TODAY HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 28
1099 1st Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria
1495 Pope gives his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France
1521 The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church
1547 Henry VIII of England dies and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Edward VI.
1792 Rebellious slaves in Santo Domingo launch an attack on the city of Cap.
1813 Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is published by Thomas Egerton in the United Kingdom
1858 John Brown organized raid on Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
1871 Surrounded by Prussian troops and suffering from famine, the French army in Paris surrenders. During the siege, balloons were used to keep contact with the outside world.
1878 The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.
1909 The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1915 The U.S. Coast Guard is founded to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.
1916 The first Jewish Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis, was appointed.
1921 Albert Einstein startles Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe.
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 became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.
1936 A fellow prison inmate slashes infamous kidnapper, Richard Loeb, to death.
1945 Chiang Kai-shek renames the Ledo-Burma Road the Stilwell Road, in honor of General Joseph Stilwell.
1950 Preston Tucker, auto maker, found not guilty of mail fraud
1958 The Lego brick is patented
1961 Republic of Rwanda proclaimed
1970 Israeli fighter jets attack the suburbs of Cairo.
1980 Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.
1986 U.S. shuttle Challenger exploded 72 seconds after lift off, killing all seven crew members aboard, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
1994 In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1998 In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.
1999 The creation of Element 114 is announced by scientists.
2003 In his second State of the Union Address, President Bush presents case for war with Iraq.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
