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What Happened on January 31 in History

9 events that happened on January 31, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

Colonial America and the Revolution

  1. 1606 (Old Style date)

    Guy Fawkes dies on the scaffold in London for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.

    Fawkes had been caught guarding barrels of gunpowder beneath the Houses of Parliament in November 1605, part of a Catholic plot to kill King James I. Condemned to a traitor's death, he leapt from the scaffold and broke his neck moments before the sentence could be carried out.

    Source: history.com

The Young Republic and the Civil War Era

  1. 1865

    The House passes the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery and sends it to the states.

    After intense lobbying by President Lincoln, the House approved the amendment the Senate had passed in 1864. It was ratified in December 1865 and ended slavery throughout the United States.

    Source: archives.gov; history.com

The Early 1900s and the World Wars

  1. 1945

    Private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the only U.S. soldier put to death for it in World War II.

    Slovik was shot by a firing squad in France. He was the first American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War.

    Source: history.com

The Cold War

  1. 1950

    President Truman orders work to continue on the hydrogen bomb.

    Months after the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, Truman directed the Atomic Energy Commission to keep developing all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called superbomb. The first U.S. thermonuclear test followed in 1952.

    Source: trumanlibrary.gov; history.com

  2. 1953

    A North Sea storm surge breaks through dikes and floods the coast of the Netherlands.

    Storm-force winds and a spring tide drove the sea over coastal defenses during the night, swamping low-lying islands in the southwestern Netherlands. The deadly disaster led the Dutch to build the vast Delta Works to protect their coast.

    Source: science.nasa.gov

  3. 1958

    Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral.

    The Army and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent the small satellite into orbit after the Soviet Sputnik launches. Its cosmic ray detector led James Van Allen to discover the radiation belts that now bear his name.

    Source: science.nasa.gov; nasa.gov

  4. 1961

    Ham the chimpanzee rides a Mercury-Redstone rocket into space and returns safely.

    The three-year-old chimp performed trained tasks during the suborbital flight, which carried him more than 400 miles downrange and about 158 miles high. His safe return helped clear the way for American astronauts to follow.

    Source: nasa.gov

  5. 1971

    Apollo 14 lifts off for the Moon with Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell.

    The mission returned NASA to lunar exploration after the troubled Apollo 13 flight. Shepard and Mitchell landed in the Fra Mauro highlands, where Shepard famously hit golf balls.

    Source: nasa.gov; history.com

  6. 1988

    Doug Williams becomes the first Black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl.

    Williams led Washington from an early 10-0 deficit to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII in San Diego and was named the game's most valuable player.

    Source: history.com