January 28 – Some important events on this day
1077 👉🏼 German King Henry IV is absolved by Holy Roman Emperor Pope Gregory VII and invited back to the Church after his penitent Walk to Canossa
1393 👉🏼 Fire during Royal Ball in Paris, 4 die (Ball of the Ardents)
1521 👉🏼 Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany which lasts until May 25th. Produced the “Edict of Worms” which dennouced Martin Luther
1671 👉🏼 British pirate Henry Morgan captures Panama City from its Spanish defenders
1807 👉🏼 London’s Pall Mall is 1st street lit by gaslight
1813 👉🏼 Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is published by Thomas Egerton in the United Kingdom
1819 👉🏼 Sir Stamford Raffles lands in Singapore
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.
1887 👉🏼 Work begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris
1933 👉🏼 The name “Pakistan” is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali and gradually accepted by Muslims in the Indian sub-continent who use it to push for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia
1935 👉🏼 Iceland becomes 1st western country to legalize abortion
1958 👉🏼 The Lego company patents their design of Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today
1985 👉🏼 Charity single “We Are the World” is recorded by supergroup USA for Africa (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and other pop stars)
1986 👉🏼 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space.
73 seconds into its history-making flight, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in midair, killing all seven astronauts below as a crowd of people watched and many more did so on television.
The Challenger was special as among its crew was Christa McAuliffe, who was to become the first teacher in space. Some 17% of Americans were watching the broadcast live, and her parents were in the crowd at Cape Canaveral when the ill-fated takeoff happened.
A 32-month hiatus in the Shuttle program resulted, as did lengthy investigations into the cause, determined to be a failure of O-ring seals on the rocket’s boosters caused by cold weather on the morning of the launch.
