1. In 1606, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot were executed in England on January 31, after their plot to blow up Parliament and kill King James I was discovered.

2. In 1865, the United States House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, which was later ratified by the required number of states and became part of the Constitution.

3. In 1919, Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball, was born on January 31 in Georgia.

4. In 1945, US Army Private Eddie Slovik becomes the first American soldier executed for desertion since the American Civil War.

5. In 1971, Apollo 14, the third successful manned mission to the moon, was launched on January 31, with Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell as the astronauts who landed on the lunar surface.