THIS DAY IN HISTORY – JANUARY 31

HISTORICAL EVENTS

1606 – Guy Fawkes, Catholic conspirator in a plot to blow up Parliament (The Gunpowder Plot), leaps to his death before his execution for treason. Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th, is still celebrated in Great Britain.

1865 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in America.

1945 – The execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik. Slovik was the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion and the only one in WWII.

1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces development of the H-bomb.

1968 – The Viet Cong attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon as part of the Tet Offensive.




FAMOUS BIRTHS

1923 – Winner of two Pulitzer prizes, Norman Mailer is born in Long Branch, NJ. 

1937 – American composer Phillip Morris Glass is born in Baltimore, MD.

1872 – Author of the American West (Riders of the Purple Sage and 78 other books), Zane Grey, is born in Zanesville, OH.

FAMOUS DEATHS

1788 – [Bonnie Prince Charlie] Charles Edward Stuart, English pretender to the throne, dies at 67.

1954 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American radio inventor (FM), commits suicide at 63.

1974 – Samuel Goldwyn, born Samuel Gelbrisz, Polish/English/US film magnate (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), dies at 91.