January 31

1. 1865

   Congress votes to abolish slavery

   The United States House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment, sending a nationwide ban on slavery to the states for approval. Ratified later that year, it wrote the end of legal slavery into the Constitution.

   Source: Wikipedia

2. 1958

   America's first satellite finds the radiation belts

   Launched from Cape Canaveral on the evening of January 31, Explorer 1 became the first satellite put into orbit by the United States. Its onboard detector revealed the bands of trapped particles now called the Van Allen belts, the first great scientific discovery of the space age.

   Source: Wikipedia

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