January 31st in History

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.