What happened on January 31 ?
Events
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.
1910 - The Portuguese republican revolution broke out in the northern city of Porto.
1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
1849 - Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom.
1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
1867 - Maronite nationalist leader Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
1915 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
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.
1929 - The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
1930 - 3M markets Scotch Tape.
1936 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
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 flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.
1956 - Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
1958 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit.
1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon.
1968 - Nauru declares independence from Australia.
1971 - Apollo program: Astronauts aboard Apollo 14 lift off for a mission to 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.
1980 - Takedown of the embassy of Spain in Guatemala, then the embassy was set on fire killing 36 people in this tragic incident.
1988 - Super Bowl XXII: The Washington Redskins win their second championship of the 1980s, 42-10.
1990 - The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, Russia.
1993 - Super Bowl XXVII: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Buffalo Bills, 52-17.
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 in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
1999 - Super Bowl XXXIII: The Denver Broncos defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-19. After the game, the TV show Family Guy airs its pilot episode.
2000 - An Alaska Airlines MD-83 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Malibu, California killing all 88 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.
2002 - A large section of the Antarctic Larsen Ice Shelf begins disintegrating, eventually consuming about 3,250 km² (1,254 miles²) over a 35-day period.
2003 - Waterfall train disaster, NSW, Australia
2004 - Mystery Science Theater 3000 ends its run on the Sci-Fi Channel.
2005 - The child molestation trial of superstar Michael Jackson begins in California.
2006 - Incapacitated Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon officially exited politics after three decades when his Kadima party submitted its list of candidates for the upcoming election.
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