January 28
It’s Rattle Snake Round-Up Day and National Kazoo Day
ON THIS DAY…
1077 Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
1547 Henry VIII dies. His nine year old son, Edward VI 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 in the Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1754 Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
1813 Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
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, being 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 is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
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.
1916 Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1917 Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California.
1921 A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I.
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.
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).
1958 The Lego company patented their design of Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
1965 The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.
1986 Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission (Space Shuttle Challenger disaster) Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board.
BORN
1225 Saint Thomas Aquinas
1457 King Henry VII of England
1841 Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-born explorer and journalist
1890 Robert Stroud, American convict, the Birdman of Alcatraz
1892 Ernst Lubitsch, German-born film director
1912 Jackson Pollock, American painter
1936 Alan Alda, American actor, writer, and director
1955 Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France
1959 Frank Darabont, American filmmaker
1968 Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer and songwriter
1981 Elijah Wood, American actor
DIED
814 Charlemagne
1547 King Henry VIII of England
1939 William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate
1960 Zora Neale Hurston, American author
1983 Billy Fury, actor, singer
1986 Captain Greg Jarvis Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Christa McAuliffe Teacher in Space participant on Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Ronald McNair Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Lieutenant Colonel Ellison Onizuka Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Judith Resnik Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Lieutenant Colonel Francis R. Scobee Commander of Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 Captain Michael J. Smith Pilot of Space Shuttle Challenger
2002 Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author