January 31: Day of the year

January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 334 days remaining until the end of the year (335 in leap years).

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.

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 Hawaiʻi (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

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)

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