On this day in History - Jan. 28

• 28 - The Roman Emperor Nerva names Trajan, an army general, as his successor.
• 814 - Charlemagne dies (b. 742).
• 1521 - Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
• 1547 - King Henry VIII of England dies (b. 1491) and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son - Edward VI .
• 1573 - articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland .
• 1596 - Sir Francis Drake, explorer, soldier (b. ca. 1540) .
• 1599 - Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian composer.
• 1600 - Pope Clement IX was born, (d. 1669)
• 1621 - Pope Paul V dies, (b. 1550) .
• 1693 -Anna "Ivanovna", was born, Tsarina of Russia .
• 1706 - John Baskerville, was born, inventor of the "hot-pressing" method of printing.
• 1754 - Ludvig Holberg, dies, historian and writer (b. 1684).
• 1757 -Ahmed Shah, the first King of Afghanistan, occupies Delhi and annexes the Punjab.
• 1784 - George Hamilton Gordon Aberdeen, was born, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860).
• 1788 - The first penal colony is founded at Botany Bay, Australia.
• 1792 -Rebellious slaves in Santo Domingo launch an attack on the city of Cap.
• 1808 - D. João VI, assina na Bahia, o Decreto de Abertura dos Portos à Nações Amigas, que colocava fim ao pacto colonial entre Portugal e Brasil. A “Abertura dos Portos” suspendeu os séculos de monopólio comercial português, uma das bases do chamado Pacto Colonial.
• 1822 - Alexander Mackenzie, was born, second Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1892).
• 1823 - Abdicación de Bernardo O'Higgins al cargo de Director Supremo de Chile.
• 1833 - Charles George 'Chinese' Gordon, was born, British soldier and administrator (d. 1885).
• 1840 - Real orden por la que se crea en La Habana el Archivo General de la Real Hacienda, fundamento del Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba.
• 1841 - Henry Morton Stanley, was born, explorer, journalist (d. 1904) .
• 1846 - Battle of Aliwal, India won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
• 1853 - José Martí, was born, poeta y héroe de la independencia de Cuba. (d. 1895)
• 1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Panama Railway.
• 1857 - William Seward Burroughs, was born, inventor of the calculator (d. 1898) .
• 1867 - Nace Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, novelista español.
• 1871- France surrenders to end the Franco-Prussian War.
• 1873 - Colette, was born, writer (d. 1954) .
• 1878 - The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.
• 1879 - Francis Picabia, was born, painter, poet (d. 1953) .
• 1881 - Muere el escritor Fiodor Mijailovich Dostoievskipe Poey, naturalista cubano.
• 1884 - Auguste Piccard, physicist (d. 1962).
• 1886- José Linhares, nascimento de, 23º presidente do Brasil (29/10/1945 - 31/01/1946).
• 1887 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, USA, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38cm) wide and 8 inches (20cm) thick.
• 1887 - Se pone la primera piedra de la Torre Eiffel.
• 1887 - Artur Rubinstein, was born, Polish pianist, conductor (d. 1982) .
• 1892 - Ernst Lubitsch, was born, film director (d. 1947) .
• 1894 - Fidela Campiña Ontiveros, was born, cantante de ópera, Tíjola (Almería), España
• 1900 - Heinrich Kesten, author (d. 1996) .
• 1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
• 1903 - Augusta Holmès, dies, French composer.
• 1908 - Se inicia en Portugal un movimiento revolucionario controlado tres días después.
• 1909 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
• 1912- Jackson Pollock, was born, painter, initiator of Dripping painting (d. 1956) .
• 1912- Gustave de Molinari, dies, Belgian economist .
• 1913 - Segismundo Moret, dies, político español.
• 1915- An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.
• 1915-The German navy attacks the U.S. freighter William P. Frye, loaded with wheat for Britain.
• 1916 - Vergílio Ferreira nasceu neste dia, em Melo, concelho de Gouveia( Serra da Estrela), o escritor português Vergílio Ferreira( O Caminho Fica Longe, Onde Tudo Foi Morrendo, Vagão «J», Mudança, Nitido Nulo, Em nome da Terra, Manhã Submersa, etc). «Há os livros que antes de lidos já estão lidos. Há os que se lêem todos e ficam logo lidos todos. E há os que nos regateiam a leitura e a que pedimos humildemente que se deixem ler todos e não deixam e vão largando uma parte de si pelas gerações e jamais se deixam ler de uma vez para sempre.» (Vergílio Ferreira) .
• 1916 - Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
• 1917 - United States ends search for Pancho Villa.
• 1918 - Finnish Civil War: Social democrats and communists seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland went underground.
• 1920 - Se funda en España la Legión.
• 1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honour the unknown dead of World War I.
• 1921- Albert Einstein startles Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe.
• 1922 -Robert William Holley, was born (d. 11 Feb 1993). American biochemist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Marshall Warren Nirenberg and Har Gobind Khorana.
• 1923 - Ivo Robić, was born, singer - Croatia, Mister Morgen (d. 2001)
• 1927 - Hiroshi Teshigahara, was born, director (d. 2001) .
• 1928 - Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, dies escritor español
• 1929 - Claes Oldenbourg, was born, artist
• 1929 - Acker Bilk, was born, musician .
• 1931 - Lucía Bosé, was born, actriz italiana.
• 1932 - Japan occupies Shanghai, China and declare martial law.
• 1933 -Susan Sontag, American essayist and novelist (The Style of Radical Will, Illness as a Metaphor).
• 1935 - David Lodge, was born, author .
• 1935 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion.
• 1936 - Alan Alda, was born, American actor, writer and director .
• 1936 -A fellow prison inmate slashes infamous kidnapper, Richard Loeb, to death.
• 1938 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
• 1939 - William Butler Yeats, dies, writer (b. 1865) premio Nobel de Literatura en 1923.
• 1941 -French General Charles DeGaulle's Free French forces sack south Libya oasis.
• 1942 -Five power stations are blown up by pro-Axis saboteurs in an attempt to destabilise the Rand gold mines.
• 1945 -Chiang Kai-shek renames the Ledo-Burma Road the Stilwell Road, in honor of General Joseph Stilwell.
• 1945 - World War II: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
• 1945 - Marthe Keller, was born, actress.
• 1946 - Bluenose, Canada's greatest sailing ship, founders on a Haitian reef.
• 1948- Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer .
• 1949 - Los miembros de la Comunidad Europea crean el Consejo de Europa.
• 1949 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, dies, race car driver (b. 1908) .
• 1950 - A Assembléia Francesa ratifica um acordo no qual o Vietnã, Cambodjia, e Laos tornam-se estados independentes dentro da União Francesa .
• 1952 - Cándido Méndez, secretario general de UGT.
• 1953 - James Scullin, dies, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876) .
• 1955 -The U.S. Congress passes a bill allowing mobilization of troops if China should attack Taiwan.
• 1955 - Fundación de la Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española.
• 1958 - Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister.
• 1960 - Robert von Dassanowsky, was born, cultural historian, writer, producer .
• 1960 - Maitê Proença, nascimento de, atriz brasileira.
• 1960 - Zora Neale Hurston, dies, author (b. 1891) .
• 1964 -The Soviets down a U.S. jet over East Germany killing three.
• 1968 - Sarah McLachlan, was born, singer/songwriter.
• 1970 -Israeli fighter jets attack the suburbs of Cairo.
• 1971- Donald Winnicott, dies,British psychoanalyst (b. 1896) .
• 1973 - Barnaby Jones premieres on CBS.
• 1974 - Tony Delk, was born, basketball player.
• 1977 - Joey Fatone, was born, performer .
• 1977 - Freddie Prinze, actor (b. 1954) .
• 1978 - Gianluigi Buffon, was born Italian football (goalkeaper) star .
• 1980 - Nick Carter, was born, performer.
• 1981- Elijah Wood, was born, actor .
• 1982 - James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.
• 1983 - Frank Forde, dies, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890).
• 1985 - 45 dos melhores músicos e compositores do mundo são convidados para produzir o álbum “USA for África”. O objetivo foi arrecadar fundos para aliviar a fome na Etiópia. A principal música gravada “We Are the World” chegou ao topo das paradas nos Estados Unidos e incluiu a participação de Michael Jackson, Kenny Rogers, Sting, Diana Ross, Paul Simon e Cyndi Lauper, dentre outros.
• 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger explodes just after takeoff killing all seven astronauts onboard: Francis R. Scobee (b. 1939), Michael J. Smith (b. 1945), Judith Resnik (b. 1949), Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946), Ronald McNair (b. 1950), Greg Jarvis (b. 1944), Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948) .
• 1990 - Super Bowl XXIV: The San Francisco 49ers are crowned "Team of the 1980s" by defeating the Denver Broncos, 55-10.
• 1993 - Troops in Zaire run riot, killing the French Ambassador.
• 1994 - O cristão democrata Giovanni Goria é o segundo primeiro-ministro da Itália a ser acusado de corrupção e julgado por um tribunal nacional.
• 1996 - Super Bowl XXX: The Dallas Cowboys win their fifth Super Bowl title by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17.
• 1996 - Jerry Siegel, cartoonist, creator of Superman dies (b. 1914)
• 1996 - Joseph Brodsky, dies poet
• 1997 - Falece o jornalista e escritor Antônio Callado. Um dos principais romancistas brasileiros do século 20, ele escreveu “Bar Don Juan”(1971), “Quarup”(1967), e “Reflexos do Baile”(1976).
• 1998 - Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo for $6.45 billion.
• 1998 - Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
• 1999 - The creation of Element 114 is announced by scientists.
• 2001 - Super Bowl XXXV: The Baltimore Ravens defeat the New York Giants, 34-7.
• 2002 - An Ecuadoran airline Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.
• 2002 - Astrid Lindgren, author (b. 1907) .
• 2004 - September Dossier: Lord Hutton publishes his report into the death of UN weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly.
• 2004 - Don Cholito, radio host, hosted the longest running uninterrupted radio show (b. 1923)