January 31, 2015 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2014–15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine
- Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists conduct peace talks as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo launches a campaign against Hutu rebels. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- A monitoring group claims that ISIL has reportedly released a video showing the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. (Al Jazeera)
Disasters and accidents
- Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501
- France orders an official investigation into the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 which had a French copilot flying the aircraft at the time of its crash. (AFP via France 24)
Politics and elections
- Italian presidential election, 2015
- Voters elect Sergio Mattarella President of Italy. (Corriere della Sera)
- Richard von Weizsäcker, who was president of West Germany from 1984 to 1990 and became the first president of reunified Germany from 1990 to 1994, dies at the age of 94. (Deutsche Welle)
- Queensland state election, 2015
- The Liberal National Party of Queensland loses its parliamentary majority, with outgoing Premier Campbell Newman losing his own seat of Ashgrove. It is unclear whether the Australian Labor Party, led by Annastacia Palaszczuk, has won an outright majority or if the result is a hung parliament. (ABC News Australia)
Sports
- 2015 Australian Open
- In tennis, American Serena Williams defeats Maria Sharapova of Russia in straight sets in the Women's Singles final. It is the sixth Australian Open crown and 19th Grand Slam singles title for the current world #1. (AAP via MSN) (The Guardian)
- 2015 AFC Asian Cup
- In football, host nation Australia defeats South Korea 2–1 in the final of the Asian Cup. (ABC News Australia) (ABC News)
- In golf, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who does not turn 18 until 24 April, becomes the youngest golfer of either sex to be ranked number 1 in the world, surpassing the previous record of Tiger Woods by nearly four years. (New Zealand Herald)[permanent dead link]
- In American football, The Board of Selectors for Pro Football Hall of Fame announces the induction of eight individuals as the 2015 induction class which will formally enter the Hall in August. The inductees are Junior Seau, Jerome Bettis, Charles Haley, Will Shields, Tim Brown, and Mick Tingelhoff as players, and Bill Polian and Ron Wolf as contributors. (NBC Sports)