This Day in History - January 31

1606 – Guy Fawkes was executed for plotting against Parliament and King James in the foiled Gunpowder Plot.

1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opened at London Lock Hospital. The clinic was developed for the treatment of syphilis following the end of the use of lazar hospitals, as leprosy declined.

1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovered the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope, which is now located at Northwestern University.

1915 – Germany was the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia. The eighteen thousand gas shells they fired proved unsuccessful when the xylyl bromide—a type of tear gas—was blown back at their own lines. The gas caused few, if any, casualties, however, since the cold weather caused it to freeze, rendering it ineffective.

1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another three submarines and a light cruiser. Since dubbed The Battle of May Island, it was an entirely accidental tragedy and no enemy forces were present. and was therefore not an actual battle but only referred to as such with black humour.

1945 – 24 year old US Army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

"I, Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik, 36896415, confess to the desertion of the United States Army. At the time of my desertion we were in Albuff [Elbeuf] in France. I came to Albuff as a replacement. They were shelling the town and we were told to dig in for the night. The following morning they were shelling us again. I was so scared, nerves and trembling, that at the time the other replacements moved out, I couldn’t move. I stayed there in my fox hole till it was quiet and I was able to move. I then walked into town. Not seeing any of our troops, so I stayed over night at a French hospital. The next morning I turned myself over to the Canadian Provost Corp. After being with them six weeks I was turned over to American M.P. They turned me loose. I told my commanding officer my story. I said that if I had to go out there again I'd run away. He said there was nothing he could do for me so I ran away again AND I'LL RUN AWAY AGAIN IF I HAVE TO GO OUT THERE."
— Signed Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik A.S.N. 36896415

1958 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, was launched. It was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, and was able to continue returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months.

1961 – Ham the Chimp traveled into outer space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2. Ham (for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center) was the first hominid launched into space,

2010 – Avatar became the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.