On this day: 31 January
Events, births and deaths on 31 January. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Events · Med Jets Flight 056
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Terry Wogan
100 years ago1926
Within 10 years of that
- 1933 · Deaths · John Galsworthy
- 1935 · Births · Kenzaburō Ōe
- 1923 · Births · Norman Mailer
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1030 · Deaths · William V, Duke of Aquitaine
Events · 21
- 1208Battle of Lena — 1208 middle ages battle
- 1578(Julian date)Battle of Gembloux — 1578 battle during the Eighty Years' War
- 1609Bank of Amsterdam — Early (Dutch) bank
- 1846Milwaukee — city in and county seat of Milwaukee County, and largest city in State of Wisconsin, United States
- 1915Battle of Bolimów — battle in 1915 during the First World War
- 1918Battle of May Island — British friendly-fire naval disaster
- 1919Battle of George Square — 1919 violent confrontation in Glasgow, Scotland
- 1953North Sea flood of 1953 — late January-early February 1953 North sea flood storm
- 1957Pacoima aircraft accident — Mid-air collision
- 1968Nauru — country in Oceania
- 1971Winter Soldier Investigation — inquiry into war crimes resulting from United States policies in the Vietnam War
- 1974Laju incident — ferry hijacking in Singapore
- 1988Super Bowl XXII — 1988 edition of the Super Bowl
- 1996Central Bank bombing — 1996 terrorist attack in Sri Lanka
- 2000Alaska Airlines Flight 261 — fatal aviation accident that occurred on January 31, 2000 over the Pacific Ocean
- 20012001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident — 2001 aviation accident in Japan
- 2007Aquateen Boston bomb scare — 2007 incident
- 2013Torre Ejecutiva Pemex explosion — Explosion at a skycraper caused by an electrical fault igniting a gas leak
- 2018January 2018 lunar eclipse — total lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018
- 2020Brexit — withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union
- 2025Med Jets Flight 056 — 2025 aviation accident in Pennsylvania, United States
Births · 60
- 877(Julian date)Taejo of Goryeo — founder of the Goryeo Dynasty (877-943)
- 1512(Julian date)Henry I of Portugal — King of Portugal
- 1543(Julian date)Tokugawa Ieyasu — founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (1543–1616)
- 1673Louis de Montfort — French Catholic saint, priest, and confessor
- 1686Hans Egede — missionary to Greenland, Lutheran pastor (1686-1758)
- 1762Lachlan Macquarie — Scottish British army officer and New South Wales colonial administrator (1762-1824)
- 1769André-Jacques Garnerin — inventor of the frameless parachute
- 1797Franz Schubert — Austrian composer (1797–1828)
- 1799Rodolphe Töpffer — Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricature artist (1799-1846)
- 1830James G. Blaine — American politician (1830–1893)
- 1868Theodore William Richards — United States chemist (1868–1928)
- 1872Zane Grey — American novelist (1872–1939)
- 1881Irving Langmuir — American chemist and physicist (1881–1957)
- 1884Theodor Heuss — German journalist and politician (1884-1963)
- 1884Mahammad Amin Rasulzade — Azerbaijani politician (1884–1955)
- 1892Eddie Cantor — American comedian and actor (1892–1964)
- 1902Alva Myrdal — Swedish sociologist and politician (1902-1986)
- 1902Tallulah Bankhead — American actress (1903–1968)
- 1905John O'Hara — American journalist and writer (1905–1970)
- 1915Alan Lomax — American musicologist (1915–2002)
- 1919Jackie Robinson — American baseball player (1919–1972)
- 1921Carol Channing — American actress (1921–2019)
- 1921Mario Lanza — American tenor and actor (1921-1959)
- 1921John Agar — American actor (1921-2002)
- 1922Joanne Dru — American film and television actress (1922-1996)
Deaths · 60
- 876(Julian date)Hemma — Frankish queen
- 1030(Julian date)William V, Duke of Aquitaine — Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 990 to 1030
- 1216(Julian date)Theodore II of Constantinople — Byzantine politician and monk
- 1398(Julian date)Sukō — pretender to the title of emperor of Japan
- 1418(Julian date)Mircea the Elder — Ruler of Wallachia
- 1435(Julian date)Xuande Emperor — emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1399-1435)
- 1561(Julian date)Menno Simons — Dutch theologian, founder of the Mennonites (1496-1561)
- 1561(Julian date)Bairam Khan — Mughal military commander and statesman (1501–1561)
- 1580(Julian date)Henry I of Portugal — King of Portugal
- 1606(Julian date)Guy Fawkes — English member of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605
- 1615Claudio Acquaviva — Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1543–1615)
- 1615Sō Yoshitoshi — daimyo
- 1632Jost Bürgi — Swiss clockmaker, maker of astronomical instruments and mathematician (1552-1632)
- 1686Jean Mairet — French dramatist
- 1729Jakob Roggeveen — Dutch Pacific Ocean explorer
- 1736Filippo Juvarra — Italian architect and stage set designer (1678–1736)
- 1828Alexander Ypsilantis — Greek general (1792-1828)
- 1844Henri Gatien Bertrand — French general (1773-1844)
- 1856Dalai Lama 11 Khedrub Gyatso — 11th Dalai Lama (1838–1856)
- 1865Hugh Falconer — Scottish scientist (1808–1865)
- 1882James Spriggs Payne — President of Liberia (1819-1882)q
- 1888John Bosco — Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator, writer (1815–1888)
- 1892Charles Spurgeon — British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist (1834-1892)
- 1900John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry — Scottish noble (1844-1900)
- 1911Paul Singer — politician (1844-1911)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.