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This day in history

This day in history: 31 January

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day192 · 86

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Key facts

335 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 31 January.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: Med Jets Flight 056 crashes near Roosevelt Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing 8 people and injuring 23.

Holidays and observances

Amartithi (Meherabad, India, followers of Meher Baba)

Christian feast day: Blessed Ludovica

Christian feast day: Domitius (Domice) of Amiens

Christian feast day: Francis Xavier Bianchi

Christian feast day: Geminianus

Christian feast day: January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: John Bosco

Christian feast day: Julius of Novara

Christian feast day: Máedóc (Mogue, Aiden)

Christian feast day: Marcella of Marseille

Christian feast day: Marcella of Rome

Christian feast day: Samuel Shoemaker (Episcopal Church (USA))

Events

2025Med Jets Flight 056 crashes near Roosevelt Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing 8 people and injuring 23.

2023The 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".

2022Sue Gray, a senior civil servant in the United Kingdom, publishes an initial version of her report on the Downing Street Partygate controversy.

2020The United Kingdom's membership within the European Union ceases in accordance with Article 50, after 47 years of being a member state.

2019Abdullah of Pahang is sworn in as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

2009At 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.

2007Emergency officials in Boston mistakenly identify battery-powered LED placards depicting characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), causing a panic.

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

2001In 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.

2001Two Japan Airlines planes nearly collide over Suruga Bay in Japan.

2000Alaska 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.

1996An 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.

1988Doug Williams becomes the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl and leads the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.

1978The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) goes on public display after being returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

1971Apollo 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.

1971The 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.

1968Vietnam 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.

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

1961Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.

1958Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

1957Eight people (five total crew from two aircraft and three 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.

1953A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.

1951United Nations Security Council Resolution 90 relating to the Korean War is adopted.

1949These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States.

1946Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

1946The Democratic Republic of Vietnam introduces the đồng to replace the French Indochinese piastre at par.

1945US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1945World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.

1945World 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 Penins

1944World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

1944World 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.

1943World 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.

1942World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to Singapore.

1928Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata.

1919The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, during a campaign for shorter working hours.

1918A 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.

1918Finnish Civil War: The Suinula massacre, which changes the nature of the war in a more hostile direction, takes place in Kangasala.

1917World War I: Kaiser Wilhelm II orders the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1915World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

1901Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters premieres at Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.

Born on this day

2006Gianluca Prestianni, Argentine footballer

2006Sára Bejlek, Czech tennis player

2002Beñat Turrientes, Spanish footballer

2002Hong Ye-ji, South Korean actress

2000Julián Alvarez, Argentine footballer

1998Beto, Portuguese and Bissau-Guinean footballer

1998Jalen McDaniels, American basketball player

1997Arnaut Danjuma, Dutch footballer

1997Donte DiVincenzo, American basketball player

1997Miyeon, South Korean singer and actress

1996Joel Courtney, American actor

1996Nikita Dragun, American YouTuber

1994Kenneth Zohore, Danish footballer

1993Qiu Bo, Chinese diver

1992Tyler Seguin, Canadian ice hockey player

1990Cro, German rapper

1990Nicolás Laprovíttola, Argentine basketball player

1989Tommy La Stella, American baseball player

1988Brett Pitman, English footballer

1988Taijo Teniste, Estonian footballer

1987Marcus Mumford, American-English singer-songwriter

1986George Elokobi, Cameroonian footballer

1986Megan Ellison, American film producer, founded Annapurna Pictures

1986Pauline Parmentier, French tennis player

1986Walter Dix, American sprinter

1986Yves Ma-Kalambay, Belgian footballer

1985Adam Federici, Australian footballer

1984Mikhail Grabovski, German-Belarusian ice hockey player

1984Vernon Davis, American football player

1983Fabio Quagliarella, Italian footballer

1982Allan McGregor, Scottish footballer

1982Jānis Sprukts, Latvian ice hockey player

1982Maret Ani, Estonian tennis player

1981Gemma Collins, English media personality and businesswoman

1981Julio Arca, Argentine footballer

1981Justin Timberlake, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

1981Mark Cameron, Australian cricketer

1980Clarissa Ward, British-American television journalist

1980Gary Doherty, Irish footballer

1980James Adomian, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Died on this day

2018Leah LaBelle, American singer (born 1986)

2018Rasual Butler, American professional basketball player (born 1979)

2017Rob Stewart, Canadian filmmaker (born 1979)

2016Terry Wogan, Irish radio and television host (born 1938)

2015Lizabeth Scott, American actress (born 1922)

2015Richard von Weizsäcker, German captain and politician, 6th President of Germany (born 1920)

2015Udo Lattek, German footballer, coach and journalist (born 1935)

2015Vic Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1929)

2014Abdirizak Haji Hussein, Somalian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Somalia (born 1924)

2014Anna Gordy Gaye, American songwriter and producer, co-founded Anna Records (born 1922)

2014Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director and screenwriter (born 1921)

2013Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (born 1937)

2013Rubén Bonifaz Nuño, Mexican poet and scholar (born 1923)

2012Dorothea Tanning, American painter and sculptor (born 1910)

2012Mani Ram Bagri, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1920)

2011Bartolomeu Anania, Romanian bishop and poet (born 1921)

2008František Čapek, Czech canoeist (born 1914)

2007Adelaide Tambo, South African activist and politician (born 1929)

2007Kirill Babitzin, Finnish singer, 9th in 1984 Eurovision Song Contest (born 1950), aortic aneurysm.

2007Molly Ivins, American journalist and author (born 1944)

2006Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and ballerina (born 1926)

2004Eleanor Holm, American swimmer and actress (born 1913)

2004Suraiya, Indian actress and playback singer (born 1929)

2002Gabby Gabreski, American colonel and pilot (born 1919)

2001Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian American author (born 1923)

2000Gil Kane, Latvian American author and illustrator (born 1926)

1999Giant Baba, Japanese wrestler and trainer, co-founded All Japan Pro Wrestling (born 1938)

1997John Joseph Scanlan, Irish American bishop (born 1930)

1990Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus, German zoologist and academic (born 1901)

1990Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian American biochemist and academic (born 1935)

Quote of the day

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

Marcus Aurelius

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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