On this day: 31 January

Selected events and births on 31 January, from Wikipedia’s “On this day”.

Events

• 314 – Sylvester I (bust depicted), during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope. Read more: Pope Sylvester I Constantine the Great Pope
• 1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid to be launched into outer space. Read more: NASA Mercury-Redstone 2 Ham (chimpanzee)
• 1997 – Final Fantasy VII, the first video game in the Final Fantasy franchise to use 3-D computer graphics, was released. Read more: Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy

Born on this day

• 1956 – Guido van Rossum, Dutch programmer, creator of the Python programming language Read more: Guido van Rossum Python (programming language)
• 1968 – Ulrica Messing, Swedish politician, 2nd Swedish Minister for Infrastructure Read more: Ulrica Messing Minister for Infrastructure (Sweden)
• 1969 – Dov Charney, Canadian-American fashion designer and businessman, founded American Apparel Read more: Dov Charney American Apparel
• 1986 – Megan Ellison, American film producer, founded Annapurna Pictures Read more: Megan Ellison Annapurna Pictures
• 1997 – Arnaut Danjuma, Dutch footballer Read more: Arnaut Danjuma
• 1998 – Beto, Portuguese and Bissau-Guinean footballer Read more: Beto (footballer, born 1998)
• 1998 – Jalen McDaniels, American basketball player Read more: Jalen McDaniels
• 2000 – Julián Alvarez, Argentine footballer Read more: Julián Alvarez
• 2002 – Hong Ye-ji, South Korean actress Read more: Hong Ye-ji
• 2002 – Beñat Turrientes, Spanish footballer Read more: Beñat Turrientes
• 2006 – Sára Bejlek, Czech tennis player Read more: Sára Bejlek
• 2006 – Gianluca Prestianni, Argentine footballer Read more: Gianluca Prestianni

Text from Wikipedia: Selected anniversaries / January 31 and the linked articles, via the Wikimedia “On this day” feed, under CC BY-SA 4.0. We leave out entries about wars, violence and disasters to keep this page family-friendly.