Today’s Highlights

On Jan. 31, 2020, the United States declared a public health emergency over the new coronavirus, and President Donald Trump signed an order to temporarily bar entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens, who traveled in China in the preceding 14 days.

On this date

1863: During the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black Union regiment composed of many escaped slaves, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, South Carolina.

1945: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.

1958: The United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1.

1971: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14.

1988: Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, led the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos.

2000: An Alaska Airlines MD-83 jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Port Hueneme, California, killing all 88 people aboard.

2001: A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Today’s birthdays

Composer Philip Glass is 88. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 81. Actor Glynn Turman is 78. Baseballer Nolan Ryan is 78.