What Happened On
Challenger Disaster
January 28, 1986
The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after lift-off, killing the crew of seven, including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and Judith A. Resnik were the first U.S. women astronauts to die on a space mission.
NASA managers had known since 1977 that the design of the solid rocket boosters contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the o-rings and also disregarded warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching in low temperatures. The main concern was that the o-rings would lose their elasticity in cold temperatures and not be able to form a seal. It was unusually cold that day with morning temperatures at 30 °F (−1 °C). The o-rings failed to seal causing the catastrophic explosion of the shuttle.
Elvis Presley's First National TV Appearance
January 28, 1956
Elvis Presley makes his national television debut, on Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey's Stage Show (CBS) performing Shake, Rattle and Roll and I Got a Woman. Elvis' appearance generated a flood of mail from viewers who couldn't understand how they could allow someone like Elvis on the program. However, the ratings went up and between then and March he would appear on the show six times.
Elvis had appeared on local television the previous March on Louisiana Hayride, carried by KSLA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Shreveport, Louisiana.
First Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice
January 28, 1916
Louis Dembitz Brandeis is appointed by President Woodrow Wilson. He graduated from Harvard Law School at the age of 20 with what is widely rumored to be the highest grade average in the law school's history. Known for taking cases for no pay, he became known as the "Robin Hood of the Law."
U.S. Coast Guard
January 28, 1915
The U.S. Coast Guard is established, when Congress combines the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service.
We Are the World
January 28, 1985
Dozens of top-name music stars join together to record the chart-topping single. The single was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie for the album We Are the World, which sold over 20 million copies and raised more than $63 million ($156 million today) for humanitarian aid in Africa and the United States. The single became the fastest-selling U.S. pop single in history. The album won three Grammys.
Fantasy Island
January 28, 1978
The TV series Fantasy Island debuts on ABC. "Boss, ze plane, ze plane!" The TV series was preceded by two made for TV movies. The original series ran from 1978 to 1984, and starred Ricardo Montalbán as Mr. Roarke, the enigmatic overseer of a mysterious island where people came to live out their fantasies, but for a price. His sidekick, Tattoo, was played by Hervé Villechaize.
American League Baseball
January 28, 1901
The American League is formed, consisting of eight baseball teams.
First Street Lit by Gaslight
January 28, 1807
London's Pall Mall.
Birthdays
Elsa the Lioness
Born January 28, 1956 d. 1961
Lioness. The book and movie Born Free were based on her life story. In 1956, George Adamson shot and killed a lion in self-defense. He found that she had attacked to protect her three cubs. George rescued the cubs, giving two to a zoo and he and his wife Joy Adamson kept one they named Elsa. Joy wrote the book Born Free (1960) describing their raising of the cub and setting her free. Elsa and the Adamson's adventures were featured in the 1966 movie of the same title as the book.
Alan Alda in M*A*S*H
Alan Alda in M*A*S*H
Alan Alda (Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo)
Born January 28, 1936
American Emmy-winning actor. Alan Alda is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in TV's M*A*S*H.
Alda contracted polio when he was seven years old, and used treatment developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, consisting of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles.
TV: M*A*S*H (1972-83, Hawkeye Pierce) and West Wing (2004-06, Senator Arnold Vinick). Film: Same Time, Next Year (1978), The Four Seasons (1981), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
John Banner in Hogan's Heroes and 1942 recruiting poster photo
John Banner in Hogan's Heroes and 1942 recruiting poster photo
John Banner
Born January 28, 1910 d. 1973
Austrian-born American actor. TV: Hogan's Heroes (1965-71, Sgt. Schultz, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!").
Banner, who was Jewish, had been held in a pre-World War II concentration camp before fleeing to the U.S. His family members who remained in Vienna all perished in Nazi concentration camps.
Banner enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served as a supply sergeant during World War II, even posing for a recruiting poster.
Several other actors from Hogan's Heroes had also fled Nazi Germany or had been held in concentration camps.
Birdman of Alcatraz
Robert Stroud
Born January 28, 1890 d. 1963
American convicted killer, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. He became an expert on bird diseases while spending 44 years in solitary confinement. He discovered a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases in birds.
At age 18, Stroud murdered a man for assaulting a woman Stroud was pimping out for prostitution. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and developed a reputation as one of the most violent prisoners in the prison and was transferred to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas as a result. There he killed a guard and was sentenced to death by hanging. Stroud's mother appealed to President Woodrow Wilson who halted the execution. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he spent most of the rest of his life in solitary confinement. It was during this time that Stroud found some injured sparrows in the prison yard and raised them to adulthood. He then began raising and selling canaries and bird medicines via mail order to help support his mother. Over the years he raised nearly 300 canaries and wrote two books on the care of birds. After prison officials found out equipment Stroud had ordered for his birds was actually for distilling alcohol, and also due to his violent tendencies, he was transferred in 1942 to Alcatraz where he was no longer allowed to keep birds.
Writings: Diseases of Canaries (1933) and Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds (1943).
He was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the 1962 movie.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (John Rowland)
Born January 28, 1841 d. 1904
British-born American reporter, explorer. Upon finding Scottish explorer Dr. David Livingstone in Africa in 1871 he queried, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
USS Somers with the men hanging from the yardarm
USS Somers with the men hanging from the yardarm
First U.S. Naval Officer Executed for Mutiny
Philip Spencer
Born January 28, 1823 d. 1842
American naval officer. He was the first U.S. naval officer executed for mutiny. His father was President John Tyler's Secretary of War at the time.
Spencer joined the navy with the help of his father John C. Spencer the current U.S. Secretary of War. He twice assaulted an officer aboard the USS North Carolina while under the influence of alcohol. He was then reassigned to the USS John Adams, where he was involved in a drunken brawl with a Royal Navy officer while on shore leave. He attempted to avoid court-martial by resigning, but his resignation was rejected and he was reassigned to the USS Somers. He was then accused of forming a plan with two other sailors to seize the Somers and sail her as a pirate ship. The three men were hanged on the yardarm.
The Somers affair was the inspiration for the Billy Budd character in Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd, Sailor. Melville was the first cousin of an officer aboard the ship.
Ricky Ray
Born January 28, 1977 d. 1992
American AIDS victim. He was the oldest of three HIV infected hemophiliac brothers who won a federal court order allowing them in school after they were barred in 1986. Their family home was burned down a week after the court decision.
The three brothers contracted HIV from infusions of Factor 8 when they were less than 8 years old.
Barbi Benton (Barbara Lynn Klein)
Born January 28, 1950
American actress, singer, Playboy Playmate. She was Playboy magazine's founder Hugh Hefner's girlfriend from 1969 to 1976.
TV: Hee Haw (1972-83) and several episodes each of Fantasy Island and The Love Boat.
Susan Howard (Jeri Lynn Mooney)
Born January 28, 1944
American actress. TV: Dallas (1979-87, Donna Krebbs) and Star Trek (1968, Mara the wife of Klingon Captain Kang. This was the first female Klingon).
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Jean Felix Piccard
Born January 28, 1884 d. 1963
Swiss-born American pioneer in ballooning and diving vehicles. He and his identical twin Auguste Piccard established many flight records. In 1934 he and his wife made the first successful stratospheric flight through clouds (11 miles high).
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Auguste Piccard
Born January 28, 1884 d. 1962
Swiss physicist, pioneer in ballooning and diving vehicles. He and his identical twin Jean Felix Piccard established many records, including the highest ascent into the stratosphere and lowest descent into the ocean.
1925 Nash automobile
1925 Nash automobile
Charles W. Nash
Born January 28, 1864 d. 1948
American automobile manufacturer. President of Buick Motor Co. (1910-16) and General Motors (1912-16), and founder and president of the Nash Motors Co. (1916-32).
William Seward Burroughs
Born January 28, 1857 d. 1898
American inventor. He invented the recording adding machine (1892).
Sabine Baring-Gould
Born January 28, 1834 d. 1924
English clergyman. Author of the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers.
Clement IX
Born January 28, 1600 d. 1669
Italian religious leader, 238th Pope (1667-69).
Henry VII
Born January 28, 1457 d. 1509
King of England (1485-1509). Henry won the throne by defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the battle field.
Deaths
Cicely Tyson as Jane Pittman
Cicely Tyson as Jane Pittman
Cicely Tyson
Died January 28, 2021 b. 1924
American Emmy-winning actress. TV: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974, title role, Emmy) and Roots (1976, Kunta Kinte's mother Binta).
The Library that Wouldn't Serve Him Because He Was Black, Is Now a Museum Named in His Honor
Ronald Erwin McNair
Died January 28, 1986 b. 1950
American astronaut, physicist. When McNair was eight years old, he visited the segregated Lake City, South Carolina public library, but they only served white patrons and wouldn't allow him to check out any books. When he refused to leave, the police and his mother were called. The library begrudgingly relented when the officer asked, "Why don't you just give him the books?" That library has since been converted into a museum named "Ronald McNair Life History Center" in his honor. McNair also went on to earn a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
McNair was killed in the Challenger Disaster, when the space shuttle disintegrated shortly after takeoff.
Judith A. Resnik
Died January 28, 1986 b. 1949
American astronaut. She and civilian teacher Christa McAuliffe were the first U.S. women astronauts to die on a space mission (1986, Challenger disaster).
Christa McAuliffe
Died January 28, 1986 b. 1948
American high school teacher. She died in the Challenger disaster. She would have been the first ordinary citizen in space.
She had been selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space, but was killed along with the other astronauts in the Challenger disaster.
John Banner in Hogan's Heroes and 1942 recruiting poster photo
John Banner in Hogan's Heroes and 1942 recruiting poster photo
John Banner
Died January 28, 1973 b. 1910
Austrian-born American actor. TV: Hogan's Heroes (1965-71, Sgt. Schultz, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!").
Banner, who was Jewish, had been held in a pre-World War II concentration camp before fleeing to the U.S. His family members who remained in Vienna all perished in Nazi concentration camps.
Banner enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served as a supply sergeant during World War II, even posing for a recruiting poster.
Several other actors from Hogan's Heroes had also fled Nazi Germany or had been held in concentration camps.
Lucenay's Peter
Died January 28, 1946 b. 1929
American dog actor. Was the second dog to portray Pete (Pete the Pup) in the Our Gang films (1930-32), famous for the circle around his eye. He was the offspring of the Pal the Wonder Dog, who the first to portray Pete. Lucenay's Peter took over the role after Pal the Wonder Dog was poisoned in 1930.
Lucenay's Peter had the circle over his left eye, while Pal the Wonder Dog had the circle over his right. The circle was only partial and was completed with makeup.
William Butler Yeats
Died January 28, 1939 b. 1865
Irish Nobel-winning poet. His poem The Second Coming (1920) is considered a major influence on Modernistic poetry
Henry VIII
Died January 28, 1547 b. 1491
King of England (1509-47), found a way to avoid alimony. Henry VIII is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. When Pope Clement VII wouldn't annul their marriage, Henry VIII separated the Church of England from papal authority and appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Imperial Coronation of Charlemagne, by Friedrich Kaulbach, 1861
Imperial Coronation of Charlemagne, by Friedrich Kaulbach, 1861
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Died January 28, 814 b. 742
Frankish King, Roman Emperor. King of the Franks (768), King of the Lombards (774), and Holy Roman Emperor (800). In 789, he introduced the royal foot as a unit of length.
Lisa Loring as Wednesday Addams
Lisa Loring as Wednesday Addams
Lisa Loring (Lisa Ann DeCinces)
Died January 28, 2023 b. 1958
American actress. Lisa Loring is best known for her role as Wednesday Addams on the TV show The Addams Family (1964-66). She was married to adult film actor Jerry Butler from 1987 to 1992. She met Butler, who was in more than 500 adult films, in 1987 while she was working as a make-up artist on the set of an adult film he was in.
TV: As the World Turns (1981-83, Cricket Montgomery). Film: Blood Frenzy (1987) and Iced (1988).
Harold "Red" Grange
Died January 28, 1991 b. 1903
American football player, the "Galloping Ghost." He and C.C. Pyle formed the first American Football League (AFL) in 1926, although it folded a year later.
Gregory B. Jarvis
Died January 28, 1986 b. 1944
American astronaut. He died in the Challenger space shuttle explosion.
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Jean Piccard (left) with his brother Auguste (right) during World War I
Jean Felix Piccard
Died January 28, 1963 b. 1884
Swiss-born American pioneer in ballooning and diving vehicles. He and his identical twin Auguste Piccard established many flight records. In 1934 he and his wife made the first successful stratospheric flight through clouds (11 miles high).
Paul V (Camillo Borghese)
Died January 28, 1621 b. 1550
Italian religious leader, 233rd Pope (1605-21).
Sir Francis Drake
Died January 28, 1596 b. circa 1540
English navigator. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577-80).