What happened on January 28 ?
Events
1077 - Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
1521 - Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
1547 - Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
1573 - Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland.
1754 - Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
1760 - Pownal, Vermont created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.
1788 - The first penal colony is founded at Botany Bay, Australia.
1813 - Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
1820 - Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.
1846 - Battle of Aliwal, India won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Panama Railway.
1871 - Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders, ending the war.
1878 - The Yale 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, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
1909 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
1915 - An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
1916 - Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1917 - United States ends search for Pancho Villa.
1917 - Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco.
1918 - Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honour the unknown dead of World War I.
1932 - Japan occupies Shanghai.
1933 - The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and a group of Cambridge University Students and is adopted for the Pakistan Movement of the formal Indian Independence during WWII
1935 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion.
1938 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
1938 - The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by driver Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195.
1945 - World War II: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1946 - Bluenose, Canada's greatest sailing ship, founders on a Haitian reef.
1958 - Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister.
1982 - US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.
1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven astronauts onboard, including Christa McAuliffe, who was supposed to be the first teacher in space . Failure blamed on leaking Solid Rocket Booster.
1994 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1998 - Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
2002 - An Ecuadoran airline Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.
2004 - September Dossier: Lord Hutton publishes his report into the death of UN weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly.
Events | Births | Deaths | Holidays |