Ephemeris, 31 January

It happened one 31 January

1865 : Abolition of slavery in the U.S. After the Senate in 1864, the House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery.
1953 : North Sea flood On the night of 31 January to 1 February 1953, high winds over 160 km/h on a severe depression have boosted water levels at an exceptional level, broken sea walls, and caused massive flooding mainly in the Netherlands but also in England and Belgium. Over 2000 people died, tens of thousands of animals were drowned and 50000 buildings destroyed. The water remained for months over thousands of km2 of arable land. Following the disaster, the Dutch developed an ambitious program of dikes.
1968 : Tet Offensive On 31 January 1968, during the Tet festival, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong attacked simultaneously 100 cities throughout South Vietnam. Although taken by surprise, U.S. troops and South vietnamese quickly contained the attacks and losses among Viet Cong were very important. On the other side, it caused a radical change in American opinion toward war.
1990 : McDonald's goes to Moscow On 18 December 1990, the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opened in Moscow. This symbol of American capitalism showed the upheaval taking place in the country at the end of the Gorbachev era.

Abraham Lincoln
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (1797)
Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel laureate (1868)
Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel laureate (1881)
Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (1902)
John O'Hara, American writer (1905)
Jackie Robinson, American baseball player (1919)
Carol Channing, American actress (1921)
John Agar, American actor (1921)
Joanne Dru, American actress (1922)
Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate (1929)
Jean Simmons, English actress (1930)
Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer, Nobel laureate (1935)
Philip Glass, American composer (1937)
Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (1937)
Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands (1938)
Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress (1942)
Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (1946)
John Lydon, English singer (Sex Pistols, PiL) (1956)
Shirley Babashoff, American swimmer (1957)
Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor (1959)
Kelly Lynch, American actress (1959)
Joey Wong, Taiwanese actress (1967)
Minnie Driver, British actress (1970)
Justin Timberlake, American singer (1981)
Andreas Görlitz, German football player (1982)
Allan McGregor, Scottish football player (1982)
Nicolò De Cesare, Italian footballer (1990)
Jacopo Fortunato, Italian footballer (1990)

Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (1632)
Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (1794)
John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel laureate (1933)
Jean Giraudoux, French writer (1944)
Edwin Howard Armstrong, Inventor of the FM radio (1954)
Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel laureate (1973)
Samuel Goldwyn, Film producer (1974)
Barış Manço, Turkish singer (1999)
Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (2001)
Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (2004)
Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (2006)