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 Mossbauer, 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 - Hansjorg 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 author
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 Gorlitz, 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 Burgi, 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 - Jose Felix 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 - Jose 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