On this day: January 31

Events on January 31

• 314 Sylvester I, during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope. Wikipedia
• 1208 Sverker II was defeated at the Battle of Lena by Erik Knutsson, who succeeded him as King of Sweden. Wikipedia
• 1578 Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces won a crushing victory at the Battle of Gembloux, threatening the States General of the Netherlands and contributing to its move from Brussels to Antwerp. Wikipedia
• 1703 Forty-seven rōnin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka. Wikipedia
• 1747 The London Lock Hospital, the first voluntary hospital specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened. Wikipedia
• 1827 Mexican soldiers and Texan militiamen marched into Nacogdoches, Texas, to end the Fredonian Rebellion. Wikipedia
• 1850 Ute Wars: On behalf of Utah territorial governor Brigham Young, militia leader Daniel H. Wells drafted an order for the Utah Territorial Militia to exterminate Timpanogos men deemed hostile, leading to the Provo River Massacre. Wikipedia
• 1862 Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University. Wikipedia
• 1865 American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief of all Confederate armies. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1900 Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years. Wikipedia
• 1901 Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters premieres at Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. Wikipedia
• 1919 Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotlan. Wikipedia
• 1928 Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: During the Anzio campaign, the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy. Wikipedia
• 1946 Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia). Wikipedia
• 1957 A DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft collided in mid-air with a U.S. Air Force F-89 and crashed into a schoolyard in Pacoima, California. Wikipedia
• 1958 Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt. Wikipedia
• 1961 Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid to be launched into outer space. Wikipedia
• 1966 The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1988 Doug Williams became the first African-American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII. Wikipedia
• 1997 Final Fantasy VII, the first video game in the Final Fantasy franchise to use 3-D computer graphics, was released. Wikipedia
• 2000 Alaska Airlines Flight 261, experiencing problems with its horizontal stabilizer system, crashed in the Pacific Ocean off Anacapa Island, California, killing all 88 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2007 Emergency officials in Boston mistakenly identified LED placards depicting characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as IEDs, causing a panic. Wikipedia
• 2013 A gas leak underneath the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City caused an explosion that killed at least 37 people and injured another 121. Wikipedia

Born on January 31

• 1543 Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shōgun (died 1616) Wikipedia
• 1797 Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (died 1828) Wikipedia
• 1868 Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928) Wikipedia
• 1881 Irving Langmuir, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1884 Theodor Heuss, German journalist and politician, 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1902 Alva Myrdal, Swedish sociologist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1919 Jackie Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1923 Norman Mailer, American journalist and author (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1929 Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1929 Jean Simmons, English-American actress (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1935 Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1937 Philip Glass, American composer Wikipedia
• 1937 Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1938 Beatrix of the Netherlands Wikipedia
• 1956 John Lydon, English singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1956 Guido van Rossum, Dutch programmer, creator of the Python programming language Wikipedia
• 1973 Portia de Rossi, Australian-American actress Wikipedia
• 1975 Preity Zinta, Indian actress, producer, and television host Wikipedia
• 1977 Kerry Washington, American actress Wikipedia
• 1981 Justin Timberlake, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor Wikipedia
• 1983 Fabio Quagliarella, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 2000 Julián Alvarez, Argentine footballer Wikipedia

Died on January 31

• 1580 Henry, King of Portugal (born 1512) Wikipedia
• 1606 Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (born 1570) Wikipedia
• 1888 John Bosco, Italian priest and educator, founded the Salesian Society (born 1815) Wikipedia
• 1892 Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (born 1834) Wikipedia
• 1933 John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1944 Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1954 Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1955 John Mott, American activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1956 A. A. Milne, English author, poet and playwright, created Winnie-the-Pooh (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1969 Meher Baba, Indian spiritual master (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1973 Ragnar Frisch, Norwegian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 1974 Samuel Goldwyn, Polish American film producer, co-founded Goldwyn Pictures (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 2014 Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director and screenwriter (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2015 Richard von Weizsäcker, German captain and politician, 6th President of Germany (born 1920) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Domitius (Domice) of Amiens Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Francis Xavier Bianchi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Geminianus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Bosco Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Julius of Novara Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Ludovica Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Máedóc (Mogue, Aiden) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Marcella of Marseille Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Marcella of Rome Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Samuel Shoemaker (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Tysul Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ulphia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Wilgils Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Amartithi (Meherabad, India, followers of Meher Baba) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Nauru), celebrates independence from Australia in 1968. Wikipedia
• Street Children's Day (Austria) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “January 31” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/January 31” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 31” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for January 31 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.