31 January
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31 January |
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| 1504 By treaty of Lyons, French cede Naples to Ferdinand of Aragon | ||
| 1531 Kings Ferdinand of Austria/J nos Z polyai of Hungary accept each other | ||
| 1560 Spanish king Philip II marries Elisabeth van Valois | ||
| 1578 Battle of Gembloers | ||
| 1606 Guy Fawkes, chief plotter in the attempt to blow up the British Houses of Parliament, was executed. | ||
| 1609 Wisselbank of Amsterdam established | ||
| 1627 Spanish government goes bankrupt | ||
| 1696 Revolt of undertakers after funeral reforms (Amsterdam) | ||
| 1779 Charles Messier adds M57 (Ring Nebula in Lyra) to his catalog | ||
| 1788 Bonnie Prince Charlie, leader of the Jacobite rebellion against the English (1745-46), died in Rome. Known as the "Young Pretender," his cause suffered a fatal blow with defeat at Culloden Moor in 1746. | ||
| 1849 Corn Laws abolished in Britain | ||
| 1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk | ||
| 1855 Western railroads blocked by snow | ||
| 1858 the Great Eastern steamship, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched at Millwall, London. | ||
| 1861 State of Louisiana takes over US Mint at New Orleans | ||
| 1862 Telescope maker Alvin Clark discovers dwarf companion of Sirius | ||
| 1865 Robert E. Lee was appointed commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces. | ||
| 1865 Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24) | ||
| 1874 Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill, Missouri | ||
| 1901 Boer general John Smuts & De la Rey conqueror Mud river Transvaal | ||
| 1906 Strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake, Colombia, 8.6 Richter | ||
| 1915 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians | ||
| 1917 Germany announced it was instituting a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. | ||
| 1918 In the Soviet Union, January 31 under the Julian Calendar system was the last day of its use. The next day would be February 14 under the Gregorian system, the dates in between being scrapped to correct the difference between the two. | ||
| 1920 1st Ukrainian daily newspaper in US (NYC) begins publication | ||
| 1925 Premier Ahmed Zogu becomes president of Angola | ||
| 1929 Leon Trotsky expelled from Soviet Union to Turkey | ||
| 1930 1st US glider flight from a dirigible, Lakehurst, NJ | ||
| 1930 Britain, U.S., France, Italy and Japan began the London Naval Conference, aimed at halting the arms race and preventing war. | ||
| 1933 French govt of Daladier takes power | ||
| 1933 Hitler promises parliamentary democracy | ||
| 1941 Anti-German demonstration in Haarlem Netherlands | ||
| 1943 Chile breaks contact with Germany & Japan | ||
| 1943 After a week of heavy fighting, German field marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrendered to the Russians 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 The constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was promulgated. | ||
| 1950 U.S. President Harry Truman announced he had ordered the development of the hydrogen bomb. | ||
| 1953 "Princess Victoria" capsized off Stanraer Scotland; 133 die | ||
| 1953 Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning 1,835 | ||
| 1956 French govt of Mollet forms | ||
| 1956 A.A. Milne, children's writer and author of the "Winnie the Pooh" stories, died. | ||
| 1956 Juscelino Kubitschek becomes president of Brazil | ||
| 1957 The Trans-Iranian pipeline from Abadan to Tehran was completed. | ||
| 1958 James van Allen discovers radiation belt | ||
| 1958 The first U.S. Earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched at Cape Canaveral | ||
| 1961 David Ben-Gurion resigns as premier of Israel | ||
| 1961 NATO secretary-general Paul-Henri Spaak says he'll resign | ||
| 1961 USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2 flights | ||
| 1962 The Organization of American States, meeting in Uruguay, adopted a resolution to expel Cuba. | ||
| 1966 USSR launches Luna 9 towards Moon | ||
| 1968 Nauru, jointly administered by Britain, Australia and New Zealand since World War I, became independent. | ||
| 1968 Viet Cong's Tet offensive begins | ||
| 1971 The three-man U.S. spacecraft Apollo 14 was launched to the moon. The astronauts landed on February 5 and made two moonwalks. | ||
| 1971 A limited telephone service was re-established between East and West Berlin for the first time in 19 years. | ||
| 1972 Birenda, becomes leader of Nepal | ||
| 1972 King Mahendra of Nepal (1955-72) died and was succeeded by his son, Birendra. | ||
| 1972 Military coup ousts civilian government of Ghana | ||
| 1974 Samuel Goldwyn, U.S. film producer and co-founder of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, or MGM, died. "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "Wuthering Heights" were among his notable productions. | ||
| 1980 Police storm occupied Spanish embassy in Guatemala City, killing 41 | ||
| 1980 In Guatemala, 35 people died when police stormed the Spanish embassy where peasants were holding the ambassador and other diplomats hostage. | ||
| 1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan offered to meet Soviet President Yuri Andropov to discuss a missile pact; the offer was rejected | ||
| 1988 Barge sinks near Anacortes, WA, spills 70,000 gallons of oil | ||
| 1988 The prime ministers of Greece and Turkey agreed on a "no war" agreement while meeting at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. | ||
| 1990 1st McDonalds in Russia opens in Moscow, world's biggest McDonalds | ||
| 1991 Saudi Arabia claimed the border town of Khafji had been captured from invading Iraqi forces. | ||
| 1992 Trans World Airlines Inc., or TWA, filed for bankruptcy protection. | ||
| 1994 Algerian Defense Minister Liamine Zeroual was sworn in as president. | ||
| 1994 German luxury car-maker BMW announced the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace, ending nearly a century of independent mass car production in Britain. |