January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

31st January 1801 – John Marshall became the fourth Chief Justice of the United States; his court opinions would help lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a coequal branch of government.


31st January 1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years.


31st January 1943 – World War II: American and Australian forces stopped a Japanese advance in the Battle of Wau during the New Guinea campaign.

31st January 1958 – Explorer 1 (pictured), the United States' first satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and became the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt.

31st January 2007 – Suspects were arrested in Birmingham, UK, accused of plotting to kidnap, and eventually behead, a Muslim British soldier serving in Iraq.