Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 31
This is a list of selected January 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
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January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)
- 1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
- 1862 – American telescope-maker and astronomer Alvan Graham Clark first observed the faint white dwarf companion of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
- 1953 – The North Sea flood and its associated storm began hitting the coastlines of several European countries along the North Sea (Zuid-Beveland in the Netherlands pictured during the flood), eventually killing more than 2,000 people.
- 1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp became the first hominid launched into outer space.
- 1971 – The Winter Soldier Investigation, a three-day media event sponsored by the anti-war organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and other atrocities by American forces and their allies during the Vietnam War, began.
- 2007 – Suspects were arrested in Birmingham, UK, accused of plotting to kidnap, and eventually behead, a Muslim British soldier serving in Iraq.