Anniversaries 31 January

Birth

Gouverneur Morris8

American politician 1752–1816

Franz Schubert3

Austrian composer 1797–1828

James G. Blaine1

American Republican politician 1830–1893

John Henry Boner3

American writer 1845–1903

Anna Yesipova1

Russian pianist 1851–1914

James Huneker2

American music critic 1857–1921

Zane Grey6

American novelist 1872–1939

Helena Roerich58

Russian philosopher 1879–1955

Irving Langmuir2

American chemist and physicist 1881–1957

Eddie Cantor3

American actor, singer, dancer and comedian 1892–1964

Freya Stark5

British explorer and writer 1893–1993

Vasily Chuikov8

Soviet military commander 1900–1982

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov1

Bulgarian philosopher 1900–1986

Tallulah Bankhead22

American actress 1902–1968

Eva Hart1

Titanic survivor 1905–1996

John O'Hara4

American journalist 1905–1970

Thomas Merton92

Priest and author 1915–1968

Morteza Motahhari1

Iranian politician 1919–1979

Jackie Robinson1

American baseball player 1919–1972

John Agar2

American actor 1921–2002

Norman Mailer165

American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film m… 1923–2007

Jean Simmons1

British-American actress 1929–2010

Ernie Banks9

American baseball player and coach 1931–2015

J. J. Sakurai1

American physicist 1933–1982

Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi2

Member of Iran's Assembly of Experts 1934

Farrokh Tamimi7

Iranian poet and translator 1934–2003

Jack Trout1

American marketing man 1935–2017

Kenzaburō Ōe43

Japanese author 1935

Philip Glass1

American composer 1937

James G. Watt9

United States Secretary of the Interior 1938

Dick Gephardt2

American politician 1941

Eugène Terre'Blanche4

South African police officer, farmer, political activist, w… 1941–2010

Derek Jarman4

British film director and artist 1942–1994

Rynn Berry2

American historian of vegetarianism 1945–2014

Joseph Kosuth11

American conceptual artist 1945

Ken Wilber57

American writer and public speaker 1949

Johan Derksen2

football player 1949

Yvette Rosser3

American activist 1952

John Lydon22

English singer, songwriter, and musician 1956

Laura Lippman5

Detective fiction writer 1959

Grant Morrison43

writer 1960

Jay Samit103

American businessman 1961

Nick DiPaolo1

American comedian 1962

Flavio Tranquillo1

Italian journalist and writer 1962

Dov Charney4

Canadian-born U.S. based fashion designer/businessman 1969

Portia de Rossi2

Australian-American actress 1973

Michael Waltz1

U.S. Representative from Florida 1974

Preity Zinta25

film actress 1975

Kerry Washington4

American actress 1977

Daniel Tammet4

British writer, essayist and autistic savant 1979

Justin Timberlake5

American singer and actor 1981

Oksana Shachko9

Ukrainian artist and activist with FEMEN 1987–2018

Joel Courtney2

American actor 1996

Death

Menno Simons11

Dutch theologian, founder of the Mennonites 1496–1561

Guy Fawkes2

English member of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 1570–1606

John Bosco7

Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer 1815–1888

Basil Manly Jr.1

American minister and theologian 1825–1892

Charles Spurgeon49

British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist 1834–1892

John Galsworthy48

English novelist and playwright 1867–1933

Samuel Goldwyn16

American film producer (1879-1974). 1879–1974

Jean Giraudoux14

French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright 1882–1944

A.A. Milne169

British author 1882–1956

Poul Henningsen1

Danish architect 1894–1967

Meher Baba113

Indian mystic 1894–1969

Fritiof Nilsson Piraten2

Swedish writer 1895–1972

Ragnar Frisch26

Norwegian economist 1895–1973

Matvei Zakharov3

Soviet military commander 1898–1972

Dorothea Tanning1

American artist 1910–2012

Lizabeth Scott2

American actress and singer 1922–2015

Gordon R. Dickson19

Canadian-American science fiction writer 1923–2001

Mary Higgins Clark3

Novelist, writer 1927–2020

Douglas T. Ross27

American computer scientist 1929–2007

Molly Ivins19

American journalist 1944–2007

Eva Heller2

German writer (1948-2008) 1948–2008

Kage Baker79

American writer 1952–2010