Today; January 28th, In History.

January 28 is the 28th day of the year
in the Gregorian calendar. There are 337 days remaining until the end of
the year (338 in leap years).

Events



1077 – Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.

1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine year old son, becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.

1573 – Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.

1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.

1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg
by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.

1754 – Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.

1760 – Pownal, Vermont is created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.

1813 – Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom. Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice
while living at "Steventon," her father's Hampshire vicarage where she
spent the first 25 years of her life. However, the book was not
published until much later—in 1813, four years before her death. Like
Austen's other novels, Pride and Prejudice is a comedy of manners
that depicts the self-contained world of provincial ladies and
gentlemen. In 2003, the novel placed second in a BBC poll for the "UK's
Best-Loved Book.

1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von
Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic
continent approaching the Antarctic coast.

1821 – Alexander Island is first discovered by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.

1846 – The Battle of Aliwal, India, is won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.

1851 – Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in Illinois.

1855 – A locomotive, on the Panama Railway, runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.

1878 – Yale Daily News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States.

1887 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent became the first person to
be convicted of speeding. He was fined 1 shilling, plus costs, for
speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit
of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

1902 – The Carnegie Institution of Washington is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.

1908 – Members of the Portuguese Republican Party fail in their
attempted coup d'état against the administrative dictatorship of Prime
Minister João Franco.

1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American
War.

1915 – An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.

1917 – Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California.

1918 – Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.

1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.'s biggest snowfall,
causes the city's greatest loss of life when the roof of the
Knickerbocker Theatre collapses.

1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.

1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.

1934 – The first ski tow in the United States begins operation in Vermont.

1935 – Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.

1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by
driver Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7
kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).

1941 – French-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.

1945 – World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1956 – Elvis Presley made his first US TV appearance.

1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

1958 – The last episode of the British radio comedy programme Goon Show was broadcast.

1964 – An unarmed USAF T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission is shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.

1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.

1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977,
which severely affects and cripples much of Upstate New York, but
Buffalo, NY, Syracuse, NY, Watertown, NY, and surrounding areas are most
affected, each area accumulating close to 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow on
this one day.

1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa Florida and capsizes killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price
and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979
energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.

1982 – US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.

1984 – Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique,
eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so
far recorded in the region.

1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for
Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for
Ethiopian famine relief.

(Anyone else remember this day, like it was last week?)

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission – Space Shuttle
Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on
board.

(Or this one?)

1988- The last episode of the British TV series Yes, Prime Minister, entitled The Tangled Web, was broadcast.

1988- Pink Floyd flew a giant inflatable bed over the Thames (near Houses of Parliament), in London.

2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.

2006 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice
International Fair in Chorzów / Katowice, Poland, collapses due to the
weight of snow, killing 65 and injuring more than 170 others.

2010 – Five murderers of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of
Bangladesh: Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruq Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel
Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Major Bazlul
Huda and Lieutenant Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed are hanged.

2011 – Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled up the Egyptian's
streets in demonstrations referred to as "Friday of Anger" against the
Mubarak regime.

Births





1225 – Saint Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274)



1312 – Queen Joan II of Navarre (d. 1349)



1457 – King Henry VII of England (d. 1509)



1540 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610)



1582 – John Barclay, Scottish writer (d. 1621)



1600 – Pope Clement IX (d. 1669)



1608 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)



1611 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish-born astronomer (d. 1687)



1622 – Adrien Auzout, French astronomer (d. 1691)



1701 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)



1706 – John Baskerville, English printer (d. 1775)



1712 – Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shogun (d. 1761)



1717 – Mustafa III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1774)



1719 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German critic and poet (d. 1749)



1755 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician (d. 1830)



1784 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the UK (d. 1860)



1818 – George S. Boutwell, American politician, 20th Governor of
Massachusetts and later the 28th United States Secretary of the Treasury
(d. 1905)



1822 – Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1892)



1833 – Charles George 'Chinese' Gordon, British soldier and administrator (d. 1885)





1841 – Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-born explorer and journalist (d. 1904)



1853 – José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)



1857 – William Seward Burroughs I, American inventor (d. 1898)



1858 – Tannatt William Edgeworth David, KBE, DSO, FRS, Welsh-born Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer (d. 1934)



1861 – Julián Felipe, Filipino musician (d. 1944)



1863 – Ernest William Christmas, Australian painter (d. 1918)



1864 – Charles W. Nash, American automobile entrepreneur (d. 1948)



1864 – Herbert Akroyd Stuart, English inventor (d. 1927)



1865 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1928)





1865 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, 1st President of Finland (d. 1952)



1873 – Colette, French writer (d. 1954)



1874 – Vsevolod Meyerhold, Russian theatre director (d. 1940)



1880 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (d. 1970)



1884 – Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist (d. 1962)



1885 – Vahan Terian, Armenian poet, lyricist and public activist (d. 1920)



1886 – Marthe Bibesco, Romanian writer (d. 1973)



1886 – Hidetsugu Yagi, Japanese electrical engineer (d. 1976)



1887 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish pianist (d. 1982)



1890 – Robert Stroud, American convict, the Birdman of Alcatraz (d. 1963)



1891 – Bill Doak, American baseball player (d. 1954)



1892 – Ernst Lubitsch, German-born film director (d. 1947)



1897 – Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (d. 1986)



1899 – Elias Simojoki, Finnish clergyman and politician (d. 1940)



1900 – Alice Neel, American artist (d. 1984)



1903 – Aleksander Kamiński, Polish writer (d. 1978)



1904 – Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (d. 1979)



1908 – Paul Misraki, French composer and songwriter (d. 1998)



1909 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer (d. 1931)



1910 – John Banner, Austrian actor (d. 1973)



1910 – Arnold Moss, American actor (d. 1989)



1911 – Johan van Hulst, Dutch politician



1912 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)



1915 – Nien Cheng, Chinese-born American writer (d. 2009)



1918 – Harry Corbett, English puppeteer (Sooty) (d. 1989)



1918 – Trevor Skeet, New Zealand-born British politician (d. 2004)



1919 – Francis Gabreski, American fighter pilot (d. 2002)



1922 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1993)



1924 – Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter (d. 1976)



1925 – Scotty Bloch, American stage and television actress



1927 – Per Oscarsson, Swedish actor (d. 2010)



1927 – Ronnie Scott, British tenor saxophonist and club owner (d. 1996)



1927 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (d. 2001)



1929 – Acker Bilk, English jazz clarinetist



1929 – Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-born artist



1930 – Kurt Biedenkopf, German politician



1933 – Jack Hill, American film director



1934 – Juan Manuel Bordeu, Argentine racing driver (d. 1990)



1934 – Mitr Chaibancha, Thai actor (d. 1970)



1935 – David Lodge, English author



1936 – Alan Alda, American actor, writer, and director



1936 – Ismail Kadare, Albanian writer



1938 – Leonid Zhabotynsky, Ukrainian weightlifter



1939 – John M. Fabian, NASA astronaut



1940 – Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman



1941 – Joel Crothers, American actor (d. 1985)



1941 – Osbourne 'King Tubby' Ruddock, Jamaican musician and sound engineer (d. 1989)



1943 – John Beck, American actor



1943 – Paul Henderson, Canadian ice hockey player



1943 – Dick Taylor, English musician (The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things)



1944 – Susan Howard, American actress



1944 – John Tavener, English composer



1945 – Karen Lynn Gorney, American actress



1945 – Marthe Keller, Swiss actress



1945 – John Perkins, American author and activist



1945 – Robert Wyatt, English musician



1947 – Jeanne Shaheen, American politician, senior senator of New Hampshire



1948 – Charles Taylor, 22nd President of Liberia



1949 – Tom Downey, former American Congressman



1949 – Gregg Popovich, American basketball coach



1950 – Barbi Benton, American actress



1950 – David C. Hilmers, NASA astronaut



1950 – Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah, King of Bahrain



1950 – Bob Hay, American songwriter and musician



1951 – Brian Bilbray, American politician



1951 – Leonid Kadeniuk, Ukrainian cosmonaut



1953 – Colin Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player and executive



1953 – Chris Carter, English musician (Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey)



1954 – Rick Warren, American pastor and author



1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France



1957 – Mark Napier, Canadian ice hockey player



1957 – Frank Skinner, British comedian



1957 – Nick Price, Zimbabwean golfer



1959 – Burkhard Dallwitz, German-born composer



1959 – Frank Darabont, American filmmaker



1959 – Megan McDonald, American children's literature author



1959 – Randi Rhodes, radio personality



1959 – Dave Sharp, Welsh guitarist (The Alarm)



1960 – Robert von Dassanowsky, American historian, writer, and producer



1961 – Arnaldur Indridason, Icelandic writer



1961 – Normand Rochefort, Canadian ice hockey player



1962 – Keith Hamilton Cobb, American actor



1962 – Creflo Dollar, American televangelist



1962 – Sam Phillips, American singer



1963 – Dan Spitz, American musician, guitarist (Anthrax)



1965 – Lynda Boyd, American actress



1967 – Jan Lamb, Chinese disc jockey & comedian



1968 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer and songwriter



1968 – DJ Muggs, American musician (Cypress Hill)



1968 – Rakim (William Michael Griffin Jr.), American rapper



1969 – Kathryn Morris, American actress



1969 – Mo Rocca, American writer and comedian



1969 – Linda Sanchez, American politician



1971 – Anthony Hamilton, American soul singer



1972 – Nicky Southall, English footballer



1974 – Tony Delk, American basketball player



1974 – Jermaine Dye, American baseball player



1974 – Magglio Ordóñez, Venezuelan baseball player



1975 – Terri Colombino, American actress



1975 – Tanya Chua, Singaporean singer



1975 – Lee Latchford-Evans, English singer



1975 – Anne Montminy, Canadian diver



1975 – Junior Spivey, American baseball player



1976 – Lee Ingleby, British actor



1976 – Emiko Kado, Japanese wrestler (d. 1999)



1976 – Mark Madsen, American basketball player



1976 – Jarrod Montague, American drummer (Taproot)



1977 – Daunte Culpepper, American football player



1977 – Matt DeVries, American guitarist (Chimaira)



1977 – Joey Fatone, American singer (*NSYNC)



1977 – Lyle Overbay, American baseball player



1977 – Takuma Sato, Japanese racing driver



1978 – Gianluigi Buffon, Italian footballer



1978 – Jamie Carragher, English footballer



1978 – Papa Bouba Diop, Senegalese footballer



1978 – Stephen Farrelly, Irish professional wrestler



1979 – Ali Boulala, Swedish skateboarder



1980 – Nick Carter, American singer (Backstreet Boys)



1980 – Yasuhito Endo, Japanese footballer



1981 – Elijah Wood, American actor



1986 – Shruti Haasan, Indian actress.



1987 – Chelsea Brummet, American actress.



1990 – Alexandra Krosney, American actress



1991 – Calum Worthy, Canadian actor and musician.



1993 – Will Poulter, English actor



1998 – Ariel Winter, American actress (Modern Family)



Deaths

814 – Charlemagne (b. 742)



1061 – Duke Spytihněv II of Bohemia (b. 1031)





1271 – Isabella of Aragon, queen of Philip III of France (b. 1247)





1443 – Robert le Maçon, Chancellor of France





1547 – King Henry VIII of England (b. 1491)



1613 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and library founder (b. 1545)



1621 – Pope Paul V (b. 1550)



1672 – Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France (b. 1588)



1681 – Richard Allestree, English royalist churchman (b. 1619)



1687 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer (b. 1611)



1697 – John Fenwick, English conspirator



1754 – Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian historian and writer (b. 1684)



1832 – Augustin Daniel Belliard, French general (b. 1769)



1859 – Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1782)



1864 – Émile Clapeyron, French engineer and physicist (b. 1799)



1903 – Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)



1912 – Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (b. 1819)



1915 – Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist (b. 1846)



1918 – John McCrae, Canadian poet (b. 1872)



1930 – Ema Destinnová, Czech opera singer (b. 1878)



1935 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian composer (b. 1859)



1937 – Anastasios Metaxas, Greek architect and shooter (b. 1862)



1938 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German racecar driver (b. 1909)



1939 – William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1865)



1947 – Reynaldo Hahn, French composer (b. 1875)



1948 – Hans Aumeier, German Nazi official and concentration camp commandant (b. 1906)



1948 – Therese Brandl, Nazi concentration camp guard (b. 1902)



1948 – Arthur Liebehenschel, Commandant at Auschwitz concentration camp (b. 1901)



1949 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)



1950 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician (b. 1883)



1951 – Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Marshal and President of Finland (b. 1867)



1953 – Derek Bentley, British criminal (b. 1933)



1953 – James Scullin, 9th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)



1959 – Walter Beall, American baseball player (b. 1899)

1

960 – Zora Neale Hurston, American author (b. 1891)



1963 – Gustave Garrigou, French cyclist (b. 1884)



1965 – Tich Freeman, English cricketer (b. 1888)



1965 – Maxime Weygand, French soldier (b. 1867)



1971 – Donald Winnicott, British psychoanalyst (b. 1896)



1973 – John Banner, Austrian actor (b. 1910)



1975 – Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst and philologist (b. 1887)



1976 – Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter (b. 1924)



1979 – Eileen Shanahan, Irish poet (b. 1901)



1983 – Frank Forde, 15th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)



1983 – Billy Fury, British singer (b. 1940)



1986 – Gregory Jarvis – crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1944)



1986 – Christa McAuliffe – American teacher, member of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1948)



1986 – Ronald McNair – crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1950)



1986 – Ellison Onizuka – crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1946)



1986 – Judith Resnik – crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1949)



1986 – Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee – commander of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1939)



1986 – Michael J. Smith – crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (b. 1945)



1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German physicist (b. 1911)



1989 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama, Tibetan religious figure (b. 1938)



1990 – Puma Jones, American singer (Black Uhuru) (b. 1953)



1994 – Hal Smith, American actor (b. 1916)



1996 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Laureate (b. 1940)



1996 – Burne Hogarth, American cartoonist (b. 1911)



1996 – Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (b. 1914)



1999 – Markey Robinson, Irish painter (b. 1918)



1999 – Torgny Torgnysson Segerstedt, Swedish sociologist and philosopher (b. 1908)



2001 – Curt Blefary, American baseball player (b. 1943)



2002 – Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist (b. 1913)



2002 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author (b. 1907)



2002 – Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Turkish author and activist



2004 – Lloyd M. Bucher, U.S. Navy officer (b. 1927)



2004 – Don Cholito, Puerto Rican radio host (b. 1923)



2004 – Elroy Hirsch, American football player (b. 1923)



2004 – Mel Pritchard, British Musician (b. 1948)



2004 – Don Stansauk, American professional wrestler (b. 1936)



2004 – Joe Viterelli, American actor (b. 1937)



2005 – Jim Capaldi, English singer and songwriter (b. 1944)



2005 – Karen Lancaume, French actress (b. 1973)



2005 – Jacques Villeret, French actor (b. 1951)



2005 – Ronnie Paris, child abuse victim (b. 2001)



2006 – Yitzchak Kaduri, rabbi



2006 – Henry McGee, English comedian (b. 1929)



2007 – Carlo Clerici, Swiss road racing cyclist (b. 1929)



2007 – Father Robert Drinan, Roman Catholic priest and American politician (b. 1920)



2007 – Yelena Romanova, Russian athlete (b. 1963)



2007 – Karel Svoboda, Czech composer of popular music (b. 1938)



2007 – Hsu Wei Lun, Taiwanese actress (b. 1978)



2008 – Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece (b. 1939)



2009 – Billy Powell, American musician (b. 1952)