Today in History, January 31st
On January 31, 1865, the U.S. House passed the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. Plus Explorer 1, Ham the chimp and Brexit.
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January 31 is best known for 1865, when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery and sent it to the states. The date also saw Explorer 1 become the first U.S. satellite in 1958 and the United Kingdom formally leave the European Union in 2020.
The big story: The House Passes the 13th Amendment (1865)
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 had freed enslaved people only in Confederate-held areas, and as a wartime measure it might not survive the war. Lincoln wanted something permanent. The Senate had approved a constitutional amendment banning slavery in April 1864, but it stalled in the House, where it fell short of the two-thirds it needed. After the 1864 election, Lincoln and his allies worked hard on wavering members. On January 31, 1865, the House passed the amendment 119 to 56, just clearing the bar. Lincoln approved the joint resolution sending it to the states the next day. The text was short: no slavery or involuntary servitude anywhere in the United States, except as punishment for a crime. Lincoln did not live to see it ratified. That happened on December 6, 1865.
More events on January 31
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1917 | Germany announced it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, a move that helped pull the U.S. into World War I. |
| 1945 | Private Eddie Slovik became the first U.S. soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War. |
| 1950 | President Harry Truman announced that the U.S. would develop the hydrogen bomb. |
| 1958 | Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, reached orbit. Its cosmic ray detector, built by James Van Allen, pointed the way to the radiation belts later named for him. |
| 1961 | Ham the chimpanzee rode a Mercury capsule on a suborbital flight and came home safely, clearing the way for American astronauts. |
| 1971 | Apollo 14 launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell toward the Moon. |
| 1988 | Doug Williams led Washington to a 42–10 win over Denver in Super Bowl XXII, becoming the first Black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl. |
| 1990 | The first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union opened in Moscow, and huge lines formed outside. |
| 2020 | The United Kingdom formally left the European Union at 11:00 p.m. London time. |
Born on January 31
- 1797: Franz Schubert, Austrian composer of symphonies and hundreds of songs.
- 1919: Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
- 1923: Norman Mailer, novelist and journalist, author of The Naked and the Dead.
- 1937: Philip Glass, composer known for minimalist works such as Einstein on the Beach.
Keep reading
Sources
- 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865), National Archives
- This Day in History: January 31, History.com
- Explorer 1, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Brexit, Britannica
- Franz Schubert, Britannica
- Jackie Robinson, Britannica
- Norman Mailer, Britannica
- Philip Glass, Britannica
The first item on the list, the execution of Guy Fawkes was intriguing to me because of the ubiquitous “Anonymous” link. While I realize wikipedia certainly isn’t the last word when it comes to historical fact, I wonder if it matters what they did to his body after he jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his own neck? So was this an execution or a suicide?