Today is Thursday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2013. There are 334 days left in the year.
On Jan. 31, 1863, during the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-black Union regiment composed of ex-slaves, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, S.C.
On this date:
In 1606, Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason for his part in the “Gunpowder Plot” against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.
In 1917, during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
In 2000, an Alaska Airlines jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Port Hueneme, killing all 88 people aboard.