On this day: January 28th

On this day: January 28th

There are many and several events on this day in history. Read and discover what happened on this day: On this day: January 28th

On this day: January 28th

Events On this day: January 28th

• 1547: King Henry VIII of England died and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI. Henry had ruled since 1509 and had broken all ties with the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of divorce. He married a total of six times. Edward VI was the son of his third wife, Jane Seymour. Edward became king at age 10, but died of tuberculosis at age 16. He was followed by his half sister, Mary.
• 1813: Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, is published. It is one of the best-known works of English literature, and it was sold about 20 million times.
• 1820: Fabian von Bellinghausen discovers the Antarctic. The Baltic German explorer is believed to be the first person to sight Earth’s southernmost continent.
• 1855: The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic to Pacific.
• 1871: Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders, ending the war.
• 1915: The United States Coast Guard is created.
• 1935: Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.
• 1958 The Lego brick is patented. The Lego company has since produced 500 billion Lego elements, amounting to 10 lego towers from Earth to the Moon.
• 1963: African American student Harvey Gantt entered Clemson College in South Carolina, the last state to hold out against integration.
• 1985: USA for Africa record “We Are the World.” Over 20 million copies of the charity single were sold.
• 1986: The U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds into its flight, killing seven persons, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was to be the first ordinary citizen in space.

Birthdays on this day: January 28th

• 598: Emperor Taizong (Emperor of China)
• 1225: Thomas Aquinas (Saint of the Catholic Church)
• 1457: Henry VII (King of England)
• 1841: Explorer Henry Stanley (1841–1904) was born in Wales. As a newspaper correspondent for the New York Herald, he was given the challenging assignment of finding missionary-explorer David Livingston in Africa. Upon locating Livingston near Lake Tanganyika in 1871 after an exhausting search, Stanley simply asked, “Dr. Livingston, I presume?”
• 1853: José Martí (Cuban journalist, poet, theorist)
• 1912: Jackson Pollock (Artist)
• 1936: Alan Alda (Actor from MASH)
• 1955: Nicolas Sarkozy (French politician, 23rd President of France)
• 1968: Sarah McLachlan (Singer and Songwriter)
• 1977: Joey Fatone Jr. (Singer NSYNC)
• 1978: Gianluigi Buffon (Italian footballer)
• 1980: Nick Carter (Singer)
• 1981: Elijah Wood (Actor)

Deaths On this day: January 28th

• 814: Charlemagne (Frankish king)
• 1547: Henry VIII of England
• 1939: W. B. Yeats (Irish poet, Nobel Prize laureate)
• 1975: Ola Raknes (Norwegian psychoanalyst, philologist)
• 2002: Astrid Lindgren (Swedish author, screenwriter)

Read also: On this day: January 27th