Today in History, January 31: 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James. 1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. 1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification. 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. 1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky. 1943 – World War II: German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of the wars fiercest battles. 1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War. 1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb. 1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space. 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. 1990 – The first McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. 2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq. 2013 – An explosion at the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City kills at least 33 people and injures more than 100.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:02:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015