SKC Films Library

SKC Films Library >> On This Day

On January 31st...

Links will open in a new window.

1338 King Charles V of France was born.

1504 France ceded Naples to King Ferdinand of Aragon.

1596 The Catholic League disbanded.

1719 Astronomer John Flamsteed died.

1747 The first venereal diseases clinic opened at London Lock Hospital in London, England.

1752 American statesman Gouverneur Morris was born.

1775 American General Richard Montgomery was killed during the Battle of Quebec.

1797 Composer Franz Schubert was born.

1830 American politician James G. Blaine was born.

1846 Juneautown and Kilbourntown merged to form the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1849 Corn laws were abolished in England.

1851 The San Francisco (California) Orphan's Asylum was founded.

1854 The Royal Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands was established.

1861 The State of Louisiana took over the U.S. Mint at New Orleans.

1863 The first black Civil War regiment, the South Carolina Volunteers, was mustered into the U.S. Army.

1864 George M. Dallas, U.S. Vice President Under James Knox Polk, died.

1865 The U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.
Robert E. Lee1865 General Robert E. Lee was named Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Armies.

1872 Author Zane Grey was born.

1876 The United States ordered all Native Americans onto reservations.

1884 German President Theodor Heuss was born.

1892 Singer Eddie Cantor was born.

1902 Actress Tallulah Bankhead was born.

1905 A. G. MacDonald became the first person to exceed 100 miles per hour in an automobile, at Daytona Beach, Florida.

1906 The Colombia-Ecuador border was struck by a magnitude 8.6 earthquake.

1915 Germany unleashed its first ever poison gas attack against Russian troops.
1915
TV personality Garry Moore was born.

1917 Germany announced that it would begin unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 A series of acidental collisions led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over 100 lives and damage to five British warships.

1919 Baseball player Jackie Robinson was born.

1920 Phi Beta Sigma fraternity was incorporated at Howard University.
1920 Stewart Udall, U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Interior, was born.

1921 Singer Carol Channing was born.
1921 Singer Mario Lanza was born.

1923 Author Norman Mailer was born.

1925 Benjamin Hooks, director of the NAACP, was born.

1927 The International Allied Military Command in Germany disbanded.

1929 Leon Trotsky was expelled from Russia.

1930 Scotch© Tape first went on sale.

1931 Baseball player Ernie Banks was born.

1937 Composer Philip Glass was born.
1937 Actress Suzanne Pleshette was born.

1938 Queen Beatrix I of the Netherlands was born.

1941 American politician Dick Gephardt was born.

1944 U.S. forces invaded Kwajalein Atoll.

1945 Soviet troops reached the Oder River, puttinh them within 50 miles of Berlin, Germany.
1945
Private Eddie Slovik became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.

1946Yugoslavia became a federal republic.

1947 Baseball player Nolan Ryan was born.

1948 The magnetic tape recorder was developed by Wireway.

1949 The first daytime "soap opera," These Are My Children, was broadcast on the NBC station in Chicago.

1950 U.S. President Harry Truman announced that he had authorized the creation of a hydrogen bomb.

1955 RCA demonstrated the first music synthesizer.
1955 John R. Mott, Protestant missionary statesman and influential part of the YMCA, died.

1956 Juscelino Kubitschek was inaugurated as President of Brazil.
1956
Rock musician Johnny Rotten was born.
1956 Alan Alexander Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh stories, died.

1957 A DC-7 crashed into a schoolyard in Pacoima, California, killing 8 persons.

1958 The United States launched the world's first scientific satellite, Explorer I.
1958 "Jackpot Bowling" premiered on NBC-TV.

1961 Jānio da Silva Quadros was inaugurated as Brazil's youngest President (age 44).
1961 Ham, a male chimpanzee, was recovered alive after being carried to an altitude of 155 miles aboard a space capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1961 The coalition government of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned.

1963 Actor John Dye was born.

1966 The Soviet Union launched Luna 9.

1968 Nauru became an independent republic.

1970 Actress Minnie Driver was born.

1971 Apollo XIV was launched.

1972 Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Devbecame King of Nepal.
1972 A military coup ousted the civilian government of Ghana.
1972 Baseball player Roberto Clemente died.

1974 Film and television producer Samuel Goldwyn died.

1976 Auto racer Buddy Rice was born.

1980 Police stormed the occupied Spanish embasst in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and killed 41 persons.

1981 Singer Justin Timberlake was born.

1983 The United Kingdom implemented a law requiring drivers and front seat passengers to wear seatbelts.

1984 Edwin Newman retired from NBC News.

1985 Singer Ricky Nelson was killed in a plane crash.

1988 A barge sank nearAnacortes, Washington, and spilled 70,000 gallons of oil.

1990 McDonald's opened its first Russian franchise, in Moscow.
1990 Matthew Perkins, founder of Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, died.

1997 Pianist Floyd Cramer died.

1999 "Family Guy" premiered on Fox-TV.

2000 An Alaska Airlines MD-83 crashed off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.
2000 Former U.S. Senator Alan Cranston died.

2006 Alan Greenspan retired as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

2009 An explosion caused by an oil spill killed at least 113 persons and injured over 200 others in Molo, Kenya.

2013 A train collision in Pretoria, South Africa, injured 300 persons.
2013 An explosion at Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, Mexico, killed 36 persons and injured 126.

2015 17-year-old Lydia Ko became the youngest golfer (male or female) to be ranked Number 1 in the world.

Questions or comments about this page?

SKC Films Library >> On This Day

This page was last updated on December 17, 2018.