Chicago Daily Tribune

ON JANUARY 31 ...

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

In 1797 composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna.

In 1865 the House passed a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Also in 1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.

In 1892 entertainer Eddie Cantor was born Edward Israel Iskowitz in New York.

In 1917 Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

In 1919 Jackie Robinson, who made history in 1947 by becoming the first African-American player in modern baseball, was born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in Cairo, Ga.

In 1923 novelist Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, N.J.

In 1931 Ernie Banks, the Hall of Fame infielder and power hitter for the Chicago Cubs who would become known as “Mr. Cub,” was born in Dallas.

In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt devalued the dollar in relation to gold.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces began invading Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

In 1945 Pvt. Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.

In 1950 President Harry Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

In 1956 the creator of “Winnie-the-Pooh,” British author A.A. Milne, died in Hartfield, England; he was 74.

In 1958 the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer 1.

In 1961 NASA launched Ham the Chimp aboard a Mercury-Redstone 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 Jr., Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

In 1980 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands announced she would abdicate on her birthday the following April, to be succeeded by her daughter, Princess Beatrix.

In 1987 discount airline pioneer People Express flew its last flights before merging into Continental Airlines.

In 1990 McDonald’s Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.

In 1995 President Bill Clinton scrapped a $40 billion rescue plan for Mexico, announcing instead that he would act unilaterally to provide Mexico with $20 billion from a fund normally used to defend the U.S. dollar.

In 1996, in one of the worst attacks in Sri Lanka’s civil war, a truck packed with explosives rammed into the central bank and exploded, killing 88 people and wounding 1,400 others.

In 2000 an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard. Also in 2000 Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker was suspended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in a Sports Illustrated interview. Also in 2000 Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis was charged with murder in the deaths of two people outside an Atlanta nightclub hours after the Super Bowl. (Lewis ended his trial early by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice; two co-defendants were acquitted.)

In 2001 a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Also in 2001 the state of Georgia hoisted its new flag above its statehouse, one featuring a smaller Confederate battle emblem. Also in 2001 Michel Navratil, one of the last known survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, died in Montpellier, France; he was 92.

In 2004 John Elway and Barry Sanders were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on their first attempt; they were joined by Bob Brown and Carl Eller.

In 2005 SBC Communications Inc. announced it was acquiring AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.

In 2006 Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico; she was 78. Also in 2006 the Senate approved Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

In 2011 Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a landmark measure recognizing civil unions, making Illinois the sixth state to provide such protections for same-sex couples (another five states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage).

In 2013 “30 Rock,” the Emmy Award-winning sitcom starring Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, ended its seventh and final season.