http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 31, 1606: The death of Guy Fawkes
At Westminster in London, Guy Fawkes, a chief conspirator in the plot to blow up the British Parliament building, jumps to his death moments before his execution for treason.
On the eve of a general parliamentary session scheduled for November 5, 1605, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar of the Parliament building. Fawkes was detained and the premises thoroughly searched. Nearly two tons of gunpowder were found hidden within the cellar. In his interrogation, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy organized by Robert Catesby to annihilate England's entire Protestant government, including King James I. The king was to have attended Parliament on November 5.
Over the next few months, English authorities killed or captured all of the conspirators in the "Gunpowder Plot" but also arrested, tortured, or killed dozens of innocent English Catholics. After a brief trial, Guy Fawkes was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. On January 30, 1606, the gruesome public executions began in London, and on January 31 Fawkes was called to meet his fate. While climbing to the hanging platform, however, he jumped from the ladder and broke his neck, dying instantly.
In remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across Great Britain every year on the fifth of November. As dusk falls in the evening, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.
Jan 31, 1950: Truman announces development of H-bomb
U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.
Five months earlier, the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. Then, several weeks after that, British and U.S. intelligence came to the staggering conclusion that German-born Klaus Fuchs, a top-ranking scientist in the U.S. nuclear program, was a spy for the Soviet Union. These two events, and the fact that the Soviets now knew everything that the Americans did about how to build a hydrogen bomb, led Truman to approve massive funding for the superpower race to complete the world's first "superbomb," as he described it in his public announcement on January 31.
On November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated "Mike," the world's first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear device, built upon the Teller-Ulam principles of staged radiation implosion, instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide. The incredible explosive force of Mike was also apparent from the sheer magnitude of its mushroom cloud--within 90 seconds the mushroom cloud climbed to 57,000 feet and entered the stratosphere. One minute later, it reached 108,000 feet, eventually stabilizing at a ceiling of 120,000 feet. Half an hour after the test, the mushroom stretched 60 miles across, with the base of the head joining the stem at 45,000 feet.
Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion. Both superpowers were now in possession of the "hell bomb," as it was known by many Americans, and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history.
Jan 31, 1968: Viet Cong attack U.S. Embassy
As part of the Tet Offensive, Viet Cong soldiers attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. A 19-man suicide squad seized the U.S. Embassy and held it for six hours until an assault force of U.S. paratroopers landed by helicopter on the building's roof and routed them.
The offensive was launched on January 30, when communist forces attacked Saigon, Hue, five of six autonomous cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals, and 64 of 245 district capitals. The timing and magnitude of the attacks caught the South Vietnamese and American forces off guard, but eventually the Allied forces turned the tide. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the communists. By the end of March 1968, they had not achieved any of their objectives and had lost 32,000 soldiers and had 5,800 captured. U.S. forces suffered 3,895 dead; South Vietnamese losses were 4,954; non-U.S. allies lost 214. More than 14,300 South Vietnamese civilians died.
While the offensive was a crushing military defeat for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese, the early reporting of a smashing communist victory went largely uncorrected in the media and this led to a great psychological victory for the communists. The heavy U.S. casualties incurred during the offensive coupled with the disillusionment over the earlier overly optimistic reports of progress in the war accelerated the growing disenchantment with President Johnson's conduct of the war. Johnson, frustrated with his inability to reach a solution in Vietnam announced on March 31, 1968, that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of his party for re-election.
Jan 31, 1917: Germans unleash U-boats
On this day in 1917, Germany announces the renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic as German torpedo-armed submarines prepare to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sighted in war-zone waters.
When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America's closest trading partners and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter's attempted blockade of the British isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines and, in February 1915, Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American merchant vessel that was transporting grain to England when it disappeared. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized, calling the attack an unfortunate mistake.
The Germans' most formidable naval weapon was the U-boat, a submarine far more sophisticated than those built by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time. In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping.
In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement for the imminent sailing of the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner from New York to Liverpool. On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 were killed, including 128 Americans.
The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August 1915, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels, but in November sank an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany.
At the end of January 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare. Three days later, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany; just hours after that, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. None of the 25 Americans on board were killed and they were picked up later by a British steamer.
On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms-appropriations bill intended to ready the United States for war. Two days later, British authorities gave the U.S. ambassador to Britain a copy of what has become known as the "Zimmermann Note," a coded message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence, Zimmermann stated that, in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany would promise to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. On March 1, the U.S. State Department published the note and America was galvanized against Germany once and for all.
In late March, Germany sank four more U.S. merchant ships and, on April 2, President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. On April 4, the Senate voted 82 to six to declare war against Germany. Two days later, the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50 and America formally entered World War I.
Jan 31, 1865: House passes the 13th Amendment
On this day in 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
When the Civil War began, President Abraham Lincoln's professed goal was the restoration of the Union. But early in the war, the Union began keeping escaped slaves rather than returning them to their owners, so slavery essentially ended wherever the Union army was victorious. In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in areas that were still in rebellion against the Union. This measure opened the issue of what to do about slavery in border states that had not seceded or in areas that had been captured by the Union before the proclamation.
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support--some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was eradicated.
Jan 31, 1937: American composer Phillip Glass is born
Phillip Glass, a vital force in postmodern music, is born in Baltimore, Maryland, on this day in 1937.
The description most often used to describe the music of American composer Phillip Glass is "minimalist." While the entirety of Glass's body of work does not fit within the category, he is easily the most prominent of the early proponents of minimalist music—an experimental, avant-garde movement closely associated with New York's downtown art scene of the late 1960s. Glass' "serious" compositions within this vein have earned him recognition as one the most important American composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His numerous scores for both studio and art-house American films have exposed tens of millions of moviegoers to his hauntingly beautiful music.
Phillip Glass's musical education began at Julliard in the early 1960s, where he studied composition within a traditional paradigm, writing music in the vein of modern American composers like Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. He continued his education in Paris, where his creative awakening came not through his formal studies, but through his exposure to French New Wave cinema and his friendship with the Indian composer and sitar player Ravi Shankar. The association with Shankar opened Glass' ears to structural approaches in Indian music that informed his early, experimental work as a minimalist. It also inspired him to travel to India in 1966, where he began his lifelong involvement in Buddhism.
From the late 60s onward, Glass worked primarily from New York City, and primarily with his own Phillip Glass Ensemble. Perhaps the most widely known of Glass's work from this period is his "Music in Twelve Parts," a six-hour piece in the signature style of minimalism, featuring the slow transformation of repetitive motifs and structures. His opera "Einstein on the Beach" layered droning violins, woodwinds and electronic keyboards with spoken words and repetitive singing of numbers to powerful effect. In recent decades, Glass' most prominent work has been in film—the medium that helped involve him in the avant-garde in the first place. The documentary Koyaanisqatsi (1982), built entirely around silent footage and Glass's score, was his most prominent early film work, and in recent years, he has written Oscar-nominated scores for Kundun (1997), The Hours (2002) and Notes on a Scandal (2005) among numerous others.
Jan 31, 1988: Doug Williams leads Redskins to Super Bowl victory
On January 31, 1988, in San Diego, California, Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins becomes the first African-American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, scoring four of Washington’s five touchdowns in an upset 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.
Denver was favored to win the game, and they started strong, as star quarterback John Elway threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Nattiel on the team’s first play from scrimmage. Williams injured his knee shortly thereafter and was replaced for two plays by Jay Schroeder. By the beginning of the second quarter, the Broncos were ahead 10-0. All that changed, however, when Williams and the Redskins began to obliterate the Denver defense, scoring 35 points in the quarter, the most points ever for a single postseason quarter in National Football League (NFL) history.
The scoring onslaught began with Williams’ 80-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Sanders, which tied a record for longest pass in a Super Bowl game. Williams scored three more touchdowns in the period, finding Gary Clark with a 27-yard pass, hitting Sanders again for 50 yards and finishing with an eight-yard toss to Clint Didier. For the fifth score of the period, Williams handed off to the rookie running back Timmy Smith and Smith headed along the right sideline for 58 yards into the end zone. Sanders and Smith set their own Super Bowl records that day: Sanders for receiving (193 yards) and Smith for rushing (204 yards).
Denver never recovered, as the Redskins scored once more in the second half to put the final score at 42-10. Though he downplayed the race issue of his legacy, telling ABC’s Keith Jackson in a post-game interview that he "didn’t come to the Washington Redskins as a black quarterback," Williams made history in more ways than one in Super Bowl XXII. His four touchdowns in the first half tied the Super Bowl then-record for most touchdowns thrown in an entire game. Also in the first half, he passed for 306 yards, just 25 short of the Super Bowl record for an entire game. Williams broke the record--set by Joe Montana in Super Bowl XIX--in the third period.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
314 - St Silvester I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
876 - Charles becomes king of Italy
1504 - By treaty of Lyons, French cede Naples to Ferdinand
of Aragon
1531 - Kings Ferdinand of Austria/Janos Zapolyai of Hungary
accept each other
1578 - Battle of Gembloers
1596 - Catholic League disjoins
1609 - Wisselbank of Amsterdam established
1627 - Spanish government goes bankrupt
1675 - Cornelia/Dina Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft
1679 - Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera "Bellerophon,"
premieres in Paris
1696 - Revolt of undertakers after funeral reforms
(Amsterdam)
1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London
Lock Hospital.
1779 - Charles Messier adds M57 (Ring Nebula in Lyra) to his
catalog
1804 - British vice-admiral William Blighs fleet reaches
Curacao
1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director
of Argentina.
1817 - Franz Grillparzer's "Die Ahnfrau,"
premieres in Vienna
1846 - After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and
Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1849 - Corn Laws abolished in Britain
1851 - Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk
1851 - SF Orphan's Asylum, 1st in California, founded
1854 - Dutch KNMI established (Royal Meteorological
Institute)
1855 - Western railroads blocked by snow
1861 - Friedrich Hebbel's "Siegfrieds Tod,"
premieres in Weimar
1861 - State of Louisiana takes over US Mint at New Orleans
1862 - Telescope maker Alvin Clark discovers dwarf companion
of Sirius
1863 - 1st black Civil War regiment, SC Volunteers, mustered
into US army
1865 - Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in
America (121-24)
Confederate General Robert E. LeeConfederate General Robert
E. Lee 1865 - Gen Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies
1867 - Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves
Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
1871 - Millions of birds fly over western SF, darkens sky
1874 - Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill, Missouri
1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move
into reservations.
1891 - The first attempt of a Portuguese republican revolution
breakes out in the northern city of Porto.
1893 - "Westminster Gazette" begins publishing
1895 - Jose Martà & others leave NYC for invasion of
Spanish Cuba
1901 - Boer general John Smuts & De la Rey conqueror Mud
river Transvaal
1901 - Chekhov's "Three Sisters" opens at Moscow
Art Theater
1901 - Winnipeg Victorias sweep Montreal Shamrocks in 2 for
Stanley Cup
1904 - Bela Bartok's symphony "Kossuth," premieres
1905 - 1st auto to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald,
Daytona Beach
1905 - Carroll Wright appointed 1st US Commissioner of Labor
1906 - Strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake,
Colombia, 8.6 Richter
Outlaw Jesse JamesOutlaw Jesse James 1911 - Congress names
SF as Panama Canal opening celebration site
1915 - 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians
1916 - Dutch Girl Guides form
1917 - Germany notifies US that U-boats will attack neutral
merchant ship
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.
1920 - 1st Ukrainian daily newspaper in US (NYC) begins
publication
1920 - Joe Malone, Quebec Bulldogs, sets NHL record with 7
goals in a game
1920 - Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, at Howard University,
incorporates
1925 - Premier Ahmed Zogu becomes president of Angola
1927 - Intl allies military command in Germany disbands
1927 - NL Pres John Heydler rules Rogers Hornsby can't hold
stock in the Cardinals & play for the Giants
1928 - Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company
1929 - Erich Maria Remarque publishes "Im Westen nichts
Neues" in Berlin
1929 - Leon Trotsky expelled from Russia to Turkey
Russian Revolutionary Leon TrotskyRussian Revolutionary Leon
Trotsky 1930 - 1st US glider flight from a dirigible, Lakehurst, NJ
1931 - NHL's Quebec Bulldogs' Joseph Malone scores a record
7 goals
1931 - Philip Barry's "Tomorrow & Tomorrow,"
premieres in NYC
1932 - US railway unions accept 10% wage reduction
1933 - French government of Daladier takes power
1933 - Hitler promises parliamentary democracy
1934 - FDR devalus dollar in relation to gold at $35 per
ounce
1936 - "Green Hornet" radio show is 1st heard on
WXYZ Radio in Detroit
1940 - 40 U boats sunk this month (111,000 ton)
1940 - C Turney & J Horwin's "My Dear
Children," premieres in NYC
1941 - 21 U boats sunk this month (127,000 ton)
1941 - Anti-German demonstration in Haarlem Netherlands
1941 - Joe Louis KOs Red Burman in 5 for heavyweight boxing
title
1941 - Layforce set sail.
1942 - 62 U boats sunk this month (327,000 ton)
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943 - 39 U boats sunk this month (203,100 ton)
1943 - Chile breaks contact with Germany & Japan
1943 - Gen Friedrich von Paul surrenders to Russian troops
at Stalingrad
1944 - Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June
1944 - U-592 sunk off Ireland
1944 - US forces invade Kwajalein Atoll
1945 - US 4th Infantry division occupies Elcherrath
1946 - Yugoslavia adopts new constitution, becomes a federal
republic
1948 - J D Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Banana
Fish" appears in NY
1948 - Magnetic tape recorder developed by Wireway
1949 - 1st daytime soap on TV "These Are My
Children" (NBC in Chicago)
1950 - President Harry Truman publicly announces development
of H-bomb
1950 - Pres Harry Truman OKs building of hydrogen bomb
1952 - Dutch Lutheran Church reunites after 1½ centuries
1952 - Harry Heilmann & Paul Waner elected to Baseball
Hall of Fame
33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman
1953 - "Princess Victoria" capsized off Stanraer Scotland; 133 die
1953 - Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning 1,835
1953 - NY, Cleveland, & Boston retaliate at Bill Veeck,
forcing the Browns to play afternoon games to avoid sharing TV revenues
1955 - RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
1956 - French government of Mollet forms
1956 - Juscelino Kubitschek becomes president of Brazil
1956 - Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
1957 - Liz Taylor's 2nd divorce (Michael Wilding)
1957 - Trans-Iranian oil pipe line finished
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 - "Jackpot Bowling" premieres on NBC with Leo
Durocher as host
1958 - James van Allen discovers radiation belt
1958 - US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1
1959 - Joe Cronin signs 7 year pact to become head of AL
1961 - David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel
First Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-GurionFirst Israeli
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion 1961 - Ham is 1st primate in space (158 miles)
aboard Mercury/Redstone 2
1961 - Houston voters approve bond to finance luxury domed
stadium
1961 - Kanhai completes twin tons (117 & 115) v Aust at
Adelaide
1961 - NATO secretary-general Paul-Henri Spaak says he'll
resign
1961 - USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2
flights
1962 - Gen Charles P Cabell, USAF, ends term as deputy
director of CIA
1962 - Samuel Gravely assumes command of destroyer escort
"USS Falgout"
1963 - Tony Sheridan & Beat Brothers record "What'd
I Say" & "Ruby Baby"
1964 - US report "Smoking & Health" connects
smoking to lung cancer
1965 - Pud Galvin elected to baseball Hall of Fame
1966 - Belgian state police kills 2 striking mine workers
1966 - USSR launches Luna 9 towards Moon
1968 - Bobby Simpson takes 5-59 v India in his last Test for
ten years
1968 - Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) declares
independence from Australia
1968 - Record high barometric pressure (1083.8 mb,
32"), at Agata, USSR
Singer-songwriter Tony SheridanSinger-songwriter Tony
Sheridan 1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - Viet Cong's Tet offensive begins
1969 - Beatles perform last live gig (42-min concert on roof
of Apple HQs)
1969 - Vice Admiral Rufus L Taylor, USN, ends term as deputy
director of CIA
1970 - Grateful Dead members busted on LSD charges
1971 - "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hit #1
on UK pop chart
1971 - Apollo 14 launched, 1st landing in lunar highlands
1971 - Jake Beckley, Joe Kelley, Harry Hooper, Rube
Marquard, Chick Hafey
1971 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet
Lynn
1971 - US male Figure Skating championship won by John Misha
Petkevich
1971 - & Dave Bancroft & George Weiss elected to
baseball Hall of Fame
1972 - Aretha Franklin sings at Mahalia Jackson's funeral
1972 - Birenda, becomes leader of Nepal
1972 - Military coup ousts civilian government of Ghana
1972 - US launches HEOS A-2 for interplanetary observations
(396/244,998)
MacDonalds Entreprenuer Ray KrocMacDonalds Entreprenuer Ray
Kroc 1974 - McDonald's founder Ray Kroc buys San Diego Padres
1975 - Barry Manilow's "Mandy" goes gold
1975 - John Lennon releases "#9 Dream"
1975 - UCLA wins NCAA basketball championship
1976 - "Love Rollercoaster" by Ohio Players hits
#1
1976 - Lance Gibbs becomes highest Test wicket-taker at 308
1976 - 3rd American Music Award: Olivia Newton-John &
John Denver win
1977 - Frenchman Francois Claustre freed, after 33 months as
hostage in Chad
1977 - Joe Sewell, Amos Rusie, & Al Lopez elected to
baseball Hall of Fame
1977 - 4th American Music Award: Olivia Newton-John &
Elton John win
1978 - "Elvis: The Legend Lives!" opens at Palace
Theater NYC for 101 perfs
1978 - Israel turns 3 milt outposts in West Bank into
civilian settlements
1980 - Police storm occupied Spanish embassy in Guatemala
City, killing 41
1981 - "The Tide Is High" by Blondie hits #1
1981 - 38th Golden Globes: Ordinary People, Coal Miner's
Daughter
Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John
Lennon 1981 - Gaetan Boucher skates world record 1000m (1:13.39)
1982 - 10 Arabian oryx (extinct except in zoos) released in
Oman
1982 - 12th AFC-NFC pro bowl, AFC wins 16-13
1982 - 32nd NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 120-118 at
New Jersey
1982 - Gustafson skates world record 10 km (14:26.59)
1982 - Hollis Stacy wins LPGA Whirlpool Golf Championship of
Deer Creek
1982 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 16-13
1982 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott
Hamilton
1984 - 36th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 7-6 at NJ
1984 - Edwin Newman retires from NBC News after 35 years
with the network
1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 - "Harrigan 'n Hart" opens at Longacre
Theater NYC for 5 performances
1985 - South African president PW Botha offers to free
Mandela if he denounces violence
1986 - Mary Lund of Minn, is 1st female recipient of an
artificial heart
1987 - 44th Golden Globes: Platoon, Marlee Matlin win
Deaf Actress Marlee MatlinDeaf Actress Marlee Matlin 1987 -
United Steel workers union ratified a concessionary with USX Corp
1988 - Barge sinks near Anacortes, WA, spills 70,000 gallons
of oil
1988 - Super Bowl XXII: Wash Redskins beat Denver Broncos,
42-10 in San Diego Super Bowl MVP: Doug Williams, Washington, QB
1990 - 1st McDonalds in Russia opens in Moscow, world's
biggest McDonalds
1990 - 1st ever all-sports daily "National" begins
publishing
1990 - Jushin "Thunder" Liger beats Naoki Sano to
become New Japan IWGP champ
1990 - The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in
Moscow, USSR.
1991 - Nugget's Michael Adams becomes shortest NBAer to get
a triple-double
1991 - Robert Gibson flies record 27,040 feet altitude
1992 - MTA raised tolls on most NYC bridges from $2.50 to
$3.00
1993 - "St Joan" opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for
49 performances
1993 - 81st Australian Mens Tennis: Jim Courier beats S
Edberg (62 61 26 75)
1993 - Super Bowl XXVII: Dallas Cowboys beat Buffalo Bills,
52-17 in Pasadena Super Bowl MVP: Troy Aikman, Dallas, QB
1994 - Barcelona opera theater "Gran Teatro del
Liceo" burns down
1994 - Dow Jones hits a record 3,978.36
42nd US President Bill Clinton42nd US President Bill Clinton
1995 - President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to
stabilize its economy.
1998 - 72nd Australian Womens Tennis: Martina Hingis beats C
Martinez (63 63)
1998 - STS 89 (Endeavour 12) lands
2000 - Alaska Airlines flight 261 MD-83, experiencing
horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of
Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.
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.
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.
2010 - 52nd Grammy Awards: Use Somebody, Zac Brown Band wins
2010 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 41-34
2013 - 300 people are injured in a train collision in
Pretoria, South Africa
2013 - 36 people are killed and 126 are injured in an
explosion at Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, Mexico
1606 - Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I. 1747 - The first clinic specializing in the treatment of venereal diseases was opened at London Dock Hospital. 1858 - The Great Eastern, the five-funnelled steamship designed by Brunel, was launched at Millwall. 1865 - In America, General Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies. 1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ratified by the necessary number of states on December 6, 1865. The amendment abolished slavery in the United States. 1876 - All Native American Indians were ordered to move into reservations. 1893 - The trademark "Coca-Cola" was first registered in the United States Patent Office. 1917 - Germany announced its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. 1929 - The USSR exiled Leon Trotsky. He found asylum in Mexico. 1930 - U.S. Navy Lt. Ralph S. Barnaby became the first glider pilot to have his craft released from a dirigible, a large blimp, at Lakehurst, NJ. 1934 - Jim Londos defeated Joe Savoldi in a one-fall match in Chicago, IL. The crowd of 20,000 was one of the largest crowds to see a wrestling match. 1936 - The radio show "The Green Hornet" debuted. 1940 - The first Social Security check was issued by the U.S. Government. 1944 - During World War II, U.S. forces invaded Kwajalein Atoll and other areas of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. 1945 - Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the U.S. Civil War to be executed for desertion. 1946 - A new constitution in Yugoslavia created six constituent republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia) subordinated to a central authority, on the model of the USSR. 1949 - The first TV daytime soap opera was broadcast from NBC's station in Chicago, IL. It was "These Are My Children." 1950 - U.S. President Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb. 1958 - Explorer I was put into orbit around the earth. It was the first U.S. earth satellite. 1960 - Julie Andrews, Henry Fonda, Rex Harrison and Jackie Gleason, appeared in a two-hour TV special entitled "The Fabulous ’50s". 1971 - Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon. 1971 - Telephone service between East and West Berlin was re-established after 19 years. 1982 - Sandy Duncan gave her final performance as "Peter Pan" in Los Angeles, CA. She completed 956 performances without missing a show. 1983 - The wearing of seat belts in cars became compulsory in Britain. 1983 - JCPenney announced plans to spend in excess of $1 billion over the next five years to modernize stores and to accelerate a repositioning program. 1985 - The final Jeep rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Toledo, OH. 1990 - McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow, Russia. 1995 - U.S. President Clinton invoked presidential emergency authority to provide a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy. 1996 - In Columbo, Sri Lanka, a truck was rammed into the gates of the Central Bank. The truck filled with explosives killed at least 86 and injured 1,400. 2000 - John Rocker (Atlanta Braves) was suspended from major league baseball for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in an interview published by Sports Illustrated. 2000 - An Alaska Airlines jet crashed into the ocean off Southern California. All 88 people on board were killed. 2001 - A Scottish court in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that occurred in 1988. 2005 - Keanu Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1606 Guy Fawkes, a co-conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, was executed. 1865 Robert E. Lee was appointed commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces. 1865 The House of Representatives approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the United States. 1940 The first social security check was issued to Ida Fuller for $22.54. 1958 The first U.S. earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched. 1990 The first McDonald's opened in Russia.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jan31.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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