On Jan. 31, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
In 1606, Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason 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, Austria.
In 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.
In 1917, during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
In 1919, Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke the sport's color barrier in 1947, was born in Cairo, Ga.
In 1929, revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his family were expelled from the Soviet Union.
In 1944, U.S. forces began a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.
In 1953, nearly 2,000 people died when the North Sea flooded the Netherlands.
In 1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.
In 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard Jr., Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
In 1990, McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.
In 1995, after the U.S. Congress failed to act quickly, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his emergency authority to provide financially troubled Mexico with a $20 billion loan.
In 1996, a suicide bombing at Sri Lanka's main bank killed nearly 100 people and injured more than 1,000.
In 1999, a team of international scientists reported it traced the predominant strain of the AIDS virus to a subspecies of chimpanzee that lived in parts of Africa.
In 2000, an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.
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.
In 2005, a U.S. judge in Washington ruled the process for determining "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was unconstitutional. SBC Communications Inc. announced it was acquiring AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died at age 78. Samuel Alito was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as a Supreme Court justice. The Senate approved Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
In 2007, more than 1.5 million Iraqi civilians were reported to have been forced to abandon their homes by rising violence in the war-torn country. Also in 2007, arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents were issued by a Munich court related to the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen for terror interrogation.
In 2008, in the U.S. presidential primaries, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continued to vie for the Democratic nomination while John Edwards pulled out. On the Republican side, John McCain, once struggling to stay in the race, made his move with wins in South Carolina and Florida as Rudy Giuliani ended his bid.
In 2009, Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote in provincial elections considered a crucial test of the nation's stability. A gasoline spill from a crashed truck erupted into flames in Molo, Kenya, killing at least 115 people. Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win her fourth Australian Open. Bruce Smith and Rod Woodson were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility; they were joined by Bob Hayes, Randall McDaniel, Derrick Thomas and Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson. Republicans chose Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, to head the GOP National Committee, He is the first African-American to hold the post.
Today's Birthdays: Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall is 90. Actress Carol Channing is 89. Former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks is 85. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks is 79. Composer Philip Glass is 73. Former Interior Secretary James Watt is 72. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is 72. Actor Stuart Margolin is 70. Actress Jessica Walter is 69. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 69. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 66. Actor Glynn Turman is 64. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan is 63. Singer-musician KC (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 59. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 54. Actress Kelly Lynch is 51. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 51. Singer-musician Lloyd Cole is 49. Actor John Dye is 47. Rock musician Jeff Hanneman (Slayer) is 46. Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) is 44. Actress Minnie Driver is 40. Actress Portia de Rossi is 37. Actor-comedian Bobby Moynihan is 33. Actress Kerry Washington is 33. Singer Justin Timberlake is 29.
Those Born On This Date Include: Western novelist Zane Grey (1872); actors Eddie Cantor (1892) & Tallulah Bankhead (1902);
Today In Entertainment History
In 1949, the first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC station in Chicago. It lasted four weeks.
In 1956, 11-year-old Brenda Lee made her TV debut on ABC's "Junior Ozark Jubilee."
In 1970, bluesman Slim Harpo died of a heart attack in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was 46.
In 1978, saxophonist Greg Herbert of Blood, Sweat and Tears died of an accidental drug overdose in Amsterdam during the band's European tour. He was 30.
In 1985, Barbara Cowsill, mother of the group The Cowsills, died in Arizona. She was 56.
In 1989, Playboy hit newsstands with nude photos of La Toya Jackson.
In 1993, Michael Jackson and 3,500 children performed during halftime at the Super Bowl. He sang a variety of his hits, including "Heal The World." The game began with country star Garth Brooks singing the "Star-Spangled Banner." Actress Marlee Matlin interpreted the song in sign language.
In 2005, jury selection began in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. He was later acquitted.
In 2007, Boston authorities responded to calls of bomb scares for blinking electronic signs on bridge overpasses and near transit stations. The signs ended up being promotional items for Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
Thought for Today: "The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking." — A.A. Milne (born in 1882, died this date in 1956).
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