On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members.
On Jan. 28 , 1887, Arthur Rubinstein, the Polish-American virtuoso pianist, was born. Following his death on Dec. 20, 1982, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1547 | England's King Henry VIII died. |
|---|---|
| 1813 | The novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen was first published anonymously in London. |
| 1853 | Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana. |
| 1871 | France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War. |
| 1909 | The United States ended direct control over Cuba. |
| 1915 | The Coast Guard was created by an act of Congress. |
| 1916 | Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member. |
| 1945 | During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road. |
| 1959 | Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. |
| 1973 | A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War. |
| 1980 | Six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran under false identities. |
| 1999 | Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, honoring a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, spared a triple murderer from execution. |
| 2003 | President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sought uranium from Africa. (The claim was later disputed by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been asked by the CIA to investigate.) |
| 2009 | In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a $819 billion stimulus bill. |
| 2010 | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won Senate confirmation for a second term. |
Historic Birthdays
Arthur Rubinstein
1/28/1887 - 12/20/1982
Polish-American virtuoso pianist.Go to obituary »
| 52 |
Henry VII 1/28/1457 - 4/21/1509 English King |
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| 63 |
Sir Henry Morton Stanley 1/28/1841 - 5/10/1904 English/American explorer |
| 43 |
William Seward Burroughs 1/28/1855 - 9/15/1898 American inventor |
| 78 |
Franklin Hooper 1/28/1862 - 8/14/1940 American editor in chief of Encyclopedia Britiannica. |
| 81 |
(Sidonie-Gabrielle) Colette 1/28/1873 - 8/3/1954 French writer |
| 78 |
Auguste Piccard 1/28/1884 - 3/24/1962 Swiss-bn. Belgian physicist, balloonist, deep sea diver |
| 55 |
Ernst Lubitsch 1/28/1892 - 11/30/1947 German/American film director |
| 68 |
Dame Kathleen Lonsdale 1/28/1903 - 4/1/1971 British crystallographer |
| 44 |
Jackson Pollock 1/28/1912 - 8/11/1956 American painter |
| 80 |
Virgilio Ferreira 1/28/1916 - 3/1/1996 Portuguese teacher and novelist |