January 31
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Featured Event
© National Broadcasting Company
First daytime soap opera appears on television
On this day in 1949, a daytime soap opera first appeared on NBC. Written by radio storyteller Irna Phillips, These Are My Children was unsuccessful and went off air just a month after it first appeared. However, Phillips was undeterred, going on to create television shows that ran for more than half a century, such as Days of Our Lives and Guiding Light. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
UPI/Bettmann Archive
Above anything else, I hate to lose.
Jackie Robinson—the first African American baseball player in the U.S. major leagues in the 20th century and the league’s Rookie of the Year in 1947 and Most Valuable Player in 1949—was born this day in 1919.
Famous Birthdays
More on January 31
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2020
The United Kingdom formally left the European Union, more than three years after the country voted for Brexit.
Air Accidents Investigation Branch, United Kingdom/Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
2001
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted in the 1988 Pan Am flight 103 bombing, in which 270 people were killed. In 2009 the Scottish government released Megrahi from prison after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
© Featureflash/Shutterstock.com
1981
Justin Timberlake, who was a member of the hugely successful boy band *NSYNC before launching a solo career, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. [Test your knowledge of pop music.]
Alex Bartel—Science Source/Photo Researchers, Inc.
1977
The Pompidou Centre, a national cultural center named for former French president Georges Pompidou, opened in Paris. [How much do you know about Paris?]
NASA and NSSDC
1966
The Soviet Union launched the uncrewed Luna 9, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon. [Discover five unforgettable moments in the history of spaceflight and space exploration.]
Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA
1961
Ham became the first chimpanzee in space.
© 1961 United Artists Corporation; photograph from a private collection
1961
The Misfits, which was directed by John Huston, had its world premiere. The film is perhaps best remembered as the final movie starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about A-list actors.]
NASA
1958
Explorer 1 became the first artificial space satellite orbited by the United States, marking the country’s entry into the space race.
© Richard E. Aaron—Redferns/Getty Images
1956
Johnny Rotten—lead singer of the Sex Pistols, a rock group that created the British punk movement of the late 1970s—was born in London. [Test your knowledge of musical groups.]
AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
1943
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered to the Soviet Red Army at Stalingrad (now Volgograd), his troops surrendering two days later. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
Heritage Image Partnership Ltd./Alamy
1797
Composer Franz Schubert was born near Vienna. [Take our classical composers quiz.]
© North Wind Picture Archives
1606
Guy Fawkes—one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, who sought to blow up British Parliament and to assassinate King James I for his repression of Roman Catholics—was executed in London.