What Happened on January 31?

January 31 is National Backward Day — dessert for breakfast, anyone? It's also the birthday of baseball legend Jackie Robinson and the day Apollo 14 blasted off for the Moon!

• 1606 — Guy Fawkes is executed for the Gunpowder Plot

  Four months after guards caught him guarding barrels of gunpowder beneath England's Parliament, Guy Fawkes faced execution — and Britain still burns effigies every November 5. Read the full story →

• 1940 — Ida May Fuller receives the first Social Security check

  A Vermont legal secretary named Ida May Fuller collected check number 00-000-001 for $22.54 — and went on to collect benefits for 35 more years. Read the full story →

• 1958 — Explorer 1 becomes America's first satellite

  Racing to answer Sputnik, the U.S. launched Explorer 1 from Cape Canaveral — and its discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts opened a whole new chapter of space science. Read the full story →

• 1971 — Apollo 14 launches toward the Moon

  Alan Shepard, the first American in space, returned to space after a decade and became the fifth person to walk on the Moon — hitting golf balls while he was there. Read the full story →

Famous birthdays

Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) · Norman Mailer (1923–2007) · Justin Timberlake (1981)

Days & observances

National Backward Day · National Inspire Your Heart with Art Day · National Hot Chocolate Day