Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 31

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968); Fat Thursday (2008).

Ham the Chimp

• 1606 – Explosives expert Guy Fawkes and several others were hanged, drawn and quartered for their involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament in London during the State Opening.

• 1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.

• 1917 – World War I: Germany announced its U-boats would resume unrestricted submarine warfare, less than two years after suspending its attacks when the United States protested about the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Lusitania.

• 1953 – The North Sea flood and its associated storm hit the coastlines of several European countries along the North Sea, killing more than 2,000 people.

• 1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp (pictured) became the first hominid launched into outer space.

More anniversaries:

• January 30
• January 31
• February 1