January 31 ...

In 1606 Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I. In 1797 Franz Shubert was born just outside of Vienna, Austria, in a town called Himmelpfortgrund. In 1865 Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. The amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. In 1876 the United States ordered all Native Americans to move into reservations. In 1902 actress Tallulah Bankhead was born in Huntsville, AL. In 1919 Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in the Major Leagues, was born in Cairo, GA. In 1923 author and pompous ass extraordinaire Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, NJ. In 1929 the USSR exiled Leon Trotsky. He found asylum in Mexico, where he was later murdered. In 1931 Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks was born in Dallas, TX; it should be a national holiday. In 1940 the very first monthly Social Security retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, VT. In 1947 Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan was born in Refugio, TX. In 1958 Explorer I was put into orbit around the earth. It was the first US earth satellite. In 1971 astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon. In 2003 the Mars rover Opportunity rolled off its landing pad onto the surface of Mars. In 2006 Samuel A. Alito Jr. was sworn in as the 110th US Supreme Court Justice.