On January 31

A gas leak underneath the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City caused an explosion (aftermath pictured) that killed at least 37 people and injured another 121.

Emergency officials in Boston mistakenly identified LED placards depicting characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as IEDs, causing a panic.

Alaska Airlines Flight 261, experiencing problems with its horizontal stabilizer system, crashed in the Pacific Ocean off Anacapa Island, California, killing all 88 people on board.

Final Fantasy VII, the first video game in the Final Fantasy franchise to use 3-D computer graphics, was released.

Doug Williams became the first African-American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.

Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid to be launched into outer space.

A DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft collided in mid-air with a U.S. Air Force F-89 and crashed into a schoolyard in Pacoima, California.

Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotlan.

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.

Ute Wars: On behalf of Utah territorial governor Brigham Young, militia leader Daniel H. Wells drafted an order for the Utah Territorial Militia to exterminate Timpanogos men deemed hostile, leading to the Provo River Massacre.

Mexican soldiers and Texan militiamen marched into Nacogdoches, Texas, to end the Fredonian Rebellion.

The London Lock Hospital, the first voluntary hospital specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.

Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces won a crushing victory at the Battle of Gembloux, threatening the States General of the Netherlands and contributing to its move from Brussels to Antwerp.

Sverker II was defeated at the Battle of Lena by Erik Knutsson, who succeeded him as King of Sweden.

Sylvester I (bust depicted), during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope.