January 31 in history — What Happened Today in History

Doug Williams becomes the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl and leads the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.

The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) goes on public display after being returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

Apollo program: Apollo 14: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.

The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize alleged war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begins in Detroit.

Vietnam War: Viet Cong guerrillas attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.

The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.

Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.

Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

Eight people (five total crew from two aircraft and three on the ground) in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.

A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 90 relating to the Korean War is adopted.

These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States.

Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam introduces the đồng to replace the French Indochinese piastre at par.

US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.

World War II: The end of fighting in the Battle of Hill 170 during the Burma Campaign, in which the British 3 Commando Brigade repulsed a Japanese counterattack on their positions and precipitated a general retirement from the Arakan Peninsula.

World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

World War II: During the Anzio campaign, the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

World War II: German field marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed two days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of the war's fiercest battles.

World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to Singapore.

Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata.

The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, during a campaign for shorter working hours.

A series of accidental collisions due to poor visibility leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.

Finnish Civil War: The Suinula massacre, which changes the nature of the war in a more hostile direction, takes place in Kangasala.

World War I: Kaiser Wilhelm II orders the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters premieres at Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.

Kenneth Zohore, Danish footballer

Qiu Bo, Chinese diver

Tyler Seguin, Canadian ice hockey player

Cro, German rapper

Nicolás Laprovíttola, Argentine basketball player

Tommy La Stella, American baseball player

Brett Pitman, English footballer

Taijo Teniste, Estonian footballer

Marcus Mumford, American-English singer-songwriter

Walter Dix, American sprinter

Megan Ellison, American film producer, founded Annapurna Pictures

George Elokobi, Cameroonian footballer

Yves Ma-Kalambay, Belgian footballer

Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (born 1937)

Mani Ram Bagri, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1920)

Dorothea Tanning, American painter and sculptor (born 1910)

Bartolomeu Anania, Romanian bishop and poet (born 1921)

František Čapek, Czech canoeist (born 1914)

Kirill Babitzin, Finnish singer, 9th in 1984 Eurovision Song Contest (born 1950), aortic aneurysm.

Molly Ivins, American journalist and author (born 1944)

Adelaide Tambo, South African activist and politician (born 1929)

Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and ballerina (born 1926)

Eleanor Holm, American swimmer and actress (born 1913)

Suraiya, Indian actress and playback singer (born 1929)

Gabby Gabreski, American colonel and pilot (born 1919)

Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian American author (born 1923)