Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 31
This is a list of selected January 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
| ← January 30 | February 1 → |
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Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Mercury-Redstone 2 -
Ham the Chimp
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Zuid-Beveland in the Netherlands during the North Sea flood of 1953 -
Sirius -
Explorer 1 satellite
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1876 – The United States ordered all Native Americans to move into reservations. | Need to verify date |
| 1917 – World War I: Germany announced its U-boats would resume unrestricted submarine warfare, less than two years after having suspended its attacks after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. | {{refimprove}} |
| 1919 – Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotland, and was only quelled when the British government sent tanks to restore order. | refimprove |
| 1946 – In the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a new constitution established the six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. | promotional content, refimprove |
| 1953 – The North Sea flood and its associated storm began hitting the coastlines of several European countries along the North Sea, eventually killing more than 2,000 people. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
Eligible
- 1801 – John Marshall became the fourth Chief Justice of the United States; his court opinions would help lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a coequal branch of government.
- 1862 – American astronomer Alvan Graham Clark first observed the faint white dwarf companion of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
- 1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years.
- 1942 – Second World War: Allied forces retreated from British Malaya to Singapore, ceding control of the country to Japan.
- 1943 – World War II: American and Australian forces stopped a Japanese advance in the Battle of Wau during the New Guinea campaign.
- 1945 – World War II: Eddie Slovik became the only American soldier executed for desertion since the American Civil War.
- 1958 – Explorer 1, the United States' first satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and became the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt.
- 1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp became the first hominid launched into outer space.
- 1996 – Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake discovered Comet Hyakutake, which was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years.
- 2000 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261, experiencing problems with its horizontal stabilizer system, crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California's Anacapa Island, killing all 88 people on board.
- 2001 – Scottish judges sitting in court in the Netherlands convicted Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of 270 counts of murder in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
- 2007 – Suspects were arrested in Birmingham, UK, accused of plotting to kidnap, and eventually behead, a Muslim British soldier serving in Iraq.
- 2011 – Days after a major blizzard struck the northeastern United States and Canada, a second, more powerful storm swept across the continent from the Mountain States to the eastern seaboard and caused $1.8 billion in damage.
Notes
- Pope Sergius III appears on January 29, so Sylvester I should not appear in the same year
- Supreme Court of the United States appears on February 1, so John Marshall should not appear in the same year.
January 31: Lunar New Year (Chinese calendar, 2014); Independence Day in Nauru (1968)
- 314 – Sylvester I, during whose pontificate the great churches of Rome were built, began his reign as pope.
- 1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
- 1846 – After having come to blows over the construction of a bridge, the citizens of two neighboring towns united to form the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (skyline pictured).
- 1971 – The Vietnam Veterans Against the War opened the Winter Soldier Investigation, a three-day media event to publicize war crimes and other atrocities by American forces and their allies during the Vietnam War.
- 2010 – Avatar became the first film to earn over $2 billion worldwide.