Today is Saturday, January 31, the 31st day of 2009. There are 334 days left in the year.
1627 _ Spanish government goes bankrupt
1871 _ Millions of birds fly over western San Francisco, darken the sky
1874 _ Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill, Mo.
1901 _ Chekhov's ``Three Sisters" opens at the Moscow Art Theater
1928 _ Scotch tape first marketed by 3-M Company
1929 _ Leon Trotsky expelled from Russia to Turkey
1943 _ General Friedrich von Paul surrenders to Russian troops at Stalingrad
1950 _ President Truman reveals that he ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb
1971 _ ``My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hit No. 1 on U.K. pop chart
1985 _ South African President P.W. Botha offers to free Mandela if he denounces violence