TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Today’s highlight

Jan. 31, 1958, the U.S. entered the Space Age with a successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral.

On this date

In 1863, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black Union regiment composed of many escaped slaves, was mustered at Beaufort, S.C.

In 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery, sending it to states for

ratification. (The amendment was adopted in Dec. 1865.)

In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion. He was shot by a firing squad.

In 1961, NASA launched Ham the Chimp aboard a MercuryRedstone rocket from Cape Canaveral; Ham was recovered safely from the Atlantic Ocean

following his 16 1 ⁄2-minute suborbital flight.

In 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

In 2020, the United States declared a public health emergency over the new coronavirus, and President Donald Trump signed an order to

temporarily bar entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens, who had traveled in China within the preceding 14 days.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Stuart Margolin is 83. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 82. Singermusician Charlie Musselwhite is 79. Actor Glynn Turman is 76. Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan is 76. Actor Jonathan Banks is 76. Singer Harry Wayne Casey (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 71. Singer Johnny Rotten is 66. Actor Kelly Lynch is 64. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 64. Actor Minnie Driver is 53. Actor Bobby Moynihan is 46. Actor Kerry Washington is 46. Singer Justin Timberlake is 42.