Events

• 314 – Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.

• 1504 – France cedes Naples to Aragon.

• 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 Lock Hospital.

• 1814 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.

• 1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• 1848 – John C. Fremont court-martialed on grounds of mutiny and disobeying orders.

• 1849 – Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846).

• 1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an eighteen inch telescope at Northwestern University.

• 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

• 1867 – Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria

• 1876 – The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

• 1891 – The first attempt of a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.

• 1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion

• 1915 – World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russia

• 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 – The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.

• 1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.

• 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

• 1941 – Layforce set sail.

• 1943 – German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II'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 Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) 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.

• 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.

• 1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.

• 1957 – Eight people on the ground 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 – Explorer program: Explorer 1 – The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.

• 1958 – James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.

• 1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.

• 1966 – The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.

• 1968 – Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.

• 1968 – Nauru becomes independence from Australia.

• 1970 – A Saskatchewan Court convicts 17-year-old hippie David Milgaard of murder; he is sentenced to life in prison. He spent 23 years in jail until April 14, 1992 when DNA evidence proved him innocent of all charges.

• 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 Mission – 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 war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan.

• 1990 – The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.

• 1995 – President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.

• 1996 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.

• 2000 – Alaska Airlines flight 261 MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.

• 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.

• 2003 – The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.

• 2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

• 2009 – In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed 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.

Births

• 36 BC – Antonia Minor, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor (d. 38 AD)

• 877 – Taejo of Goryeo, ruler of Korea (d. 943)

• 1512 – King Henry of Portugal (d. 1580)

• 1543 – Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun of Japan (d. 1616)

• 1550 – Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (d. 1588)

• 1597 – John Francis Regis, French saint (d. 1640)

• 1624 – Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher (d. 1669)

• 1673 – Louis de Montfort, French catholic priest and saint (d. 1716)

• 1686 – Hans Egede, Norwegian Lutheran missionary (d. 1758)

• 1752 – Gouverneur Morris, American lawmaker and diplomat (d. 1816)

• 1759 – François Devienne, French composer (d. 1803)

• 1797 – Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (d. 1828)

• 1820 – William B. Washburn, 28th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1887)

• 1835 – William Charles Lunalilo, Monarch of Hawaii (d. 1874)

• 1857 – George Jackson Churchward, Great Western Railway Chief mechanical engineer. (d. 1933)

• 1865 – Henri Desgrange, Founder of the Tour-de-France (d. 1940)

• 1865 – Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1951)

• 1868 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1928)

• 1872 – Zane Grey, American Western writer (d. 1939)

• 1881 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)

• 1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)

• 1884 – Theodor Heuss, 1st President of Germany (Bundespräsident) (d. 1963)

• 1889 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (d. 1958)

• 1892 – Eddie Cantor, American actor and singer (d. 1964)

• 1894 – Isham Jones, American musician (d. 1956)

• 1896 – Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 1966)

• 1902 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)

• 1902 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)

• 1905 – John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)

• 1911 – Eddie Byrne, British actor (d. 1981)

• 1913 – Don Hutson, American football player (d. 1997)

• 1914 – Carey Loftin, American actor and stuntman (d. 1997)

• 1914 – Sri Daya Mata, Hindu religious figure

• 1914 – Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (d. 1994)

• 1915 – Alan Lomax, American musicologist (d. 2002)

• 1915 – Thomas Merton, American author and monk (d. 1968)

• 1915 – Garry Moore, American comedian (d. 1993)

• 1919 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player, and the first black player in Major League Baseball (d. 1972)

• 1921 – John Agar, American actor (d. 2002)

• 1921 – Carol Channing, American actress and singer

• 1921 – E. Fay Jones, American architect (d. 2004)

• 1921 – Mario Lanza, American singer (d. 1959)

• 1922 – Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)

• 1923 – Norman Mailer, American writer and journalist (d. 2007)

• 1925 – Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights leader

• 1926 – Tom Alston, American baseball player (d. 1993)

• 1927 – Norm Prescott, American animation producer (d. 2005)

• 1928 – Chuck Willis, American singer and songwriter (d. 1958)

• 1929 – Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate

• 1929 – Jean Simmons, English actress

• 1930 – Lynn Carlin, American actress

• 1930 – Joakim Bonnier, Swedish racecar driver (d. 1972)

• 1931 – Ernie Banks, American baseball player

• 1931 – Christopher Chataway, English athlete, newscaster and politician

• 1933 – Camille Henry, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1997)

• 1933 – Bernardo Provenzano , Mafia Boss

• 1934 – James Franciscus, American actor (d. 1991)

• 1934 – Bob Turner, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)

• 1935 – Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer, Nobel laureate

• 1937 – Regimantas Adomaitis, Lithuanian actor

• 1937 – Andrée Boucher, Canadian politician (d. 2007)

• 1937 – Philip Glass, American composer

• 1937 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)

• 1938 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

• 1938 – James G. Watt, American politician

• 1939 – Claude Gauthier, Canadian singer and songwriter

• 1940 – Kitch Christie, South African rugby union coach (d. 1998)

• 1941 – Richard A. Gephardt, American politician

• 1941 – Jessica Walter, American actress

• 1942 – Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress

• 1942 – Derek Jarman, British director and writer (d. 1994)

• 1944 – Charlie Musselwhite, American musician

• 1945 – Joseph Kosuth, American conceptual artist

• 1946 – Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (d. 1978)

• 1946 – Glynn Turman, American actor

• 1947 – Jonathan Banks, American actor

• 1947 – Elena Nathanael, Greek actress (d. 2008)

• 1947 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player

• 1948 – Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician

• 1949 – Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist

• 1949 – Ken Wilber, American philosopher

• 1950 – Alexander Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard

• 1951 – Dave Benton, Aruban-born singer

• 1951 – Harry Wayne Casey, American singer and musician (KC and the Sunshine Band)

• 1951 – Phil Manzanera, English guitarist (Roxy Music, Quiet Sun, 801)

• 1952 – Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (d. 1969)

• 1954 – Adrian Vandenberg, Dutch musician (Whitesnake)

• 1956 – John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, English singer (Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd.)

• 1959 – Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor

• 1959 – Kelly Lynch, American actress

• 1959 – Kelly Moore, American stock car driver

• 1960 – Grant Morrison, British comic author

• 1961 – Lloyd Cole, British singer

• 1962 – Sophie Muller, Music video director

• 1964 – Sylvie Bernier, Quebec diver

• 1964 – Jeff Hanneman, American musician (Slayer)

• 1964 – Billey Shamrock, Swedish singer

• 1966 – Dr Umar Alisha, Indian Sufi master

• 1966 – Dexter Fletcher, English actor

• 1967 – Fat Mike, American musician

• 1967 – Chad Channing, American musician

• 1967 – Irene Wan, Hong Kong actress

• 1967 – Joey Wong, Taiwanese actress

• 1968 – Matt King, British actor and comedian

• 1968 – Patrick Stevens, Belgian athlete

• 1970 – Danny Michel, Canadian Musician

• 1970 – Minnie Driver, British actress

• 1971 – Lee Young Ae, South Korean actress

• 1971 – Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian

• 1971 – Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer

• 1971 – Patricia Velásquez, Venezuelan actress and model

• 1973 – Portia de Rossi, Australian actress

• 1974 – Wil Anderson, Australian comedian

• 1974 – Ariel Pestano, Cuban baseball player

• 1974 – Othella Harrington, American basketball player

• 1975 – Fred Coleman, former National Football League wide receiver

• 1975 – Jackie O, Australian radio host

• 1975 – Preity Zinta, Indian actress

• 1976 – Traianos Dellas, Greek footballer

• 1976 – Buddy Rice, American race car driver

• 1976 – Tyrone Nesby, American basketball player

• 1977 – Mark Dutiaume, National Hockey League player

• 1977 – Shingo Katori, Japanese actor and singer (SMAP)

• 1977 – Jim Kleinsasser, National Football League tight end

• 1977 – Kate Shindle, American actress

• 1977 – Kerry Washington, American actress

• 1977 – Bobby Moynihan, American comedian (Saturday Night Live)

• 1978 – Fabián Caballero, Argentine footballer

• 1978 – Brad Rutter, Jeopardy! champion

• 1978 – Ray Shah, Irish DJ, TV, radio presenter

• 1978 – Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, English heir of the Dukedom of Wellington

• 1979 – Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant

• 1980 – James Adomian, American actor

• 1980 – Ryan Kienle, American musician

• 1980 – Tiffany Limos, American actress

• 1981 – Julio Arca, Argentinian football player

• 1981 – Justin Timberlake, American singer

• 1981 – Amrita Arora, Indian actress

• 1982 – Yuniesky Betancourt, Major League Baseball shortstop

• 1982 – Allan McGregor, Scottish football player

• 1982 – Andreas Görlitz, German football player

• 1982 – Bruno Nogueira, Portuguese actor, comedian and TV host

• 1982 – Elena Paparizou, Greek singer

• 1982 – Jānis Sprukts, National Hockey League player

• 1982 – Brad Thompson, Major League Baseball player

• 1983 – James Sutton, British television actor

• 1983 – Tom Vangeneugden, Belgian swimmer

• 1984 – Jeremy Wariner, American 400m runner

• 1984 – Vernon Davis, NFL player

• 1985 – Adam Federici, Australian footballer

• 1985 – Kalomoira, Greek singer

• 1985 – Mario Williams, NFL player

• 1986 – Yves Makabu-Makalambay, Belgian football goalkeeper

• 1990 – Kota Yabu, Japanese actor and singer

Deaths

• 1398 – Emperor Sukō (b. 1334)

• 1435 – Xuande, Emperor of China (b. 1398)

• 1561 – Bairam Khan, Great Mughal General, regent for Akbar

• 1561 – Menno Simons, Dutch Mennonite leader (b. 1496)

• 1580 – Henry of Portugal (b. 1512)

• 1606 – Guy Fawkes – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (b. 1570)

• 1606 – Ambrose Rokewood – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (b. c.1578)

• 1606 – Thomas Wintour – Gunpowder Plot conspirators (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 councillor (b. c. 1654)

• 1729 – Jakob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)

• 1736 – Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (b. 1678)

• 1788 – Charles Edward Stuart, the exiled Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1720)

• 1790 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (b. 1718)

• 1794 – Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)

• 1815 – José Félix Ribas, Venezuelan independentist leader (b. 1775)

• 1828 – Alexander Ypsilantis, Phanariot Greek military commander and national hero of the Greek War of Independence (b. 1792)

• 1836 – John Cheyne (physician), British physician, surgeon and author (b. 1777)

• 1844 – Henri Gratien, Comte Bertrand, French general (b. 1773)

• 1888 – John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator, founder of the Salesian Society (b. 1815)

• 1892 – Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist (b. 1834)

• 1907 – Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)

• 1923 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish assassin of Gabriel Narutowicz (b. 1869)

• 1933 – John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1867)

• 1942 – Henry Larkin, American baseball player (b. 1860)

• 1942 – Rolf Wenkhaus, German actor (b. 1917)

• 1944 – Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)

• 1945 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (b. 1920)

• 1954 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer and inventor of the FM radio (b. 1890)

• 1955 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)

• 1956 – A. A. Milne, English author (b. 1882)

• 1966 – General Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army Officer (b. 1887)

• 1967 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (b. 1908)

• 1969 – Meher Baba, Indian guru (b. 1894)

• 1970 – Slim Harpo, American singer (b. 1924)

• 1971 – Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky, Russian literary historian, linguist (b. 1891)

• 1973 – Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel laureate (b. 1895)

• 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn, Polish-born film studio executive (b. 1882)

• 1976 – Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (b. 1941)

• 1981 – Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (b. 1909)

• 1987 – Yves Allégret, French film director (b. 1907)

• 1989 – William Stephenson, Canadian spymaster (b. 1896)

• 1990 – Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (b. 1935)

• 1995 – George Abbott, American stage director and producer (b. 1887)

• 1997 – John Joseph Scanlan, Irish Catholic prelate (b. 1930)

• 1999 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)

• 1999 – Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1938)

• 1999 – Barış Manço, Turkish singer, composer, television producer and celebrity. (b. 1943)

• 2000 – Gil Kane, Latvian-born comic book writer (b. 1926)

• 2001 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)

• 2002 – Francis Gabreski, American, fighter pilot ace (b. 1919)

• 2004 – Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (b. 1913)

• 2006 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (The Red Shoes) and ballerina (b. 1926)

• 2007 – Kirka Babitzin, Finnish singer (b. 1950)

• 2007 – Molly Ivins, American political columnist and author (b. 1944)

• 2007 – Lee Bergere, American actor (b. 1924)

• 2007 – Adelaide Tambo, South African activist and wife of Oliver Tambo (b. 1929)

• 2008 – Zeltim Odie Peterson, famous pug dog (b. 1997)

• 2009 – Nagesh, Indian comedian actor in Kollywood (b. 1933)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism – Feast day of St. John Bosco, patron saint of Christian apprentices, editors, and publishers

• Saint Pedro Nolasco

• Saint Marcella

• Saint Geminianus

• Blessed Ludovica

• January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• International Leprosy Day