Saturday, 31st January 2026 in Lisbon

Welcome to your daily snapshot of Lissabon! Explore 57 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Lissabon. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Lissabon brings drizzly with temperatures between 11°C and 15°C. Tonight's moon is in its waning crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Aquarius. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Saturday, 31st January in Lissabon, PT.

Lisbon
Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL – CC BY-SA 2.0Wikimedia Commons

Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is situated on the northern bank of the Tagus estuary on the Atlantic coast, characterised by its historic hills and waterfront districts. On 31 January 2026, the city experiences drizzly conditions. The date falls under the zodiac sign Aquarius, and the moon is in its waning crescent phase.

On this day

On 31 January 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Anacapa Island, California, killing all 88 people aboard. The aircraft experienced catastrophic failure of its horizontal stabiliser system during descent, a mechanical defect that led to significant changes in aviation maintenance protocols. Seven years earlier, on the same date in 1993, emergency officials in Boston responded to what they believed was an explosive device threat involving LED placards depicting characters from the animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, triggering widespread panic across the city before the misidentification was clarified.

Doug Williams made history on 31 January 1988 when he became the first African-American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII. His achievement represented a significant milestone in American sports, breaking a barrier that had stood for decades in one of the nation's most prominent sporting events.

DayAtlas provides weather conditions for any specified date and location, alongside significant historical events, notable births and deaths associated with that day, enabling users to explore what happened at any point in history from a geographical perspective.

Find out what's happening today in Lissabon.

What the Weather Had in Store for Lissabon on 31st January 2026

Drizzle

Sunrise 07:43
Sunset 17:56
Sunshine duration 08:00 hours
Daylight duration 10:13 hours

Maximum temperature 15.4°C
Minimum temperature 11.2°C

Wind speed 19km/h from WSW
Precipitation 0.8mm

Five strings, five paths—harmony rises from tension, not uniformity.

Fortune of the Day

31st January in the Stars – Star Sign Aquarius

Today, the zodiac sign Aquarius celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on January 31st blend classic Capricorn ambition with Mercury's intellect and communication skills. They appear serious and dependable, yet their minds work quickly across multiple interests. The numerological 5 introduces restlessness into their structured nature, creating tension between stability and change.

Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths include strategic thinking, organizational mastery, and intellectual versatility. They work conscientiously and remain loyal. Weaknesses: tendency toward perfectionism, emotional reserve, and occasional impatience with others' pace.

Love These individuals seek partners with intelligence and reliability. They express feelings through actions rather than words, needing time to trust. Long-term bonds flourish when both value intellectual depth alongside practical stability.

Caree & Finance Careers in management, law, science, or communication suit them well. They handle finances methodically and save strategically. Mercury's influence makes them skilled mediators between ideas and execution.

Health Regular physical activity matters—nervous energy builds without outlet. Mental challenges keep them balanced. They should reframe rest as essential, not weakness, and prioritize sleep to maintain rational clarity.


That night, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.


Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 31st January

Name Days in Your Language: Cyrus, Kira, Kyra, Lona, Loni, Lonnie, Scarlett, Zane


Someone born on this day would be just 135 days old today — roughly 3,255 hours, 195,348 minutes, or 11,720,915 seconds spent on Earth so far.


It's the 31. day of the year. In 2026, 31st January falls on a Saturday.


There are 334 days still to come.


We’re currently in Week 5 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 30th January

On this day, 192 notable people were born on 30th January — spanning from 1512 to 2006. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

31/01/2006

Sára Bejlek, Czech tennis player

Sára Bejlek is a Czech professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 34, achieved on 6 April, and a best doubles ranking of No. 671, reached on 1 August 2022.


Gianluca Prestianni, Argentine footballer

Gianluca Prestianni Gross is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger for Primeira Liga club Benfica and the Argentina national team.


31/01/2002

Hong Ye-ji, South Korean actress

Hong Ye-ji is a South Korean actress. She first gained recognition in 2018 as a participant in the reality competition show Produce 48. She made her acting debut in the film 2037 (2022). She is known for her roles in A Normal Family (2023) and the television series Love Song for Illusion (2024).


Beñat Turrientes, Spanish footballer

Beñat Turrientes Imaz is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Real Sociedad and the Spain national team.


31/01/2000

Julián Alvarez, Argentine footballer

Julián Alvarez is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Argentina national team.


31/01/1998

Beto, Portuguese and Bissau-Guinean footballer

Norberto Bercique Gomes Betuncal, known as Beto, is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Everton. Born in Portugal, he represents Guinea-Bissau at international level.


Jalen McDaniels, American basketball player

Jalen Marquis McDaniels is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the San Diego State Aztecs. He is the older brother of basketball player Jaden McDaniels.


31/01/1997

Arnaut Danjuma, Dutch footballer

Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld is a professional footballer who plays as a left winger for La Liga club Valencia. Born in Nigeria, he has represented the Netherlands national team.


Donte DiVincenzo, American basketball player

Donte Michael DiVincenzo is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats, where he won national championships in 2016 and 2018, being named Final Four Most Outstanding Player (MOP) in 2018.


Miyeon, South Korean singer and actress

Cho Mi-yeon, better known mononymously as Miyeon, is a South Korean singer and actress. She is a vocalist of the South Korean girl group I-dle under Cube Entertainment, and voiced Ahri in the virtual K-pop girl group K/DA.


31/01/1996

Joel Courtney, American actor

Joel Courtney is an American actor known for his role in the 2011 film Super 8 and for his starring role in Netflix's The Kissing Booth film series.


Nikita Dragun, American YouTuber

Nikita Nguyen, known professionally as Nikita Dragun, is an American internet personality, YouTuber, make-up artist, and model.


31/01/1994

Kenneth Zohore, Danish footballer

Albin Kenneth Dahrup Zohore ; born 31 January 1994) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Danish 2nd Division side Fremad Amager.


31/01/1993

Qiu Bo, Chinese diver

Qiu Bo is a Chinese diver. He won the silver medal in the 10 metre platform event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He is a four-time world champion at the World Aquatics Championships, winning the gold medal three times in the 10m platform event, consecutively in 2011, 2013 and 2015, and winning the gold medal in the synchronized 10m event in 2011.


31/01/1992

Tyler Seguin, Canadian ice hockey player

Tyler Paul Seguin is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward and alternate captain for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL).


31/01/1990

Cro, German rapper

Carlo Waibel, better known by the stage name Cro, is a German rapper and singer. He describes his music as a mixture between rap and pop, which he calls "raop". He is known for wearing a panda mask on stage.


Nicolás Laprovíttola, Argentine basketball player

Nicolás "Nico" Laprovíttola is an Argentine professional basketball player for FC Barcelona of the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. He is also a member of the Argentina national basketball team.


31/01/1989

Tommy La Stella, American baseball player

Thomas Frank La Stella is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and Seattle Mariners.


31/01/1988

Brett Pitman, English footballer

Brett Douglas Pitman is a Jèrriais footballer who plays as a forward for Wessex League Premier Division club Downton, where he holds the role of player-coach.


Taijo Teniste, Estonian footballer

Taijo Teniste is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a right back for Estonian Esiliiga club Tartu Welco and the Estonia national team.


31/01/1987

Marcus Mumford, American-English singer-songwriter

Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford is a British folk musician and singer. He is the lead singer of the folk band Mumford & Sons and also plays a number of instruments with the group, including guitar, drums, and mandolin.


31/01/1986

Walter Dix, American sprinter

Walter Dix is a retired American sprinter who specialized in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is the seventh-fastest 200-meter runner ever with a best of 19.53 seconds, and has broken the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, with a best of 9.88 (9.80w) seconds. He was the only track athlete from USA to win 2 individual Olympic medals in Beijing.


Megan Ellison, American film producer, founded Annapurna Pictures

Margaret "Megan" Elizabeth Ellison is an American film producer. She founded Annapurna Pictures in 2011. Her production work includes the films Zero Dark Thirty (2012), American Hustle (2013), Her (2013), and Phantom Thread (2017), all of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture. She is also credited as an executive producer on Nimona (2023), which was nominated for Best Animated Feature.


George Elokobi, Cameroonian footballer

George Nganyuo Elokobi is a Cameroonian-French football coach and former player who was recently manager of National League South club Maidstone United.


Yves Ma-Kalambay, Belgian footballer

Yves Makabu-Ma-Kalambay is a former professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. He most recently played for English club Wycombe Wanderers. Ma-Kalambay has previously played for Chelsea, Watford, Hibernian, Swansea City and KV Mechelen.


Pauline Parmentier, French tennis player

Pauline Parmentier is a French former tennis player.


31/01/1985

Adam Federici, Australian footballer

Adam Jay Federici is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper.


31/01/1984

Vernon Davis, American football player

Vernon Leonard Davis is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins, earning first-team All-American honors in 2005. Davis was selected by the San Francisco 49ers with the sixth overall pick of the 2006 NFL draft. In 2009, he co-led the NFL in touchdown receptions and consequently earned his first of two career Pro Bowl selections.


Mikhail Grabovski, German-Belarusian ice hockey player

Mikhail Yuryevich Hrabowski, better known as Mikhail Grabovski, is a German-born Belarusian professional ice hockey coach and former player. Grabovski serves as an assistant coach for HC Dinamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Prior to his coaching career, Grabovski played as a centre in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 10 seasons.


31/01/1983

Fabio Quagliarella, Italian footballer

Fabio Quagliarella is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward.


31/01/1982

Maret Ani, Estonian tennis player

Maret Ani is a retired tennis player from Estonia.


Allan McGregor, Scottish footballer

Allan James McGregor is a Scottish former professional footballer and current goalkeeping coach at Rangers. McGregor has previously played for Rangers, St Johnstone, Dunfermline Athletic, Turkish team Beşiktaş, English club Hull City and Welsh side Cardiff City, and made 42 international appearances for Scotland.


Jānis Sprukts, Latvian ice hockey player

Jānis Sprukts is a retired Latvian professional ice hockey forward.


31/01/1981

Julio Arca, Argentine footballer

Julio Andrés Arca is an Argentine former professional footballer, who played as a left-back or central midfielder. He was most recently manager of South Shields.


Mark Cameron, Australian cricketer

Mark Alan Cameron is an Australian former cricketer who played Australian domestic cricket for New South Wales.


Gemma Collins, English media personality and businesswoman

Gemma Clair Collins is an English media personality and businesswoman. She rose to prominence whilst appearing on the ITV reality series The Only Way Is Essex (2011–2019) and went on to appear on various other reality television shows, including I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2014), Celebrity Big Brother (2016), Celebs Go Dating (2018) and Dancing on Ice (2019). Known for her diva persona and alter-ego "the GC", she became the subject of several internet memes and is considered a prominent figure within the British hun subculture.


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

Justin Randall Timberlake is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Prince of Pop", he is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Billboard named him one of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. His awards include ten Grammy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, three Brit Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, the Contemporary Icon Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and MTV's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.


31/01/1980

James Adomian, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter

James Adomian is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and impressionist. He is best known for his work on Comedy Bang! Bang!, Chapo Trap House, Last Comic Standing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson where he impersonated President George W. Bush until 2009, and for portraying Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Trump vs. Bernie tour. He voiced Talking Ben in the Talking Tom & Friends animated series, and additional voices in the Nickelodeon animated series Pig Goat Banana Cricket.


Gary Doherty, Irish footballer

Gary Michael Thomas Doherty is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defender, having previously also played as a forward. He gained international honours for the Republic of Ireland.


Shim Yi-young, South Korean actress

Shim Yi-young is a South Korean actress.


Clarissa Ward, British-American television journalist

Clarissa Ward is a British-American television journalist who is the chief international correspondent for CNN. Previously, she was with CBS News, based in London. Before her CBS News position, Ward was a Moscow-based news correspondent for ABC News programs.


31/01/1979

Daniel Tammet, English author and educator

Daniel Paul Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. Tammet's second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. Tammet's books have been published in over 20 languages.


31/01/1978

Fabián Caballero, Argentine footballer and manager

Néstor Fabián Caballero, commonly referred to as Tyson, was an Argentine-Paraguayan professional footballer who played as a forward.


31/01/1977

Bobby Moynihan, American actor and comedian

Robert Michael Moynihan Jr. is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2017.


Kerry Washington, American actress

Kerry Marisa Washington is an American actress. She has received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two Tony Awards. She was included in Time's 100 list of most influential people in 2014, and Forbes named her the eighth highest-paid television actress in 2018.


31/01/1976

Traianos Dellas, Greek footballer and manager

Traianos Dellas is a Greek professional football manager and former player. He last managed Super League club OFI.


Buddy Rice, American racing driver

Buddy Rice is an American former professional race car driver. He is best known for winning the 2004 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, and the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona for Brumos Racing.


31/01/1975

Preity Zinta, Indian actress, producer, and television host

Preity G. Zinta is an Indian actress and entrepreneur primarily known for her work in Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English honours and criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se.. in 1998, followed by a role in Soldier in the same year. These performances earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and she was later recognised for her role as a teenage single mother in Kya Kehna (2000). She established a career as a leading Hindi film actress of the decade with a variety of character types. Her roles, often deemed culturally defiant, along with her unconventional screen persona won her recognition and several accolades.


31/01/1974

Othella Harrington, American basketball player and coach

Othella Harrington is an American former professional basketball player. After he finished his high school career at Murrah High School, he played in college at Georgetown University where he teamed with future NBA star Allen Iverson. Harrington was drafted 30th overall in the 1996 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets.


Ariel Pestano, Cuban baseball player

Ariel Osvaldo Pestano Valdés, better known as El Veterano, is a Cuban former baseball catcher. He has won both silver and gold medals in the Olympic Games and also played catcher on Cuba's World Baseball Classic team in March 2006 and March 2009. In Cuba, Pestano plays with the Villa Clara Naranjas of the Cuban National Series.


31/01/1973

Portia de Rossi, Australian-American actress

Portia Lee James DeGeneres, known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian and American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award; Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the American television sitcom Arrested Development, and Elizabeth North on the American political thriller series Scandal (2014–2017).


31/01/1971

Patricia Velásquez, Venezuelan model and actress

Patricia Carola Velásquez Semprún is a Venezuelan actress, model, public speaker, and philanthropist. She is best known for portraying Anck-su-namun in the 1999 film The Mummy and its 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns.


31/01/1970

Minnie Driver, English singer-songwriter and actress

Amelia Fiona Jessica "Minnie" Driver is a British and American actress, producer and singer. She rose to prominence with her break-out role in the 1995 film Circle of Friends. She went on to star in a wide range of films, including the cult classic Grosse Pointe Blank; Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting ; the musical The Phantom of the Opera; and Owning Mahowny. She also provided the voice of Lady Eboshi in Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke.


Danny Michel, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer

Danny Michel is a Canadian songwriter and producer.


31/01/1969

Dov Charney, Canadian-American fashion designer and businessman, founded American Apparel

Dov Charney is a Canadian entrepreneur and clothing manufacturer. He is the founder of American Apparel, which was one of the largest garment manufacturers in the United States until its bankruptcy in 2015. Charney was fired from American Apparel in 2014 due to allegations of sexual harassment and assault. He subsequently founded Los Angeles Apparel which produces Kanye West's line Yeezy.


Daniel Moder, American cinematographer

Daniel Richard Moder is an American cinematographer who has worked on such films as Secret in Their Eyes, The Mexican, and Fireflies in the Garden. He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his cinematography in the television film The Normal Heart. He is married to actress Julia Roberts.


31/01/1968

John Collins, Scottish footballer and manager

John Angus Paul Collins is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.


Matt King, English actor, producer, and screenwriter

Matt King is an English actor, DJ and comedian. He is best known for his role as Super Hans in the British sitcom Peep Show.


Ulrica Messing, Swedish politician, 2nd Swedish Minister for Infrastructure

Ulrica Messing is a Swedish politician and civil servant who has served as Governor of Blekinge County since 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she previously served as Minister for Infrastructure from 2000 to 2006.


Patrick Stevens, Belgian sprinter

Patrick Stevens is a retired sprinter from Belgium. He won the bronze medal in the 200 metres at the 1994 European Championships in Helsinki and a silver medal in the 200 m at the 2000 European Indoor Championships. He earned selection for four consecutive Olympic Games for his native country, although he was unable to compete at Sydney 2000 due to injury. His best result was seventh in the famous Michael Johnson 1996 200m WR final in Atlanta. He has also competed in four World Championships, between 1993 and 1999, finishing eighth in the 1997 200 m final.


31/01/1967

Fat Mike, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer

Michael John Burkett, known professionally as Fat Mike, is an American musician and producer. He was the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and the cofounder and bassist of the punk rock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Burkett started out with his first band False Alarm in 1982. He and NOFX rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin were the only band members who remained constant in the band's lineup throughout its existence. Burkett was the owner and founder of Fat Wreck Chords.


31/01/1966

Dexter Fletcher, English actor and director

Dexter Fletcher is a British film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama Hotel Babylon and the HBO series Band of Brothers and, earlier in his career, starred as Spike Thomson in the comedy drama Press Gang. His earliest acting role was in Steptoe and Son Ride Again.


Thant Myint-U, Myanmar historian, diplomat, conservationist, and former presidential advisor.

Thant Myint-U is an historian, writer, grandson of former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, former UN official, former Myanmar peace process mediator, and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has authored five books, including The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma and Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia. He founded the Yangon Heritage Trust in 2012 to protect built heritage and promote urban planning in the Burmese commercial capital of Yangon. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and United Nations Special Adviser on Humanitarian Diplomacy.


31/01/1965

Giorgos Gasparis, Greek basketball player and coach

The Greece men's national basketball team represents Greece in international basketball. They are controlled by the Hellenic Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Greece. Greece is currently ranked 12h in the FIBA World Ranking.


Ofra Harnoy, Israeli-Canadian cellist

Ofra Harnoy is an Israeli-Canadian cellist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. When she signed with RCA Victor Red Seal, Harnoy became the first Canadian classical instrumental soloist since Glenn Gould to gain an exclusive worldwide contract with a major record label. She is a five-time Juno Award winner.


Peter Sagal, American author and radio host

Peter Daniel Sagal is an American humorist, writer, and host of the National Public Radio game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and the PBS special Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.


31/01/1964

Martha MacCallum, American journalist

Martha Bowes MacCallum is an American journalist and news anchor for Fox News. She is the executive editor and anchor of The Story with Martha MacCallum, broadcast from Manhattan Monday through Friday at 3PM ET, and co-anchor of Fox News Election coverage. MacCallum joined the network in 2004 and is based in New York City. Her interviews with President Donald Trump, President Barack Obama, First Lady Laura Bush, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and others have been featured on her programs.


Dawn Prince-Hughes, American scientist

Dawn Prince-Hughes is an American anthropologist, primatologist, and ethologist. She is the author of several books, including Gorillas Among Us: A Primate Ethnographer's Book of Days and her memoir Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism, and she is the editor of the essay collection Aquamarine Blue 5: Personal Stories of College Students with Autism.


31/01/1963

Gwen Graham, American lawyer and politician

Gwendolyn Graham is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district from 2015 to 2017. She is the daughter of Bob Graham, the former United States senator and governor of Florida. A Democrat, she was a candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary for Florida governor. Graham served as assistant secretary of education for legislation and congressional affairs in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025. On June 10, 2026, David Jolly announced Graham as his running mate for the 2026 Florida gubernatorial election.


31/01/1962

Bruce McGuire, Australian rugby league player

Bruce McGuire is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s.


31/01/1961

Elizabeth Barker, Baroness Barker, English politician

Elizabeth Jean Barker, Baroness Barker, is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.


Fatou Bensouda, Gambian lawyer and judge

Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.


Lloyd Cole, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Lloyd Cole is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was lead vocalist of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989 and subsequently worked solo.


31/01/1960

Akbar Ganji, Iranian journalist and author

Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been described as "Iran's preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly. A supporter of the Islamic revolution as a youth, he became disenchanted in the mid-1990s and served time in Tehran's Evin Prison from 2001 to 2006, after publishing a series of stories on the murder of dissident authors known as the Chain Murders of Iran. While in prison, he issued a manifesto which established him as the first "prominent dissident, believing Muslim and former revolutionary" to call for a replacement of Iran's theocratic system with "a democracy". He has been described as "Iran's best-known political prisoner".


Grant Morrison, Scottish author and screenwriter

Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for the American comic book publisher DC Comics, penning lengthy runs on Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, Action Comics, and Green Lantern as well as the graphic novels Arkham Asylum, JLA: Earth 2, and Wonder Woman: Earth One, the meta-series Seven Soldiers and The Multiversity, the mini-series DC One Million and Final Crisis, both of which served as centrepieces for the eponymous company-wide crossover storylines, and the maxi-series All-Star Superman. Morrison's best known DC work is the seven-year Batman storyline which started in the Batman ongoing series and continued through Final Crisis, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and two volumes of Batman Incorporated. They also co-created the DC character Damian Wayne.


Željko Šturanović, Montenegrin politician, 31st Prime Minister of Montenegro (died 2014)

Željko Šturanović was a Montenegrin politician who was the Prime Minister of Montenegro from 2006 until his resignation in 2008.


31/01/1959

Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor and producer

Anthony LaPaglia is an Australian actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen he has received several accolades including three AACTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award.


Kelly Lynch, American model and actress

Kelly Lynch is an American film and television actress. She gained recognition for her roles in Cocktail and Road House (1989). She was subsequently nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Drugstore Cowboy (1989), and for Best Supporting Female for The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1994).


31/01/1958

Armin Reichel, German footballer and manager

Armin Reichel is a German former professional football goalkeeper.


31/01/1957

Shirley Babashoff, American swimmer

Shirley Frances Babashoff is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in multiple events. Babashoff set six world records and earned a total of nine Olympic medals in her career. She won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, and she won the 1975 world championship in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. During her career, she set 37 national records and for some time held all national freestyle records from the 100-meter to 800-meter events.


31/01/1956

John Lydon, English singer-songwriter

John Joseph Lydon, also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. He was the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, which was active from 1975 to 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead vocalist and the only consistent member of post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL), which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009.


Guido van Rossum, Dutch programmer, creator of the Python programming language

Guido van Rossum is a Dutch programmer. He is the creator of the Python programming language, for which he was the "benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL) until he stepped down from the position on 12 July 2018. He remained a member of the Python Steering Council through 2019, and withdrew from nominations for the 2020 election.


31/01/1955

Virginia Ruzici, Romanian tennis player and manager

Virginia Ruzici is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She won the 1978 French Open singles championship.


31/01/1954

Faoud Bacchus, Guyanese cricketer

Sheik Faoud Ahamul Fasiel Bacchus is a Guyanese former cricketer who played for the West Indies and the United States. He was a member of the West Indies squad which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup.


Adrian Vandenberg, Dutch guitarist and songwriter

Adriaan van den Berg, known as Adrian "Adje" Vandenberg, is a Dutch rock guitarist, best known for his tenure as one of the guitarists in Whitesnake during their successful late 1980s period and the band Vandenberg which he started in 1981. In 2013, Adrian formed a new band, Vandenberg's MoonKings, and recorded a new studio album which was released in early 2014.


31/01/1951

Harry Wayne Casey, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer

Harry Wayne Casey, better known by his stage name KC, is an American record producer, musician, and songwriter. He is best known for his band, KC and the Sunshine Band, with co-founder Richard Finch. Casey has enjoyed success and recognition as a producer of several hits for other artists, and as a pioneer of the disco genre of the 1970s.


31/01/1950

Denise Fleming, American author and illustrator

Denise K. Fleming is an American creator of children's picture books. She was born in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated in illustration from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


Alexander Korzhakov, Russian general and bodyguard

Alexander Vasilyevich Korzhakov is a Russian former KGB general who served as Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard, confidant, and adviser for eleven years. He was the head of the Presidential Security Service (PSB) from 1991 to 1996, State Duma deputy from 1997 to 2011, and retired Lieutenant-general. Korzhakov had been Yeltsin's bodyguard since 1985, and on 19 August 1991, he stood next to his boss on top of a tank during Yeltsin's historic speech.


Janice Rebibo, American-Israeli author and poet (died 2015)

Janice Rebibo was an American-born Israeli poet who began writing in Hebrew in the mid-1980s.


31/01/1949

Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and journalist

Johannes Gerrit "Johan" Derksen is a Dutch sports journalist and former football player. He played professional football between 1966 and 1978 for six clubs: Go Ahead Eagles, Cambuur, Veendam, HFC Haarlem, SV Meppen and MVV Maastricht. During and after his footballing career, he became a sports journalist, specialising in football. He was the editor-in-chief of Voetbal International, the Netherlands' most prominent football magazine, from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. Derksen was while working at Voetbal International and after his retirement a television football pundit on RTL7's Voetbal International and Veronica Inside on Veronica TV. His current TV talkshow is Vandaag Inside on SBS6.


Norris Church Mailer, American model and educator (died 2010)

Norris Church Mailer was an American novelist, actress, artist, and model. Norris published two novels, Windchill Summer and Cheap Diamonds, and a memoir, A Ticket to the Circus, which focuses on her nearly thirty-year marriage to Norman Mailer.


Ken Wilber, American sociologist, philosopher, and author

Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. is an American writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which purports to model all human knowledge and experience.


31/01/1948

Volkmar Groß, German footballer (died 2014)

Volkmar Groß was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent seven seasons in the Bundesliga with Hertha BSC, Tennis Borussia Berlin and FC Schalke 04. He represented West Germany once in a friendly against Greece. He scored one goal in the Bundesliga from a penalty kick.


Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician

Muneo Suzuki, commonly known simply as "Muneo" due to his common last name, is a Japanese politician from Ashoro, Hokkaido, currently serving as a member of the House of Councillors since 2019, representing the National PR block.


31/01/1947

Jonathan Banks, American actor

Jonathan Ray Banks is an American actor. He played FBI Special Agent Frank McPike in the television series Wiseguy (1987–1990), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Banks gained renewed recognition for his role as hitman and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut in the television series Breaking Bad (2009–2013). He reprised the role as a lead character in the spin-off series Better Call Saul (2015–2022) and had a cameo in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). For playing Ehrmantraut, he received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.


Matt Minglewood, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Matt Minglewood is a Canadian musician whose style can be described as a blend of country, blues, folk, roots, and rock. The name "Matt" was borrowed from his brother, Matt Batherson.


Nolan Ryan, American baseball player

Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr., nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Ryan pitched for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. After his retirement in 1993, Ryan served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Texas Rangers and an executive advisor to the Houston Astros. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 in his first year of eligibility, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time.


Glynn Turman, American actor

Glynn Turman is an American actor. First coming to attention as a child actor in the original 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 coming-of-age film Cooley High, math professor and retired Army colonel Bradford Taylor on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1988–1993), and Baltimore mayor Clarence Royce on the HBO drama series The Wire. He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role on the HBO drama series In Treatment.


31/01/1946

Mike Carlton, Australian journalist and radio host

Michael James Carlton, is an Australian former media commentator, radio host, television journalist, author and newspaper columnist. He formerly co-hosted the daily breakfast program on Sydney radio station 2UE with Peter FitzSimons and later Sandy Aloisi.


Terry Kath, American guitarist and singer-songwriter (died 1978)

Terry Alan Kath was an American guitarist and singer who is best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He played lead guitar and sang lead vocals on many of the band's early hit singles alongside Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera. He has been praised by his bandmates and other musicians for his guitar skills and his Ray Charles–influenced vocal style. Jimi Hendrix cited Kath as one of his favorite guitarists and considered him to be "the best guitarist in the universe."


Medin Zhega, Albanian footballer and manager (died 2012)

Medin Zhega was an Albanian professional football manager and player, who played as a forward.


31/01/1945

Rynn Berry, American historian and author (died 2014)

Rynn Berry was an American author and scholar on vegetarianism and veganism, as well as a pioneer in the animal rights and vegan movements.


Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, English lawyer, judge, and academic

Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond,, is a British judge who served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2017 until her retirement in 2020.


Joseph Kosuth, American sculptor and theorist

Joseph Kosuth is an American conceptual artist, who lives in New York and Venice, after having resided in various cities in Europe, including London, Ghent and Rome.


31/01/1944

John Inverarity, Australian cricketer and coach

Robert John Inverarity is a former Australian cricketer who played six Test matches. A right-handed batsman and left-arm orthodox spin bowler in his playing career, Inverarity was also one of the enduring captains in the Australian Sheffield Shield during the late 1970s and early 1980s, captaining both Western Australia and South Australia.


Charlie Musselwhite, American musician and singer-songwriter

Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player and bandleader who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal figure in helping to revive the Chicago Blues movement of the 1960s. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".


31/01/1942

Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress

Daniela Bianchi is an Italian former actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universo Italia 1960 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1960 where she placed 1st Runner-Up. She is known for the role of Bond girl Tatiana Romanova in the 1963 film From Russia with Love.


Derek Jarman, English director, stage designer, and author (died 1994)

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, stage designer, writer, gardener, and gay rights activist, regarded as one of the most influential figures associated with the new queer cinema. Trained originally as a painter, he moved into stage and production design in the late 1960s, including work on Ken Russell's controversial historical 1971 film The Devils, before turning to filmmaking as a director.


31/01/1941

Len Chappell, American basketball player (died 2018)

Leonard Roy Chappell was an American basketball player. He played for 10 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA) and was selected to one NBA All-Star Game. He played college basketball for Wake Forest University in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) from 1959 to 1962. He was the ACC Player of the Year twice, led the ACC in scoring and rebounding in the same season twice, was first-team All-ACC three times, led his team to two ACC tournament championships as the Most Valuable Player both of those years, and was a consensus All-American as a senior while leading his team to the NCAA final four in 1962.


Dick Gephardt, American lawyer and politician

Richard Andrew Gephardt is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who represented Missouri's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House majority leader from 1989 to 1995 and minority leader from 1995 to 2003. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1988 and 2004. Gephardt was mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee in 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2008.


Gerald McDermott, American author and illustrator (died 2012)

Gerald McDermott was an American film-maker, creator of children's picture books, and expert on mythology. His creative works typically combine bright colors and styles with ancient imagery. His picture books feature folktales and cultures from all around the world.


Jessica Walter, American actress (died 2021)

Jessica Ann Walter was an American actress who appeared in more than 170 film, stage, and television productions.


31/01/1940

Kitch Christie, South African rugby player and coach (died 1998)

George Moir Christie, better known as Kitch Christie, was a South African rugby union coach best known for coaching the country's national team, the Springboks, to victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He remained unbeaten during his tenure as Springbok rugby coach between 1994 and 1996, including leading the team to a then record 14 consecutive victories. In 2011, he was inducted posthumously into the IRB Hall of Fame, later subsumed into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.


Stuart Margolin, American actor and director (died 2022)

Stuart Margolin was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He was known for playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin on the 1970s television series The Rockford Files, winning two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He received an additional two Emmy nominations for his directing work, and was also a Directors Guild of America Award winner.


31/01/1938

Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013.


Lynn Carlin, American actress

Mary Lynn Carlin is an American retired actress. For her debut role in the 1968 John Cassavetes film Faces, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first nonprofessional performer to receive an Oscar nomination. She was later nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Milos Forman’s Taking Off (1971).


James G. Watt, American lawyer and politician, 43rd United States Secretary of the Interior (died 2023)

James Gaius Watt was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and civil servant who served as Secretary of the Interior in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1983. He was described as "anti-environmentalist" and was one of Ronald Reagan's most controversial cabinet appointments.


31/01/1937

Regimantas Adomaitis, Lithuanian actor (died 2022)

Regimantas Adomaitis was a Lithuanian film and stage actor. He was also active in Russia and Germany.


Andrée Boucher, Canadian educator and politician, 39th Mayor of Quebec City (died 2007)

Andrée Plamondon Boucher was a Canadian politician from the province of Quebec. She was the mayor of Quebec City from November 19, 2005, until her death. Previously, she had been the mayor of the city of Sainte-Foy, formerly a suburb of Quebec City, from 1985 until 2001, when the cities of Sainte-Foy and Quebec were merged. She was the first woman to become leader of a municipal political party in the province of Quebec.


Philip Glass, American composer

Philip Morris Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. He described himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.


Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (died 2008)

Suzanne Pleshette was an American actress known for her roles in theatre, film, and television. She was nominated for three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. For her role as Emily Hartley on the CBS sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972–1978), she received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.


31/01/1936

Can Bartu, Turkish footballer and basketball player (died 2019)

Can Bartu was a Turkish basketball and football player of Circassian origin. He was the first Turkish footballer to play a final in Europe. His statue was erected in Istanbul. After retirement, he also worked as a pundit and sports journalist.


Franz Ceska, Austrian diplomat (died 2026)

Franz Ceska was an Austrian diplomat. He was the ambassador to Belgium from 1982 to 1988, permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1991, secretary general of the Federation of Austrian Industry from 1992 to 1997, and ambassador to France from 1997 to 2001.


31/01/1935

Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023)

Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism. Ōe was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".


31/01/1934

Ernesto Brambilla, Italian motorcycle racer and racing driver (died 2020)

Ernesto "Tino" Brambilla was a Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and a professional race car driver from Italy. Born in Monza, he was the brother of driver Vittorio Brambilla. In 1959, he finished in tenth place in the 350cc Grand Prix motorcycle season. In 1961, he again finished in tenth place in the 350 class.


James Franciscus, American actor and producer (died 1991)

James Grover Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in feature films and in six television series: Mr. Novak, Naked City, The Investigators, Longstreet, Doc Elliot, and Hunter.


31/01/1933

Camille Henry, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1997)

Joseph Wilfred Camille "The Eel" Henry was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger/centre who played for the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks, and St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League.


Morton Mower, American cardiologist and inventor (died 2022)

Morton Maimon Mower was an American cardiologist specializing in electrophysiology and the co-inventor of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator. He served in several professional capacities at Sinai Hospital and Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. In 1996, he became the chairman and chief executive officer of Mower Research Associates. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 for the development of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator with Michel Mirowski in the 1970s. He continued his research in the biomechanical engineering laboratories at Johns Hopkins University.


31/01/1932

Miron Babiak, Polish sea captain (died 2013)

Miron Babiak was a Polish sea captain who is best known for commanding the RV Profesor Siedlecki Antarctica research ship.


31/01/1931

Ernie Banks, American baseball player and coach (died 2015)

Ernest Banks, nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 in his first year of eligibility, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.


Christopher Chataway, English runner, journalist, and politician (died 2014)

Sir Christopher John Chataway was a British middle- and long-distance runner, television news broadcaster and Conservative politician.


31/01/1930

Joakim Bonnier, Swedish racing driver (died 1972)

Joakim "Jo" Bonnier was a Swedish racing driver and team owner, who competed in Formula One from 1956 to 1971. Bonnier won the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix with BRM.


Al De Lory, American composer, conductor, and producer (died 2012)

Alfred V. De Lory was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston". He was also a member of the 1960s Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, and inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.


31/01/1929

Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)

Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer was a German physicist who shared the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics with Robert Hofstadter for his discovery of the Mössbauer effect, which is the basis for Mössbauer spectroscopy.


Jean Simmons, English-American actress (died 2010)

Jean Merilyn Simmons was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Britain during and after the Second World War, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards.


31/01/1928

Irma Wyman, American computer scientist and engineer (died 2015)

Irma M. Wyman was an early computer engineer and the first woman to become vice president of Honeywell Inc. She was also the first woman to be the company's CIO and was a systems thinking tutor.


31/01/1927

Norm Prescott, American animator, producer, and composer, co-founded Filmation Studios (died 2005)

Norman Zachary Prescott was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Associates, an animation studio he created with veteran animator Lou Scheimer.


Julian Wojtkowski, Polish Roman Catholic prelate and theologian (died 2026)

Julian Andrzej Antoni Wojtkowski was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate and theologian, who served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Warmia from 1969 until his resignation in 2004. He also held the titular see of Murustaga.


31/01/1926

Tom Alston, American baseball player (died 1993)

Thomas Edison Alston was an American Major League Baseball first baseman who played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1954 to 1957, the first African-American to do so. A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, he stood 6'5" (200 cm) and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg).


Chuck Willis, American singer-songwriter (died 1958)

Harold "Chuck" Willis was an American blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll singer and songwriter. His biggest hits, "C. C. Rider" (1957) and "What Am I Living For" (1958), both reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. He was known as 'The King of the Stroll' for his performance of the 1950s dance, the Stroll.


31/01/1925

Benjamin Hooks, American minister, lawyer, and activist (died 2010)

Benjamin Lawson Hooks was an American civil rights leader and government official. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1992.


31/01/1923

Norman Mailer, American journalist and author (died 2007)

Nachem Malech Mailer, known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist, and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II.


31/01/1922

Joanne Dru, American actress (died 1996)

Joanne Dru was an American film and television actress, known for such films as Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, All the King's Men, and Wagon Master.


31/01/1921

John Agar, American actor (died 2002)

John George Agar Jr. was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. In his later career he was the star of B movies, such as Tarantula!, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Revenge of the Creature, Flesh and the Spur and Hand of Death. He was the first husband of Shirley Temple.


Carol Channing, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2019)

Carol Elaine Channing was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Each of her characters typically possessed a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice.


E. Fay Jones, American architect, designed the Thorncrown Chapel (died 2004)

Euine Fay Jones was an American architect and designer. An apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright during his professional career, Jones is the only one of Wright's disciples to have received the AIA Gold Medal (1990), the highest honor awarded by the American Institute of Architects. He also achieved international prominence as an architectural educator during his 35 years of teaching at the University of Arkansas School of Architecture.


Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (died 1959)

Mario Lanza was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16. After appearing at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947, Lanza signed a seven-year film contract with Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who saw his performance and was impressed by his singing. Prior to that, the adult Lanza sang only two performances of an opera. The following year (1948) he sang the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly in New Orleans.


31/01/1920

Stewart Udall, American lawyer and politician, 37th United States Secretary of the Interior (died 2010)

Stewart Lee Udall was an American politician and environmentalist who belonged to the Democratic Party. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. A staunch liberal, he is best known for enthusiastically promoting environmentalism while in the cabinet, with success primarily under President Johnson.


Bert Williams, English footballer (died 2014)

Bert Frederick Williams MBE was an English international football goalkeeper. Nicknamed The Cat, he spent the majority of his playing career at Wolverhampton Wanderers where he won the League Championship and FA Cup. At the time of his death Williams was the oldest living England international.


31/01/1919

Jackie Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1972)

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.


31/01/1915

Bobby Hackett, American trumpet player and cornet player (died 1976)

Robert Leo Hackett was a versatile American jazz musician who played swing music, Dixieland jazz and mood music, now called easy listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he played Dixieland from the 1930s into the 1970s in a variety of groups with many of the major figures in the field, and he was a featured soloist on the first ten of the numerous Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s.


Alan Lomax, American historian, author, and scholar (died 2002)

Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, filmmaker and son of folklorist John Lomax. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the U.S. and in England which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and especially the early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John Lomax, and later, alone and with others. Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.


31/01/1914

Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer and police officer (died 1994)

Arnold Raymond Cream, best known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1930 to 1953. He held the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), National Boxing Association (NBA), and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1951 to 1952, and broke the record for the oldest man to win the title, at the age of 37. That record would hold for over four decades until it was eventually broken in 1994 by 45-year-old George Foreman. Despite holding the world heavyweight title for a relatively short period of time, Walcott was regarded among the best heavyweights in the world during the 1940s and 1950s.


31/01/1913

Don Hutson, American football player and coach (died 1997)

Donald Montgomery Hutson, nicknamed "the Alabama Antelope", was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). In the era of the one-platoon football, he played as an end and spent his entire 11-year career with the Green Bay Packers. Under head coach Curly Lambeau, Hutson led the Packers to four NFL Championship Games, winning three in 1936, 1939, and 1944.


31/01/1909

Miron Grindea, Romanian-English journalist (died 1995)

Miron Grindea was a Romanian-British literary journalist and the editor of ADAM International Review, a literary magazine published for more than 50 years. In 1984, ADAM was said to be "the world's longest surviving literary magazine". Its title was an acronym for "Arts, Drama, Architecture and Music".


31/01/1905

John O'Hara, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1970)

John Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He was one of America's most prolific writers of short stories, credited with helping to invent The New Yorker magazine short story style. He became a best-selling novelist before the age of 30 with Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. While O'Hara's legacy as a writer is debated, his work was praised by such contemporaries as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his champions rank him highly among the major under-appreciated American writers of the 20th century. Few college students educated after O'Hara's death in 1970 have discovered him, chiefly because he refused to allow his work to be reprinted in anthologies used to teach literature at the college level.


31/01/1902

Nat Bailey, Canadian businessman, founded White Spot (died 1978)

Nathaniel Ryal Bailey, better known as Nat Bailey, was an American-born Canadian restaurateur, and the founder of White Spot restaurants. He is known for building the first drive-in restaurant in Canada, in 1928, and developing the first carhop tray. His chain of restaurants continues to thrive today.


Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (died 1968)

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.


Alva Myrdal, Swedish sociologist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)

Alva Myrdal was a Swedish sociologist, diplomat and politician. She was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She, along with Alfonso García Robles, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. She married Gunnar Myrdal in 1924; he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974, making them the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first to win independent of each other.


Julian Steward, American anthropologist (died 1972)

Julian Haynes Steward was an American anthropologist known best for his role in developing "the concept and method" of cultural ecology, as well as a scientific theory of culture change.


31/01/1900

Betty Parsons, American artist, art dealer and collector (died 1982)

Betty Parsons was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic figures of the American avant-garde.


31/01/1896

Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician and historian (died 1966)

Sofya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya was a Soviet mathematician, philosopher and historian, specializing in the history of mathematics, mathematical logic, and philosophy of mathematics. She is best known for her efforts in restoring the research of mathematical logic in the Soviet Union and publishing and editing the mathematical works of Karl Marx.


31/01/1894

Isham Jones, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (died 1956)

Isham Edgar Jones was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.


31/01/1892

Eddie Cantor, American singer-songwriter, actor, and dancer (died 1964)

Edward "Eddie" Cantor was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era.


31/01/1889

Frank Foster, English cricketer (died 1958)

Frank Rowbotham Foster was an English amateur cricketer who played for Warwickshire County Cricket Club from 1908 to 1914, and in Test cricket for England in 1911 and 1912. He was born in Birmingham, educated at Solihull School and died in St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton. His career was cut short after a motor-cycle accident during World War I.


31/01/1884

Theodor Heuss, German journalist and politician, 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany (died 1963)

Theodor Heuss was a German politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His civil demeanour and cordial nature – somewhat a contrast to German nationalist traditions and the stern character of chancellor Konrad Adenauer – largely contributed to the stabilisation of democracy in West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder years. Before beginning his career as a politician, Heuss had been a political journalist. Heuss is remembered as a major representative of social liberalism in Germany.


Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Azerbaijani scholar and politician, 1st President of The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (died 1955)

Mahammad Amin Akhund Haji Molla Alakbar oghlu Rasulzade was an Azerbaijani politician, journalist and the head of the Azerbaijani National Council. He is mainly considered the founder of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 and the father of its statehood. His expression "Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz!" became the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the early 20th century. He faced numerous exiles from both Turkey and Iran. During World War II, Rasulzade attempted to form a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany in order to garner support for an independent Azerbaijan.


31/01/1881

Irving Langmuir, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1957)

Irving Langmuir was an American chemist, physicist, and metallurgical engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.


31/01/1878

Marta Sandal, Norwegian singer (died 1930)

Marta Christine Sandal was a Norwegian mezzo-soprano, best known for singing songs by Edvard Grieg.


31/01/1876

Mette Bull, Norwegian actress (died 1946)

Mette Marie Bull was a Norwegian actress.


31/01/1872

Zane Grey, American author (died 1939)

Zane Grey was an American author. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book.


31/01/1868

Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928)

Theodore William Richards was an American physical chemist and the first American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, earning the award "in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the chemical elements."


31/01/1865

Henri Desgrange, French cyclist and journalist (died 1940)

Henri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres (21.950 mi) on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.


Shastriji Maharaj, Indian spiritual leader, founded BAPS (died 1951)

Shastriji Maharaj, born Dungar Patel and ordained Shastri Yagnapurushdas, was a swami of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya and founder of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). Several branches accept him as the third spiritual successor of Swaminarayan in the lineage of Aksharbrahma Gurus through whom Swaminarayan manifests, which began with Gunatitanand Swami. Born in a family of farmers in central Gujarat, India, he became a swami within the Vadtal diocese of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya at the age of 17 where he was given the name Yagnapurushdas Swami. The prefix Shastri was later added in recognition of his eminent scholarship in Sanskrit and the Hindu scriptures. He established BAPS after a doctrinal split from the Vadtal diocese of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.


31/01/1854

David Emmanuel, Romanian mathematician and academic (died 1941)

David Emmanuel was a Romanian Jewish mathematician and member of the Romanian Academy, considered to be the founder of the modern mathematics school in Romania.


31/01/1835

Lunalilo of Hawaii (died 1874)

Lunalilo was the sixth monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii from his election on January 8, 1873, until his death a year later.


31/01/1820

William B. Washburn, American politician, 28th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1887)

William Barrett Washburn was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. Washburn served several terms in the United States House of Representatives (1863–71) and as the 28th governor of Massachusetts from 1872 to 1874, when he won election to the United States Senate in a special election to succeed the recently deceased Charles Sumner. A moderate Republican, Washburn only partially supported the Radical Republican agenda during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed.


31/01/1799

Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist (died 1846)

Rodolphe Töpffer was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books, which are possibly the earliest European comics. He is known as the father of comic strips and has been credited as the "first comics artist in history."


31/01/1798

Christine Genast, German actress, singer and pianist (died 1860)

Karoline Christine Genast was a German actress, singer and pianist.


31/01/1797

Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (died 1828)

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He was immensely prolific despite living a short life, leaving behind a vast oeuvre of more than 1,000 compositions, including over 600 Lieder and other vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. Among these are the songs "Gretchen am Spinnrade", "Erlkönig" and "Ave Maria"; the Trout Quintet; the Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished); the Symphony No. 9 in C major ; the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor ; the String Quintet in C major; the Impromptus for solo piano; the last three piano sonatas; the Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands; the incidental music to the play Rosamunde; the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise; and the song collection Schwanengesang.


31/01/1785

Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, Czech cookbook author (died 1845)

Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová was a Czech writer known for her famous cookery book.


31/01/1769

André-Jacques Garnerin, French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute (died 1823)

André-Jacques Garnerin was a French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France.


31/01/1759

François Devienne, French flute player and composer (died 1803)

François Devienne was a French composer of the Classical period and professor for flute at the Paris Conservatory.


31/01/1752

Gouverneur Morris, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France (died 1816)

Gouverneur Morris was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution". While most Americans still thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states. He was also one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery among those who were present at the Constitutional Congress. He represented New York in the United States Senate from 1800 to 1803.


31/01/1686

Hans Egede, Norwegian missionary and explorer (died 1758)

Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian Lutheran priest and missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Danish-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.


31/01/1673

Louis de Montfort, French priest and saint (died 1716)

Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, SMM was a French Catholic priest known for his influence on Catholic Mariology. He wrote a number of books that went on to become classic Catholic titles, including Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary, and influenced several popes. He also founded several religious communities, including the Company of Mary.


31/01/1624

Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher and academic (died 1669)

Arnold Geulincx, also known by his pseudonym Philaretus, was a Flemish philosopher, metaphysician, and logician. He was one of the followers of René Descartes who tried to work out more detailed versions of a generally Cartesian philosophy. Samuel Beckett cited Geulincx as a key influence and interlocutor because of Geulincx's emphasis on the powerlessness and ignorance of the human condition.


31/01/1607

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby (died 1651)

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby was an English nobleman, politician, and supporter of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Before inheriting the title in 1642 he was known as Lord Strange. He was feudal Lord of the Isle of Man, where he was known as "Yn Stanlagh Mooar".


31/01/1597

John Francis Regis, French priest and saint (died 1640)

John Francis Regis, SJ, commonly known Saint Regis, was a French Jesuit priest who was canonized in 1737. A tireless preacher and social reformer, Regis is best known for his work with at-risk women and orphans.


31/01/1583

Peter Bulkley, English and later American Puritan (died 1659)

Peter Bulkley was an influential early Puritan minister who left England for greater religious freedom in the American colony of Massachusetts. He was a founder of Concord, and was named by descendant Ralph Waldo Emerson in his poem about Concord, "Hamatreya".


31/01/1543

Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shōgun (died 1616)

Tokugawa Ieyasu was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal, and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga.


31/01/1512

Henry, King of Portugal (died 1580)

Henry, dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King, was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to celibacy, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. He was the only cardinal to have served as a monarch.


Lives Remembered on 30th January

On 30th January, 85 remarkable people passed away — from 632 to 2018. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

31/01/2018

Rasual Butler, American professional basketball player (born 1979)

Rasual Butler was an American professional basketball player. In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs. Butler was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia. After playing college basketball with the La Salle Explorers, he was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NBA draft by the Heat. On January 31, 2018, Butler was behind the wheel when he and his girlfriend, Leah LaBelle, died in a single vehicle car crash in Los Angeles.


Leah LaBelle, American singer (born 1986)

Leah LaBelle Vladowski was an American singer. She rose to prominence in 2004 as a contestant on the third season of American Idol, placing twelfth in the season finals. In 2007, LaBelle began recording covers of R&B and soul music for her YouTube channel. These videos led to work as a backing vocalist starting in 2008 and a record deal in 2011 with Epic in partnership with I Am Other and So So Def Recordings. LaBelle released a sampler, three singles, and a posthumous extended play (EP).


31/01/2017

Rob Stewart, Canadian filmmaker (born 1979)

Rob Stewart was a Canadian photographer, filmmaker and shark conservationist. He was best known for making and directing the documentary films Sharkwater and Revolution. He drowned at the age of 37 while scuba diving in Florida, filming Sharkwater Extinction.


31/01/2016

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

Sir Michael Terence Wogan was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.


31/01/2015

Vic Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1929)

Victor Stanley Howe was a Canadian professional ice hockey right wing. He played 33 games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers between 1951 and 1955. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1948 to 1957, was spent in various minor leagues. Howe's brother, Gordie, and nephews Mark and Marty all played in the NHL as well; both Gordie and Mark are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.


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

Udo Lattek was a German professional football player and coach.


Lizabeth Scott, American actress (born 1922)

Lizabeth Virginia Scott was an American actress, singer, and model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, known for her "smoky voice". She was called "the most beautiful face of film noir during the 1940s and 1950s". After understudying the role of Sabina in the original Broadway and Boston stage productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, she emerged in films including The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Dead Reckoning (1947), Desert Fury (1947), and Too Late for Tears (1949). Of her 22 films, she was the leading lady in all but three. In addition to stage and radio, she appeared on television from the late 1940s to early 1970s.


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

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.


31/01/2014

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

Anna Ruby Gaye was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna label with Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real", and "God Is Love" from Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. The first wife of Gaye, their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 14th studio album, Here, My Dear.


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

Abdirizak Haji Hussein was a Somali diplomat and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Somali Republic from 14 June 1964 to 15 July 1967.


Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director and screenwriter (born 1921)

Miklós Jancsó was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Jancsó achieved international prominence starting in the mid-1960s with works including The Round-Up, The Red and the White, and Red Psalm.


31/01/2013

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

Rubén Bonifaz Nuño was a Mexican poet and classical scholar.


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

Hassan Ebrahim Habibi was an Iranian politician, lawyer, scholar and the first vice president from 1989 until 2001 under Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. He was also a member of the High Council of Cultural Revolution and head of Academy of Persian Language and Literature from 2004 until his death in 2013.


31/01/2012

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

Ch. Mani Ram Bagri was an Indian parliamentarian and political activist. He served three terms in the Indian Parliament, first from 1962 to 1967, and then again from 1977 to 1984 [Consisting of two terms: 1977-1980 and 1980-1984]. He belonged to the league of parliamentary opposition socialists like Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan.


Dorothea Tanning, American painter and sculptor (born 1910)

Dorothea Margaret Tanning was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by European Surrealism.


31/01/2011

Bartolomeu Anania, Romanian bishop and poet (born 1921)

Bartolomeu Anania was a Romanian Orthodox bishop, translator, writer, and poet. He was the Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș.


31/01/2008

František Čapek, Czech canoeist (born 1914)

František Čapek was a Czech sprint canoeist who competed for Czechoslovakia from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. He won a gold medal in the C-1 10000 m event at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.


31/01/2007

Molly Ivins, American journalist and author (born 1944)

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, author, and political commentator, known for her humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies.


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

Adelaide Frances Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid activist and former political exile.


31/01/2006

Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and ballerina (born 1926)

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951), and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).


31/01/2004

Eleanor Holm, American swimmer and actress (born 1913)

Eleanor Grace Theresa Holm was an American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. An Olympian in 1928 and 1932, Holm was expelled from the 1936 Summer Olympics team by Avery Brundage under controversial circumstances. Holm went on to have a high-profile career as a socialite and interior designer and co-starred in a Hollywood Tarzan movie, Tarzan's Revenge.


Suraiya, Indian actress and playback singer (born 1929)

Suraiya Jamal Sheikh, mononymously known as Suraiya, was an Indian actress and playback singer who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was known for her strong on-screen portrayals in a variety of genres. In a career spanning from 1936 to 1964, Suraiya acted in over 70 films and sang 338 songs. Suraiya was the most celebrated actress between the mid- to late 1940s and early 1950s and was paid more than her male counterparts.


31/01/2002

Gabby Gabreski, American colonel and pilot (born 1919)

Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski was a Polish-American career pilot in the United States Air Force who retired as a colonel after 26 years of military service. He was the top American and United States Army Air Forces fighter ace over Europe during World War II and a jet fighter ace with the Air Force in the Korean War.


31/01/2001

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

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.


31/01/2000

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

Gil Kane was an American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.


31/01/1999

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

Shohei Baba , best known by his ring name Giant Baba , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of his mentor Rikidōzan. For the first 10 years of its existence, Baba was the top star of All Japan, while also serving as the booker, promoter, head trainer and president of the promotion from its inception in 1972 till his death in 1999. Baba was also responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime.


31/01/1997

John Joseph Scanlan, Irish American bishop (born 1930)

John Joseph Scanlan was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu in Hawaii from 1968 to 1981. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the same diocese from 1954 to 1968.


31/01/1990

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

Eveline du Bois-Reymond Marcus was a German zoologist and drawer.


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

Rashad Khalifa was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International (USI), an organization that promotes the practice and study of "Quran, the Whole Quran, and Nothing But the Quran." Khalifa saw his role as purging the accretions that found their way into Islam via hadith and sunnah, which he claimed were corruptions. Similarly, he believed that previous revelations of God, such as the Bible, contained contradictions due to human interference . Instead, he believed that the beliefs and practices of Islam should be based on the Quran alone. He is also known for his claims regarding the existence of a Quran code, also known as The Number 19. In the last years of his life, Khalifa used the English words “Submission” and “Submitter” instead of the Arabic words ‘Islam’ and “Muslim”, and stated this in his publications and used it in his 1989 translation of the Qur'an.


31/01/1989

William Stephenson, Canadian captain and spy (born 1896)

Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of British Security Coordination (BSC) for the Western Allies during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence code name, Intrepid. Many people consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson."


31/01/1987

Yves Allégret, French director and screenwriter (born 1907)

Yves Allégret was a French film director, often working in the film noir genre. He was born in Asnières-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine and died in Paris.


31/01/1985

Reginald Baker, English Australian film producer (born 1896)

Reginald Poynton Baker, MC FCA FRSA was a British film producer and a major contributor to the development of the British film industry. Along with his younger brother Leslie Forsyth, he played a decisive role in establishing Ealing Studios. He was the father of Conservative MP Peter Baker. Baker died in Australia aged 89.


Tatsuzō Ishikawa, Japanese author (born 1905)

Tatsuzō Ishikawa was a Japanese writer. He was the first winner of the Akutagawa Prize.


31/01/1979

Olga Olgina, Polish opera singer and teacher (born 1904)

Olga Józefowicz, known professionally as Olga Olgina, was a Polish coloratura soprano, teacher and pianist. She made her debut in the title role of Verdi's La traviata at the Vilnius Opera in 1922 at age 18 and retired in 1977. She taught at the Łódź Conservatory, becoming dean of the institution. Teresa Żylis-Gara was one of her students.


31/01/1976

Ernesto Miranda, American criminal (born 1941)

Ernesto Arturo Miranda was an American laborer whose criminal conviction was set aside in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona, which ruled that criminal suspects must be informed of their right against self-incrimination and their right to consult with an attorney before being questioned by police. This warning is known as a Miranda warning. Miranda had been convicted of kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery charges based on his confession under police interrogation.


Evert Taube, Swedish author and composer (born 1890)

Axel Evert Taube was a Swedish singer, composer, and writer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century.


31/01/1974

Samuel Goldwyn, Polish American film producer, co-founded Goldwyn Pictures (born 1882)

Samuel Goldwyn was a Polish-born American film producer and pioneer in the American film industry, who produced the United States's first major motion picture. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios. He was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (1973), the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947), and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958).


31/01/1973

Ragnar Frisch, Norwegian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)

Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch was an influential Norwegian economist and econometrician known for being one of the major contributors to establishing economics as a quantitative and statistically informed science in the early 20th century. He coined the term econometrics in 1926 for utilising statistical methods to describe economic systems, as well as the terms microeconomics and macroeconomics in 1933, for describing individual and aggregate economic systems, respectively. He was the first to develop a statistically informed model of business cycles in 1933. Later work on the model, together with Jan Tinbergen, won the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969.


31/01/1971

Viktor Zhirmunsky, Russian historian and linguist (born 1891)

Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky was a Soviet and Russian literary historian and linguist.


31/01/1969

Meher Baba, Indian spiritual master (born 1894)

Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or the total manifestation of God in human form. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in India, with a smaller number of followers in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.


31/01/1967

Eddie Tolan, American sprinter and educator (born 1908)

Thomas Edward Tolan, nicknamed the "Midnight Express", was an American track and field athlete who competed in sprints. He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100 meters event and Olympic records in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He was the first non-Euro-American to receive the title of the "world's fastest human" after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In March 1935, Tolan won the 75, 100 and 220-yard events at the World Professional Sprint Championships in Melbourne to become the first man to win both the amateur and professional world sprint championships. In his full career as a sprinter, Tolan won 300 races and lost only 7.


31/01/1966

Arthur Percival, English general (born 1887)

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, was a British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period, but is best known for his defeat in the Second World War, when Percival commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Malayan campaign, which culminated in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Singapore.


31/01/1961

Krishna Singh, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar (born 1887)

Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar. He was the first chief minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He was imprisoned for a total of about eight years in British India. He held mass meetings at which he spoke. He was known as Bihar Kesari for his "lionlike roars" in public speaking.


31/01/1960

Auguste Herbin, French painter (born 1882)

Auguste Herbin was a French painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubist and abstract paintings consisting of colorful geometric figures. He co-founded the groups Abstraction-Création and Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, which promoted non-figurative abstract art.


31/01/1958

Karl Selter, Estonian politician, 14th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1898)

Karl Selter was an Estonian politician and a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. He served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1933 to 1938 and as minister of Foreign affairs from 1938 to 1939. His historically most memorable act was to sign a non-aggression and mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet leaders in Moscow in September 1939. This was also his personal and national Estonian most tragic act. It followed a brutal ultimatum from the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov on 24 September. Molotov said to Selter: Estonia gained sovereignty when the Soviet Union was powerless, but you “don’t think that this can last… forever… The Soviet Union is now a great power whose interests need to be taken into consideration. I tell you—the Soviet Union needs enlargement of her security guarantee system; for this purpose she needs an exit to the Baltic Sea … I ask you, do not compel us to use force against Estonia.” The enforced in this manner treaty gave the Soviet army a right to set up military bases in Estonia, and it significantly reduced Estonia's independence until Estonia was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union between June and August 1940. Selter left Estonia in November 1939, resigning both as Foreign Minister and as a member of Parliament. He moved to Geneva, Switzerland as a diplomat. After Germany occupied Estonia between 1941 and 1944, and after it was re-incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944, he stayed in Switzerland as an exiled diplomat and politician.


31/01/1956

A. A. Milne, English author, poet and playwright, created Winnie-the-Pooh (born 1882)

Alan Alexander Milne was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed his previous work. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War and as a captain in the Home Guard in the Second World War.


31/01/1955

John Mott, American activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)

John Raleigh Mott was an American evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant Christian student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with Emily Greene Balch. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. He helped found the World Student Christian Federation in 1895, the 1910 World Missionary Conference and the World Council of Churches in 1948. His best-known book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.


31/01/1954

Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (born 1890)

Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American radio-frequency engineer and inventor who developed FM radio and the superheterodyne receiver system.


31/01/1944

Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright (born 1882)

Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.


31/01/1933

John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867)

John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called The Forsyte Saga, and two later trilogies, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature.


31/01/1923

Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic (born 1869)

Eligiusz Józef Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who sympathized with the right-wing National Democracy movement. In 1922, he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz, in his first week in office as president.


31/01/1911

Paul Singer, German politician (born 1844)

Paul Singer was a leading Marxist in and representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Co-Chairmen of the SPD along with fellow Marxist August Bebel from 1890 until his death in 1911. His grave now forms part of the Memorial to the Socialists in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, Berlin.


31/01/1900

John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Scottish nobleman (born 1844)

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry was a British nobleman of the Victorian era, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the "Queensberry Rules" that form the basis of modern boxing, and for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde.


31/01/1892

Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (born 1834)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers." He was a strong figure in the Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.


31/01/1888

John Bosco, Italian priest and educator, founded the Salesian Society (born 1815)

John Melchior Bosco, SDB, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, and writer. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.


31/01/1870

Cilibi Moise, Moldavian Romanian journalist and author (born 1812)

Cilibi Moise or Cilibi Moisi was a Moldavian-born Wallachian and Romanian peddler, humorist, aphorist, and raconteur. He is best known for the aphorisms and anecdotes attributed to him, which, although recorded in Romanian, represent an important segment of the local secular Jewish culture and Jewish humor in the 19th century. Moise relied on others to record his own creations, and these often refer to him using the third person, which made him a stock character.


31/01/1856

11th Dalai Lama (born 1838)

The 11th Dalai Lama, Khedrup Gyatso was recognized by the Ganden Tripa as the 11th Dalai Lama of Tibet and enthroned in 1842. He enlarged the Norbulingka, studied at Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery and Ganden Monastery, and taught students.


31/01/1844

Henri Gatien Bertrand, French general (born 1773)

Henri-Gatien Bertrand was a French general who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Under the Empire he was the third and last Grand marshal of the palace, the head of the Military Household of emperor Napoleon, whom he followed in both the exiles to Elba and Saint Helena.


31/01/1836

John Cheyne, English physician and author (born 1777)

John Cheyne FRSE FKQCPI was a British physician, surgeon, Professor of Medicine in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and author of monographs on a number of medical topics. He was one of the people to identify Cheyne–Stokes respiration.


31/01/1828

Alexander Ypsilantis, Greek general (born 1792)

Alexandros Ypsilantis was a Greek nationalist politician who was member of a prominent Phanariot Greek family, a prince of the Danubian Principalities, a senior officer of the Imperial Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars, and a leader of the Filiki Etaireia, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.


31/01/1815

José Félix Ribas, Venezuelan soldier (born 1775)

José Félix Ribas was a Venezuelan independence leader and hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence.


31/01/1811

Manuel Alberti, Argentinian priest and journalist (born 1763)

Manuel Maximiliano Alberti was an Argentine priest from Buenos Aires when the city was part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He had a curacy at Maldonado, Uruguay during the British invasions of the River Plate, and returned to Buenos Aires in time to take part in the May Revolution of 1810. He was chosen as one of the seven members of the Primera Junta, considered the first national government of Argentina. Alberti supported most of the proposals of Mariano Moreno and worked at the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres newspaper. Internal disputes among Junta members had a negative effect on Alberti's health, and he died of a heart attack in 1811.


31/01/1794

Mariot Arbuthnot, English admiral and politician, 12th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (born 1711)

Admiral of the Blue Mariot Arbuthnot was a Royal Navy officer who served in the American War of Independence.


31/01/1790

Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American lawyer and surveyor (born 1718)

Thomas Lewis was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, politician and pioneer of early western Virginia. He was among the signers of the Fairfax Resolves, represented Augusta County at four of the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions and the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, represented newly established Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratification Convention, as well as contributed to the settlement of Kanawha County that, long after his death, become part of West Virginia.


31/01/1736

Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect and set designer, designed the Basilica of Superga (born 1678)

Filippo Juvarra or Juvara was an Italian architect, scenographer, engraver and goldsmith. He was active in a late-Baroque architecture style, working primarily in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.


31/01/1729

Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (born 1659)

Jacob Roggeveen was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis and Davis Land, but instead found Easter Island. Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to find Bora Bora and Maupiti of the Society Islands, as well as Samoa. He planned the expedition along with his brother Jan Roggeveen, who stayed in the Netherlands.


31/01/1720

Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1654)

Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, PC was an English politician.


31/01/1686

Jean Mairet, French playwright (born 1604)

Jean (de) Mairet was a classical French dramatist who wrote both tragedies and comedies.


31/01/1665

Johannes Clauberg, German philosopher and theologian (born 1622)

Johannes Clauberg was a German philosopher and theologian. Clauberg was the founding Rector of the first University of Duisburg, where he taught from 1655 to 1665. He is known as a "scholastic cartesian".


31/01/1632

Jost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (born 1552)

Jost Bürgi, active primarily at the courts in Kassel and Prague, was a Swiss clockmaker, mathematician, and writer. Burgi was the brother-in-law and adoptive father of Benjamin Bramer.


31/01/1615

Claudio Acquaviva, Italian priest, 5th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (born 1543)

Claudio Acquaviva, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest. Elected in 1581 as the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, he has been referred to as the second founder of the Jesuit order.


31/01/1606

Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (born 1570)

Guy Fawkes, also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.


Ambrose Rookwood, English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1578)

Ambrose Rookwood was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic sovereign. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits in Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two younger brothers were ordained as Catholic priests. Rookwood became a horse-breeder. He married the Catholic Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, and had at least two sons.


Thomas Wintour, English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1571)

Robert Wintour and Thomas Wintour, also spelt Winter, were members of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I. They were brothers, and related to other conspirators, such as their cousin, Robert Catesby; a half-brother, John Wintour, also joined them following the plot's failure. Thomas was an intelligent and educated man, fluent in several languages and trained as a lawyer, but chose instead to become a soldier, fighting for England in the Low Countries, France, and possibly in Central Europe. By 1600, however, he changed his mind and became a fervent Catholic. On several occasions he travelled to the continent and entreated Spain on behalf of England's oppressed Catholics, and suggested that with Spanish support a Catholic rebellion was likely.


31/01/1580

Henry, king of Portugal (born 1512)

Henry, dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King, was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to celibacy, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. He was the only cardinal to have served as a monarch.


31/01/1561

Bairam Khan, Mughalan general (born 1501)

Muhammad Bairam Khan, commonly known as Bairam Khan or Bayram Khan was an important military commander, and later commander-in-chief of the Mughal army, a powerful statesman and regent at the court of the Mughal Emperors Humayun and Akbar. He was also the guardian, chief mentor, adviser, teacher and the most trusted ally of Akbar. Akbar honoured him as Khan-i-Khanan, which means "King of Kings". Bairam was originally called Bairam "Beg", but later became honoured as Khan. Bairam Khan was an aggressive general who was determined to restore Mughal authority in India.


Menno Simons, Dutch minister and theologian (born 1496)

Menno Simons was a Roman Catholic priest from the Friesland region of the Low Countries who renounced the Catholic Church and became an influential Anabaptist religious leader. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and it is from his name that his followers became known as Mennonites.


31/01/1435

Xuande, emperor of China (born 1398)

The Xuande Emperor, personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1425 to 1435. He succeeded his father, the Hongxi Emperor.


31/01/1418

Mircea I, prince of Wallachia (born 1355)

Mircea the Elder was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and brother of Dan I of Wallachia, after whose death he inherited the throne.


31/01/1398

Sukō, emperor of Japan (born 1334)

Emperor Sukō was the third of the Emperors of Northern Court during the Period of the Northern and Southern Courts in Japan. According to pre-Meiji scholars, his reign spanned the years from 1348 through 1351.


31/01/1216

Theodore II, patriarch of Constantinople

Theodore II of Constantinople, also known as Theodore Kopas or Koupas (Κωπᾶς/Κουπᾶς), was a high-ranking Byzantine official and chief minister during most of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos. After the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, he fled to the Empire of Nicaea, where he became a monk and served as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in exile in 1213–1216.


31/01/1030

William V, duke of Aquitaine (born 969)

William the Great was duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou from 990 until his death. Upon the death of the emperor Henry II, he was offered the kingdom of Italy but declined to contest the title against Conrad II.


31/01/0985

Ryōgen, Japanese monk and abbot (born 912)

Ryōgen was the 18th chief abbot of Enryaku-ji in the 10th century.


31/01/0876

Hemma of Altdorf, Frankish queen

Emma of Altdorf, also known as Hemma, a member of the Elder House of Welf, was Queen consort of East Francia by marriage to King Louis the German, from 843 until her death.


31/01/0632

Máedóc of Ferns, Irish bishop and saint (born 550)

Saint Máedóc of Ferns, also known as Saint Aidan, Saint Madoc or Saint Mogue, was an Irish saint. He was the first Bishop of Ferns in County Wexford, and the founder of thirty churches.


Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 30th January

Christian feast day: Domitius (Domice) of Amiens

Saint Domitius (Domice) of Amiens is a French saint, venerated especially in the diocese of Amiens.


Christian feast day: Francis Xavier Bianchi

Francis Xavier Mary Bianchi, was an Italian Barnabite priest and noted scholar, who also gained a reputation for sanctity during his lifetime from both his commitment to his students and to the poor of Naples. He has been proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church and declared the Apostle of the city.


Christian feast day: Geminianus

Saint Geminianus was a fourth-century deacon who became Bishop of Modena. He is mentioned in the year 390, when he participated in a council called by Saint Ambrose in Milan. From his name, it has been deduced that Geminianus probably belonged to the caste of Roman senators.


Christian feast day: John Bosco

John Melchior Bosco, SDB, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, and writer. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.


Christian feast day: Julius of Novara

Julius of Novara, also Julius of Aegina was a missionary priest to northern Italy.


Christian feast day: Blessed Ludovica

Ludovica Albertoni was an Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman from the Renaissance period and a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. The death of her husband prompted her to dedicate her life to the service of the poor in Rome and she was also known for her ecstatic experiences.


Christian feast day: Máedóc (Mogue, Aiden)

Saint Máedóc of Ferns, also known as Saint Aidan, Saint Madoc or Saint Mogue, was an Irish saint. He was the first Bishop of Ferns in County Wexford, and the founder of thirty churches.


Christian feast day: Marcella of Marseille

Marcella, according to Catholic tradition, was a disciple of Jesus and a servant of the brothers of Bethany. She is known for being the companion of Saint Martha during the Christianization of the current French region of Provence.


Christian feast day: Marcella of Rome

Marcella (325–410) is a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches as well as the Anglican Communion. She was a Christian ascetic in the Western Roman Empire.


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

Samuel Moor Shoemaker III DD, STD was an American priest in the Episcopal Church and a founding influence of Alcoholics Anonymous.


Christian feast day: Tysul

Tysul was a 5th-century pre-canonical saint and patron saint of the churches of Llandysul in Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) and Llandyssil in Maldwyn (Montgomeryshire), Powys. Tysul’s full name was Tysul ap Corun ap Cunedda – or son of Corun, son of Cunedda. His feast day is 31 January.


Christian feast day: Ulphia

Ulphia of Amiens is a Christian saint, venerated particularly at Amiens. Her feast day is January 31.


Christian feast day: Wilgils

Wilgils of Ripon, also known as Wilgisl and Hilgis, was a seventh century saint and hermit of Anglo-Saxon England, who was the father of St Willibrord. His feast day is 31 January.


Christian feast day: January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

January 30 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - February 1


Amartithi (Meherabad, India, followers of Meher Baba)

Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or the total manifestation of God in human form. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in India, with a smaller number of followers in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.


Independence Day (Nauru), celebrates independence from Australia in 1968.

This is a list of holidays in Nauru, an island nation in Micronesia.


Street Children's Day (Austria)

The non-profit organisation Jugend Eine Welt – Don Bosco Aktion Austria was founded at the inaugural meeting on 28 June 1997. Following a reorganisation in January 2007 it has been called Jugend Eine Welt – Don Bosco Aktion Österreich. Jugend Eine Welt Austria pursues the objectives of promoting aid to youth both nationally and internationally and sustainable development cooperation.


What Happened on 30th January?

57 significant events took place on Sunday, 30th January — stretching from 314 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

31/01/2025

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

Med Jets Flight 056 was a medevac flight from Northeast Philadelphia Airport to Tijuana International Airport with a planned refueling stop at Springfield–Branson National Airport, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance. On January 31, 2025, a Learjet 55 operating that flight crashed in the Castor Gardens neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board and two people on the ground.


31/01/2023

The 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".

The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. It was conceived in response to the demand of Pan Am for a jet 2+1⁄2 times the size of the 707, which had been introduced in October 1958, to reduce the airline's seat cost by 30%. The design team was led by Joe Sutter, who left the 737 development program in 1965 to design the 747. In April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 Boeing 747-100 aircraft, and in late 1966, Pratt & Whitney agreed to develop the JT9D engine, a high-bypass turbofan. On September 30, 1968, the first 747 was rolled out of the custom-built Everett Plant, the world's largest building by volume. The 747's first flight took place on February 9, 1969, and the 747 was certified in December 1969. It entered service with Pan Am on January 22, 1970. The 747 was the first airplane called a "Jumbo Jet" as the first wide-body airliner.


31/01/2022

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

Susan Ann Gray, Baroness Gray of Tottenham, is a British politician, special adviser, and former civil servant who served as Downing Street Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Keir Starmer from July to October 2024, having previously served under Starmer as chief of staff to the Leader of the Opposition from 2023 to 2024.


31/01/2020

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

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). It shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea, while maintaining sovereignty over the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. The capital and largest city of England and the UK is London; Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.


31/01/2019

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

Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah has been the sixth sultan of Pahang since ascending to the throne in 2019. He previously reigned as the King of Malaysia from 2019 until 2024.


31/01/2009

At 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.

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 53.3 million as of mid-2025, it is the 27th-most populous country in the world and the seventh-most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. The second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Its geography, climate and population vary. In western Rift Valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops with surrounding forests, wildlife, and fertile agricultural regions in temperate climates. In other areas there are dry, arid, and semi-arid climates, as well as absolute deserts.


31/01/2007

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

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Produced by Williams Street, it documents the surreal adventures and antics of three anthropomorphic fast food items: Master Shake, Meatwad, and Frylock, who live together as roommates and frequently interact with their cranky human next-door neighbor, Carl.


31/01/2003

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

At approximately 7:15 am AEDT, on 31 January 2003, south of Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia, an Intercity Tangara G set derailed on a curve at high speeds when the driver had a heart attack, falling unconscious, and the deadman's brake failed. The incident killed seven people aboard, including the train driver, and injured 40. The accident is notably remembered by systems engineers due to the poorly designed safety systems.


31/01/2001

In 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.

Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. With an area of almost 1.8 million km2 (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. The country claims 32,000 square kilometres of southeastern Algeria, south of the Libyan town of Ghat. The capital and largest city is Tripoli, located in the northwest and containing over a million of Libya's seven million people.


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

Japan Airlines (JAL) is a major Japanese airline headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The airline's main hubs are Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai and Itami airports. The JAL group comprises Japan Airlines, Hokkaido Air System, J-Air, Japan Air Commuter, Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter for domestic feeder services, and JAL Cargo for cargo and mail services, as well as low-cost carriers Zipair Tokyo and Jetstar Japan.


31/01/2000

Alaska 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.

Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. On January 31, 2000, the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operating the flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean roughly 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, while attempting to divert to Los Angeles International Airport. The accident killed all 88 on board – two pilots, three cabin crew members, and 83 passengers.


31/01/1996

An 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.

The Central Bank bombing was one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the separatist civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers.


31/01/1988

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

Douglas Lee Williams is an American professional football executive and former quarterback and coach who is a senior advisor for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). Williams was the first black quarterback to both start and win a Super Bowl, doing so with Washington in Super Bowl XXII when they were known as the Redskins. He was named Super Bowl MVP after throwing four touchdowns in a single quarter.


31/01/1978

The 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.

The Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the coronation crown used by the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence; kings were crowned with it from the 12th century on. The Crown symbolized the King's authority over the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and it was a key mark of legitimacy. Through the history of Hungary, more than 50 kings were crowned with it, with the last being Charles IV in 1916. The only kings not crowned were Wladyslaw I, John Sigismund Zápolya, and Joseph II. The earliest contemporary written source concerning the elevation of Stephen to kingship is the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, which records the event within the political and imperial context of the reign of Emperor Otto III. According to Thietmar, Stephen's elevation took place at imperial initiative, and the coronation was carried out together with an ecclesiastical blessing:"Imperatoris autem praedicti gratia et hortatu … coronam et benedictionem accepit."


31/01/1971

Apollo 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.

The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was conceived in 1960 in the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidency during Project Mercury and executed after Project Gemini. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal, "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in his address to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961.


The 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.

The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from January 31, 1971, to February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War. The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. The three-day gathering of 109 veterans and 16 civilians took place in Detroit, Michigan. Discharged servicemen from each branch of the armed forces, as well as civilian contractors, medical personnel and academics, all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years 1963–1970.


31/01/1968

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.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.


31/01/1966

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

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.


31/01/1961

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

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.83 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.


31/01/1958

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

The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard to intercontinental ballistic missile and satellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic landers to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.


31/01/1957

Eight 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.

Pacoima is a neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley, within the city of Los Angeles, California. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley.


31/01/1953

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

The North Sea flood of 1953, also known as the Big Flood or East Coast Flood or as the Flood Disaster, was a flood caused by a heavy storm surge in the North Sea that struck low-lying coastal areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. More than 2,000 people were killed on land and hundreds more at sea. It was the worst natural disaster of the 20th century in the United Kingdom and the worst in the Netherlands since the Middle Ages.


31/01/1951

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

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 90 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 31 January 1951. It resolved to remove the item "Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea" from the list of matters of which the Council is seized.


31/01/1949

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

These Are My Children is an American television soap opera, or novella, that ran on NBC from January 31 to March 4, 1949. The show was broadcast live from WNBQ in Chicago, Illinois, airing 15 minutes a day, five days a week, at 5 p.m. EST. It is widely credited as the first soap opera broadcast on television. It may be more accurately described as the first daytime drama or the first soap opera strip, as it was preceded by DuMont series Faraway Hill in 1946 and Highway to the Stars in 1947, both of which are described as soap operas but aired later in the evenings and broadcast only once a week; Guiding Light had also been in production for 12 years once These Are My Children debuted, but only as a radio series - its TV version did not debut until 1952.


31/01/1946

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).

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.


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

The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty recognized in July 1954, after which it became commonly known as North Vietnam. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it opposed the anti-communist, French-supported State of Vietnam and later the Western-allied Republic of Vietnam. North Vietnam launched a successful military offensive against South Vietnam in 1975 and ceased to exist the following year when it merged with the South to become the contemporary Socialist Republic of Vietnam.


31/01/1945

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

Edward Donald Slovik was an American soldier who was court-martialed and executed for desertion during World War II. He was the only US serviceman to have met such a fate since the American Civil War, though in 1902, during the American-Philippine War, two American soldiers of the 9th Cavalry Regiment were executed for "desertion to the enemy". Although over 21,000 American servicemen were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II, including 49 death sentences, Slovik's death sentence was the only one that was carried out. The case was brought to public attention by the 1954 book The Execution of Private Slovik by William Bradford Huie, later made into an NBC 1974 television movie.


World 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.

Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-annexed Free City of Danzig. The camp was set up around existing structures after the invasion of Poland in World War II and initially used for the imprisonment of Polish leaders and intelligentsia. The actual barracks were built the following year by prisoners. Most of the infrastructure of the concentration camp was either destroyed or dismantled shortly after the war. In 1962, the former concentration camp with its remaining structures was turned into a memorial museum.


World 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 Peninsula.

The Battle of Hill 170 was a battle between the British 3rd Commando Brigade and the Japanese 54th Division during the Second World War. The battle was fought in January 1945, as part of the Burma Campaign.


31/01/1944

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

Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents often shorten to Kwaj. The total land area of the atoll is just over 6 square miles (16 km2). It lies in the Ralik Chain, 2,100 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.


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.

The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced 22 January 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on 4 June 1944, with the invasion of Rome. The operation was opposed by German and by Italian Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno.


31/01/1943

World 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.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II who is best known for his surrender of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle ended in disaster for the Wehrmacht when Soviet forces encircled the Germans within the city, leading to the ultimate death or capture of most of the 265,000-strong 6th Army, their Axis allies, and collaborators.


31/01/1942

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

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.


31/01/1928

Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata.

Lev Davidovich Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.


31/01/1919

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

The Battle of George Square was a violent confrontation in Glasgow, Scotland between City of Glasgow Police and striking workers, centred around George Square. The "battle", also known as "Bloody Friday" or "Black Friday", took place on Friday 31 January 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War. During the riot, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire called for military aid, and government troops, supported by six tanks, were moved to key points in the city, though troops never clashed with the rioters. The strike leaders were arrested for inciting the riot. Although it is often stated that there were no fatalities, one police constable died several months later from injuries received during the rioting.


31/01/1918

A 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.

The Battle of May Island is the name given to the series of accidents that occurred during Operation E.C.1 in 1918. Named after the Isle of May, a nearby island in the Firth of Forth, the "battle" consisted of a disastrous series of accidents amongst Royal Navy vessels on their way from Rosyth, Scotland, to fleet exercises in the North Sea. On the misty night of 31 January–1 February 1918, five collisions occurred between eight vessels. Two K-class submarines were lost and four other submarines and a scout cruiser were damaged. 105 British sailors in total died in the accidents.


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

The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of recently independent Finland between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The belligerents were the paramilitary Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party with backup of the Russian bolsheviks, and the paramilitary White Guards of the senate. General C. G. E. Mannerheim led the White Guards with major assistance by both the Finnish Jäger Battalion trained in Germany and the German Imperial Army, along the German goal to control Fennoscandia and Petrograd of Russia. The Reds, composed of industrial and agrarian working class people, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The Whites, composed of land owners and the middle and upper class, controlled the rural central and northern Finland.


31/01/1917

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

Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor from 1888 until his abdication in 1918. His fall from power marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty's 400-year rule over Prussia.


31/01/1915

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

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.


31/01/1901

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

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer. Widely considered one of the greatest writers of all time, his career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov was a physician by profession. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress."


31/01/1900

Datu Muhammad Salleh is killed in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion.

The Mat Salleh Rebellion was a series of major armed disturbances against the British North Borneo Chartered Company administration in North Borneo, now the Malaysian state of Sabah. It was instigated by Datu Muhammad Salleh, a local chief from the Lingkabo district and Sugut River. He led the rebellion between 1894 until his death in Tambunan in 1900. The rebellion then continued on for another five years until 1905.


31/01/1891

History of Portugal: The first attempt at a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.

The Kingdom of Portugal under the House of Braganza was a constitutional monarchy from the end of the Liberal Civil War in 1834 to the Republican Revolution of 1910. The initial turmoil of coups d'état perpetrated by the victorious generals of the Civil War was followed by an unstable parliamentary system of governmental "rotation" marked by the growth of the Portuguese Republican Party. This was caused mainly by the inefficiency of the Portuguese monarchy as well as their lack of interest in governing the country and acceptance of the 1890 British Ultimatum, which forced the abandonment of the colonialist Pink Map attempt to unite the colonies of Angola and Mozambique.


31/01/1865

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.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.


American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief of all Confederate armies.

The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States from 1861 to 1865. It comprised 11 U.S. states that declared secession: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These states fought against the United States during the American Civil War.


31/01/1862

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.

Alvan Graham Clark was an American astronomer and telescope-maker.


31/01/1848

John C. Frémont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.

Major-General John Charles Frémont was a United States Army officer, explorer, and politician. He was a United States senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the U.S. in 1856 and founder of the California Republican Party upon being nominated. Frémont lost the election to Democrat James Buchanan.


31/01/1846

After the Milwaukee Bridge War, the United States towns of Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify to create the City of Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Bridge War, sometimes simply the Bridge War, was an 1845 conflict between people from different regions of what is now the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over the construction of a bridge crossing the Milwaukee River.


31/01/1814

Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina).

Gervasio Antonio de Posadas y Dávila was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as the first Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata from 31 January 1814 to 9 January 1815, after having been a member of the Second Triumvirate in 1813–1814.


31/01/1747

The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.

A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also known as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral sex, or sometimes manual sex. STIs often do not initially cause symptoms, which results in a risk of transmitting them to others. The term sexually transmitted infection is generally preferred over sexually transmitted disease or venereal disease, as it includes cases with no symptomatic disease. Symptoms and signs of STIs may include vaginal discharge, penile discharge, ulcers on or around the genitals, and pelvic pain. Some STIs can cause infertility.


31/01/1703

Forty-seven rōnin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka.

The revenge of the forty-seven rōnin , also known as the Akō incident or Akō vendetta, was a historical event in Japan in which a band of rōnin avenged the death of their former master on 31 January 1703. The incident has since become legendary. It is among the three major vengeance incidents in Japan, along with the Revenge of the Soga Brothers and the Igagoe vendetta.


31/01/1609

Wisselbank of Amsterdam established

The Bank of Amsterdam or Wisselbank was an early bank, vouched for by the city of Amsterdam, and established in 1609. It was the first public bank to offer accounts not directly convertible to coin. As such, it has been described by some as the first true central bank, even though that view is not uniformly shared. The Amsterdam Wisselbank was also active in the production of coins. For decades the assay master of the Bank sent out stocks of gold and silver to the various Mints in the United Netherlands to receive new coins in return.


31/01/1606

Gunpowder Plot: Four of the conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, are executed for treason by hanging, drawing and quartering, for plotting against Parliament and King James.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby.


31/01/1578

Eighty Years' War and Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Gembloux is a victory for Spanish forces led by Don John of Austria over a rebel army of Dutch, Flemish, English, Scottish, German, French and Walloons.

The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.


31/01/1504

The Treaty of Lyon ends the Italian War, confirming French domination of northern Italy, while Spain receives the Kingdom of Naples.

The Italian Wars of 1499–1504 are divided into two connected, but distinct, phases: the Second Italian War (1499–1501), sometimes known as Louis XII's Italian War, and the Third Italian War (1502–1504) or War over Naples. The first phase was fought for control of the Duchy of Milan by an alliance of Louis XII of France and the Republic of Venice against Ludovico Sforza, the second between Louis and Ferdinand II of Aragon for possession of the Kingdom of Naples.


31/01/1266

The Mudéjar of Murcia, who had rebelled against the Crown of Castile during the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, surrender the city to James I of Aragon after a siege lasting a month.

Mudéjar were Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period following the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for Mudéjar art, which was greatly influenced by Islamic art, but produced typically by Christian craftsmen for Christian patrons. Mudéjar was used in contrast to both Muslims in Muslim-ruled areas and Moriscos, who were often forcibly converted and may or may not have continued to secretly practice Islam. The corresponding term for Christians living under Muslim rule is Mozarabs.


31/01/1208

The Battle of Lena takes place between King Sverker II of Sweden and his rival, Prince Eric, whose victory puts him on the throne as King Eric X of Sweden.

The Battle of Lena occurred on 31 January 1208 and probably took place near Kungslena, in the Tidaholm Municipality in Västergötland, Sweden. It was an important battle between the Danish-backed King Sverker II of Sweden and Prince Eric. Eric's forces won a crushing victory; however, in July 1210, Sverker returned with a second army and was killed in the Battle of Gestilren.


31/01/0314

Pope Sylvester I is consecrated, as successor to the late Pope Miltiades.

Pope Sylvester I was the bishop of Rome from 31 January 314 until his death on 31 December 335. He filled the See of Rome at an important era in the history of the Western Church, though very little is known of his life.