Notable Deaths on January 31

January 31 has 86 recorded notable deaths across history, from 632 to 2018. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Lizabeth Scott

2015 — Lizabeth Scott

American actress (born 1922)

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Notable Deaths 86 source records 632 – 2018

Major events on January 31

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1865 American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification. Source
  2. 1946 Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia). Source

Did you know about Lizabeth Scott

Lizabeth Scott was called "the most beautiful face of film noir during the 1940s and 1950s".

Did you know about Giant Baba

For the first 10 years of its existence, Baba was the top star of All Japan, while also serving as the booker, promoter, head trainer and president of the promotion from its inception in 1972 till his death in 1999.

Did you know about Henry

Henry, dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King, was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580.

Did you know about Rashad Khalifa

Rashad Khalifa is also known for his claims regarding the existence of a Quran code, also known as The Number 19.

Did you know about Rasual Butler

In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs.


More major people who died on January 31

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1999 Giant Baba

Giant Baba

Japanese wrestler and trainer, co-founded All Japan Pro Wrestling (born 1938)
Shohei Baba , best known by his ring name Giant Baba , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of his mentor Rikidōzan. For the first 10 years of its existence, Baba was the top star of All Japan, while also serving as the booker, promoter, head trainer and president of the promotion from its inception in 1972 till his death in 1999. Baba was also responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime.
1580 Henry

Henry

King of Portugal (born 1512)
Henry, dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King, was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to celibacy, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. He was the only cardinal to have served as a monarch.
1990 Rashad Khalifa

Rashad Khalifa

Egyptian American biochemist and academic (born 1935)
Rashad Khalifa was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International (USI), an organization that promotes the practice and study of "Quran, the Whole Quran, and Nothing But the Quran." Khalifa saw his role as purging the accretions that found their way into Islam via hadith and sunnah, which he claimed were corruptions. Similarly, he believed that previous revelations of God, such as the Bible, contained contradictions due to human interference . Instead, he believed that the beliefs and practices of Islam should be based on the Quran alone. He is also known for his claims regarding the existence of a Quran code, also known as The Number 19. In the last years of his life, Khalifa used the English words “Submission” and “Submitter” instead of the Arabic words ‘Islam’ and “Muslim”, and stated this in his publications and used it in his 1989 translation of the Qur'an.
2018 Rasual Butler

Rasual Butler

American professional basketball player (born 1979)
Rasual Butler was an American professional basketball player. In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs. Butler was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia. After playing college basketball with the La Salle Explorers, he was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NBA draft by the Heat. On January 31, 2018, Butler was behind the wheel when he and his girlfriend, Leah LaBelle, died in a single vehicle car crash in Los Angeles.
1961 Krishna Singh

Krishna Singh

Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar (born 1887)
Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar. He was the first chief minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He was imprisoned for a total of about eight years in British India. He held mass meetings at which he spoke. He was known as Bihar Kesari for his "lionlike roars" in public speaking.
1606 Thomas Wintour

Thomas Wintour

English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1571)
Robert Wintour and Thomas Wintour, also spelt Winter, were members of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I. They were brothers, and related to other conspirators, such as their cousin, Robert Catesby; a half-brother, John Wintour, also joined them following the plot's failure. Thomas was an intelligent and educated man, fluent in several languages and trained as a lawyer, but chose instead to become a soldier, fighting for England in the Low Countries, France, and possibly in Central Europe. By 1600, however, he changed his mind and became a fervent Catholic. On several occasions he travelled to the continent and entreated Spain on behalf of England's oppressed Catholics, and suggested that with Spanish support a Catholic rebellion was likely.
1955 John Mott

John Mott

American activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)
John Raleigh Mott was an American evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant Christian student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with Emily Greene Balch. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. He helped found the World Student Christian Federation in 1895, the 1910 World Missionary Conference and the World Council of Churches in 1948. His best-known book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.
1958 Karl Selter

Karl Selter

Estonian politician, 14th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1898)
Karl Selter was an Estonian politician who served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1933 to 1938 and as Minister of Foreign affairs from 1938 to 1939. He is remembered mostly for his signing of a non-aggression and mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet leaders in Moscow in September 1939, following an ultimatum from the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov on 24 September.Estonia gained sovereignty when the Soviet Union was powerless, but you “don’t think that this can last… forever… The Soviet Union is now a great power whose interests need to be taken into consideration. I tell you—the Soviet Union needs enlargement of her security guarantee system; for this purpose she needs an exit to the Baltic Sea … I ask you, do not compel us to use force against Estonia.“
1967 Eddie Tolan

Eddie Tolan

American sprinter and educator (born 1908)
Thomas Edward Tolan, nicknamed the "Midnight Express", was an American track and field athlete who competed in sprints. He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100 meters event and Olympic records in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He was the first non-Euro-American to receive the title of the "world's fastest human" after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In March 1935, Tolan won the 75, 100 and 220-yard events at the World Professional Sprint Championships in Melbourne to become the first man to win both the amateur and professional world sprint championships. In his full career as a sprinter, Tolan won 300 races and lost only 7.
1973 Ragnar Frisch

Ragnar Frisch

Norwegian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)
Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch was an influential Norwegian economist and econometrician known for being one of the major contributors to establishing economics as a quantitative and statistically informed science in the early 20th century. He coined the term econometrics in 1926 for utilising statistical methods to describe economic systems, as well as the terms microeconomics and macroeconomics in 1933, for describing individual and aggregate economic systems, respectively. He was the first to develop a statistically informed model of business cycles in 1933. Later work on the model, together with Jan Tinbergen, won the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969.
1811 Manuel Alberti

Manuel Alberti

Argentinian priest and journalist (born 1763)
Manuel Maximiliano Alberti was an Argentine priest from Buenos Aires when the city was part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He had a curacy at Maldonado, Uruguay during the British invasions of the River Plate, and returned to Buenos Aires in time to take part in the May Revolution of 1810. He was chosen as one of the seven members of the Primera Junta, considered the first national government of Argentina. Alberti supported most of the proposals of Mariano Moreno and worked at the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres newspaper. Internal disputes among Junta members had a negative effect on Alberti's health, and he died of a heart attack in 1811.
1561 Bairam Khan

Bairam Khan

Mughalan general (born 1501)
Muhammad Bairam Khan, commonly known as Bairam Khan or Bayram Khan was an important military commander, and later commander-in-chief of the Mughal army, a powerful statesman and regent at the court of the Mughal Emperors Humayun and Akbar. He was also the guardian, chief mentor, adviser, teacher and the most trusted ally of Akbar. Akbar honoured him as Khan-i-Khanan, which means "King of Kings". Bairam was originally called Bairam "Beg", but later became honoured as Khan. Bairam Khan was an aggressive general who was determined to restore Mughal authority in India.
2004 Suraiya

Suraiya

Indian actress and playback singer (born 1929)
Suraiya Jamal Sheikh, mononymously known as Suraiya, was an Indian actress and playback singer who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was known for her strong on-screen portrayals in a variety of genres. In a career spanning from 1936 to 1964, Suraiya acted in over 70 films and sang 338 songs. Suraiya was the most celebrated actress between the mid- to late 1940s and early 1950s and was paid more than her male counterparts.
2018 Leah LaBelle

Leah LaBelle

American singer (born 1986)
Leah LaBelle Vladowski was an American singer. She rose to prominence in 2004 as a contestant on the third season of American Idol, placing twelfth in the season finals. In 2007, LaBelle began recording covers of R&B and soul music for her YouTube channel. These videos led to work as a backing vocalist starting in 2008 and a record deal in 2011 with Epic in partnership with I Am Other and So So Def Recordings. LaBelle released a sampler, three singles, and a posthumous extended play (EP).
1790 Thomas Lewis

Thomas Lewis

Irish-born American lawyer and surveyor (born 1718)
Thomas Lewis was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, politician and pioneer of early western Virginia. He was among the signers of the Fairfax Resolves, represented Augusta County at four of the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions and the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, represented newly established Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratification Convention, as well as contributed to the settlement of Kanawha County that, long after his death, become part of West Virginia.
1989 William Stephenson

William Stephenson

Canadian captain and spy (born 1896)
Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of British Security Coordination (BSC) for the Western Allies during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence code name, Intrepid. Many people consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson."
1870 Cilibi Moise

Cilibi Moise

Moldavian Romanian journalist and author (born 1812)
Cilibi Moise or Cilibi Moisi was a Moldavian-born Wallachian and Romanian peddler, humorist, aphorist, and raconteur. He is best known for the aphorisms and anecdotes attributed to him, which, although recorded in Romanian, represent an important segment of the local secular Jewish culture and Jewish humor in the 19th century. Moise relied on others to record his own creations, and these often refer to him using the third person, which made him a stock character.
1976 Ernesto Miranda

Ernesto Miranda

American criminal (born 1941)
Ernesto Arturo Miranda was an American laborer whose criminal conviction was set aside in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona, which ruled that criminal suspects must be informed of their right against self-incrimination and their right to consult with an attorney before being questioned by police. This warning is known as a Miranda warning. Miranda had been convicted of kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery charges based on his confession under police interrogation.
1606 Ambrose Rookwood

Ambrose Rookwood

English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1578)
Ambrose Rookwood was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic sovereign. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits in Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two younger brothers were ordained as Catholic priests. Rookwood became a horse-breeder. He married the Catholic Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, and had at least two sons.

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