3M begins marketing Scotch Tape, January 31, 1930

Today in History

• The US Congress passes the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification (1865)
• The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky (1929)
• 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape (1930)
• The first daytime soap opera premiers (1949)
• The Van Allen radiation belt is detected (1958)
• Ham the Chimp travels into space on a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket (1961)
• Vietnam War: Viet Cong guerrillas attack the US Embassy in Saigon as part of the Tet Offensive (1968)
• Apollo 14 lifts off for the Moon (1971)

Birthdays

• Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1543)
• Gouverneur Morris, US founding father (1752)
• Franz Schubert, composer (1797)
• Zane Grey, author (1872)
• Eddie Cantor, singer-songwriter and actor (1892)
• Tallulah Bankhead, actress (1902)
• John O’Hara, author (1905)
• Jackie Robinson, baseball player (1919)
• Carol Channing, actress, singer, and dancer (1921)
• Mario Lanza, tenor (1921)
• Norman Mailer, author (1923)
• Jean Simmons, actress (1929)
• James Franciscus, actor (1934)
• Philip Glass, composer (1937)
• Suzanne Pleshette, actress (1937)
• Peter Sagal, radio host (1965)
• Minnie Driver, actress (1970)
• Portia de Rossi, actress (1973)
• Justin Timberlake, entertainer (1981)

Deaths

• Guy Fawkes, member of the Gunpowder Plot (1606)
• John Galsworthy, novelist (1933)
• A. A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh (1956)
• Meher Baba, spiritual leader (1969)
• Samuel Goldwyn, filmmaker (1974)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Amartihi (followers of Meher Baba)
• Independence Day (Nauru)
• Street Children’s Day (Austria)

January 31 is the 31st day of the year. There are 334 days (335 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.