Calendar for January 31st, 2013

2001: Islamic New Year

Born 1797: Franz Peter Schubert (composer)

Born 1872: Zane Grey (novelist)

Born 1892: Eddie Cantor (comedian)

1901: Anton Chekov's play, Three Sisters, premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre

Born 1905: John Henry O'Hara (author)

1905: A Napier was the first car to go over 100 mph

Died 1907: Timothy Eaton (retailer)

Born 1914: Jersey Joe Walcott (boxer)

Born 1915: Garry Moore (TV personality)

1917: The German government informed the U.S. that unrestricted submarine warfare would begin on February 1, 1917

Born 1919: Jackie Robinson (first African American baseball player in major leagues)

Born 1921: Mario Lanza (singer & actor)

Born 1921: Carol Channing (actress)

Born 1923: Norman Mailer (author)

Born 1929: Jean Simmons (actress)

Born 1931: Ernie Banks (baseball player)

1936: The Green Hornet made its radio debut

Born 1937: Phillip Glass (musician)

1946: Yugoslavia adopted its constitution and officially became a people's republic

Born 1947: Nolan Ryan (baseball player)

1951: The U.S. released 33 former Nazis incarcerated for war crimes, including Alfred Krupp

Died 1956: A. A. Milne (author)

1958: Explorer I, first U.S. satellite, launched

Born 1959: Anthony LaPaglia (actor)

1961: Ham, a male chimpanzee, was recovered alive in the Caribbean after being carried to a height of 155 miles in a U.S. space capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida

1967: National Traffic Safety Agency issued the first set of U.S. federal safety standards for vehicle safety

1968: North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, attacking South Vietnamese towns

1971: Limited telephone service re-established between East and West Berlin for the first time in 19 years

1971: Apollo 14 manned spacecraft launched

Born 1973: Portia de Rossi (actress)

Died 1974: Sam Goldwyn (movie mogul)

1974: Paul and Linda McCartney appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. This made Linda McCartney the first person to have both taken a photo, and to have been photographed, for the front cover of the magazine.

Born 1981: Justin Timberlake (singer)

1990: The first McDonald's opened in Moscow, Russia

Died 2002: Francis Gabreski (retired colonel who recorded 37.5 kills and was known as "America's Greatest Living Ace")

Died 2005: Horace Hagedorn (founder of Miracle-Gro plant food)

2006: Samuel Alito was sworn in as the 110th U.S. Supreme Court justice