis, Greek national hero (b. 1792)
 1851 – David Spangler Kaufman, American politician (b. 1813)
 1856 – Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (b. 1838)
 1864 - Hamilton Rowan Gamble, 16th Governor of Missouri (b. 1798)
 1892 – Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist (b. 1834)

1901  2000 
 1907 – Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)
 1917 - Otto Finsch, German naturalist and explorer (b. 1839)
 1923 - Eligiusz Niewiadowski, Polish assassin (b. 1869)
 1933 – John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel Prize in Literature winner (b. 1867)
 1942 - Henry Larkin, American baseball player (b. 1860)
 1944 – Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
 1945 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (b. 1920)
 1954 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer (b. 1890)
 1955 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
 1956 – A. A. Milne, English writer (b. 1882)
 1961 - Krishna Sinha, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of India (b. 1887)
 1967 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (b. 1908)
 1970 – Slim Harpo, American singer (b. 1924)
 1972 – King Mahendra of Nepal (b. 1920)
 1973 – Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize in Economics winner (b. 1895)
 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn, movie producer (b. 1879)
 1976 – Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (b. 1941)
 1987 – Yves Allegret, French movie director (b. 1907)
 1989 - William Stephenson, Canadian soldier (b. 1896)
 1990 – Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (stabbed) (b. 1935)
 1992 – Willie Dixon, American musician (b. 1915)
 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 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)
 2000 – Gil Kane, Latvian-born comic book writer (b. 1926)

From 2001 
 2001 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)
 2004 – Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (b. 1913)
 2006 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and dancer (b. 1926)
 2011 – Eunice Sanborn, American supercentenarian (b. 1896)
 2012 – Dorothea Tanning, American painter (b. 1910)
 2012 - Mike Kelley, American artist and musician (b. 1954)
 2012 - Anthony Bevilacqua, American cardinal and Archbishop of Philadelphia (b. 1923)
 2013 - Hassan Habibi, 1st Vice president of Iran (b. 1937)
 2013 - Caleb Moore, American snowmobile racer (b. 1987)
 2014 - Miklos Jancso, Hungarian movie director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
 2014 - Abdirizak Haji Hussein, Prime Minister of Somalia (b. 1924)
 2014 - Nina Andrycz, Polish actress and poet (b. 1912)
 2014 - Christopher Jones, American actor (b. 1941)
 2015 - Richard von Weizsaecker, President of Germany (b. 1920)
 2015 - Kenji Goto, Japanese journalist and adventurer (b. 1967)
 2015 - José Manuel Lara Bosch, Spanish media executive (b. 1944)
 2015 - Lizabeth Scott, American actress (b. 1922)
 2015 - Udo Lattek, German footballer (b. 1935)
 2015 - Tomas Bulat, Argentine economist and journalist (b. 1964)
 2016 - Terry Wogan, Irish broadcaster (b. 1938)
 2016 - Mere Broughton, New Zealand Maori activist (b. 1936)
 2017 - Deke Leonard, Welsh rock guitarist (b. 1944)
 2017 - Frank Pellegrino, American actor (b. 1944)
 2017 - John Wetton, British singer-songwriter and bass guitarist (b. 1949)

Observances
 Independence Day (Nauru)
 Street Children's Day (Austria)

Days of the year