Volume 13 , Issue 5

This Day In History (January 31)

On 31 January 1865, the House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. (Go to article.)

On Jan. 31 , 1919, Jackie Robinson, who made history in 1947 by becoming the first black baseball player in the major leagues, was born. Following his death on Oct. 24 , 1972, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit.)

1606 - Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the Gunpowder Plot against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.

1797 - Composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria.

1865 Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.

1917 - Germany announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1919 - Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke the sport's color barrier in 1947, was born in Cairo, Ga.

1944 - U.S. forces invaded the Japanese-held Marshall Islands during World War II.

1945 - Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.

1949 - The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago.

1950 - President Harry S. Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

1958 - The United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.

1971 - Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on the third successful manned mission to the moon.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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