January 31
Events
Pre-1600
- 314 - Pope Sylvester I is consecrated, as successor to the late Pope Miltiades.
- 1208 - The Battle of Lena takes place between King Sverker II of Sweden and his rival, Prince Eric, whose victory puts him on the throne as King Eric X of Sweden.
- 1266 - The Mudéjar of Murcia, who had rebelled against the Crown of Castile during the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, surrender the city to James I of Aragon after a siege lasting a month.
- 1504 - The Treaty of Lyon ends the Italian War, confirming French domination of northern Italy, while Spain receives the Kingdom of Naples.
- 1578 - Eighty Years' War and Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Gembloux is a victory for Spanish forces led by Don John of Austria over a rebel army of Dutch, Flemish, English, Scottish, German, French and Walloons.
1601–1900
- 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Four of the conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, are executed for treason by hanging, drawing and quartering, for plotting against Parliament and King James.
- 1609 - Wisselbank of Amsterdam established
- 1703 - Forty-seven rōnin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka.
- 1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
- 1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.
- 1846 - After the Milwaukee Bridge War, the United States towns of Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify to create the City of Milwaukee.
- 1848 - John C. Frémont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.
- 1862 - Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an telescope now located at Northwestern University.
- 1865 - American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief of all Confederate armies.
- 1891 - History of Portugal: The first attempt at a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
- 1900 - Datu Muhammad Salleh is killed in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion.
1901–present
- 1901 - Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters premieres at Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.
- 1915 - World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.
- 1917 - World War I: Kaiser Wilhelm II orders the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918 - A series of accidental collisions due to poor visibility leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
- 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The Suinula massacre, which changes the nature of the war in a more hostile direction, takes place in Kangasala.
- 1919 - The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, during a campaign for shorter working hours.
- 1928 - Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata.
- 1942 - World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to Singapore.
- 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.
- 1944 - World War II: During the Anzio campaign, the 1st Ranger Battalion is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
- 1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
- 1945 - World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken and executed.
- 1945 - World War II: The end of fighting in the Battle of Hill 170 during the Burma Campaign, in which the British 3 Commando Brigade repulsed a Japanese counterattack on their positions and precipitated a general retirement from the Arakan Peninsula.
- 1946 - Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics.
- 1946 - The Democratic Republic of Vietnam introduces the đồng to replace the French Indochinese piastre at par.
- 1949 - These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States.
- 1951 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 90 relating to the Korean War is adopted.
- 1953 - A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.
- 1957 - Eight people 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 - Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.
- 1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.
- 1966 - The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
- 1968 - Vietnam War: Viet Cong guerrillas attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
- 1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 14: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.
- 1971 - The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize alleged war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begins in Detroit.
- 1978 - The Crown of St. Stephen goes on public display after being returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.
- 1988 - Doug Williams becomes the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl and leads the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.
- 1996 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.
- 2000 - Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash: An MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 aboard.
- 2001 - In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
- 2001 - Two Japan Airlines planes nearly collide over Suruga Bay in Japan.
- 2003 - The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
- 2007 - Emergency officials in Boston mistakenly identify battery-powered LED placards depicting characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as Improvised explosive devices, causing a panic.
- 2009 - At least 113 people are killed in Kenya 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.
- 2019 - Abdullah of Pahang is sworn in as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- 2020 - The United Kingdom's membership within the European Union ceases in accordance with Article 50, after 47 years of being a member state.
- 2022 - Sue Gray, a senior civil servant in the United Kingdom, publishes an initial version of her report on the Downing Street Partygate controversy.
- 2023 - The last Boeing 747, the first wide-body airliner, is delivered to Atlas Air and operated for ApexLogistics. The aircraft was registered as N863GT and named "Empower".
- 2025 - Med Jets Flight 056 crashes near Roosevelt Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing 8 people and injuring 23.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1512 - Henry, King of Portugal
- 1543 - Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shōgun
- 1583 - Peter Bulkley, English and later American Puritan
- 1597 - John Francis Regis, French priest and saint
1601–1900
- 1607 - James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby
- 1624 - Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher and academic
- 1673 - Louis de Montfort, French priest and saint
- 1686 - Hans Egede, Norwegian missionary and explorer
- 1752 - Gouverneur Morris, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France
- 1759 - François Devienne, French flute player and composer
- 1769 - André-Jacques Garnerin, French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute
- 1785 - Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, Czech cookbook author
- 1797 - Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer
- 1798 - Christine Genast, German actress, singer and pianist
- 1799 - Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist
- 1820 - William B. Washburn, American politician, 28th Governor of Massachusetts
- 1835 - Lunalilo of Hawaii
- 1854 - David Emmanuel, Romanian mathematician and academic
- 1865 - Henri Desgrange, French cyclist and journalist
- 1865 - Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader, founded BAPS
- 1868 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1872 - Zane Grey, American author
- 1876 - Mette Bull, Norwegian actress
- 1878 - Marta Sandal, Norwegian singer
- 1881 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1884 - Theodor Heuss, German journalist and politician, 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1884 - Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Azerbaijani scholar and politician, 1st President of The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan
- 1889 - Frank Foster, English cricketer
- 1892 - Eddie Cantor, American singer-songwriter, actor, and dancer
- 1894 - Isham Jones, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader
- 1896 - Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician and historian
- 1900 - Betty Parsons, American artist, art dealer and collector