San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. There are 338 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history
On Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa Mcauliffe.
On this date
In 1547, England’s King Henry VIII died; he was succeeded by his 9year-old son, Edward VI.
In 1813, the novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published anonymously in London.
In 1915, the United States Coast Guard was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service.
In 1916, Louis D. Brandeis was nominated
by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming the court’s first Jewish member.
In 1922, 98 people were killed when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre
in Washington, D.C., collapsed under the weight of nearly 2 feet of snow.
In 1945, during World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
In 1956, Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.
In 1973, a cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War, a day after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords by the United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
In 1980, six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats.
In 1982, Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier, 42 days after he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
In 2013, Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell, who survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three other band members, died at age 56.
In 2017, Serena Williams won her record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, defeating her sister Venus for what would be her final major championship.
In 2021, Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder" and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” died at age 96.
Today’s birthdays
Actor Nicholas Pryor is 89. Actor Alan Alda is 88. Actor Susan Howard is 82. Actor Marthe Keller is 79. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is 77. Actorsinger Barbi Benton is 74. Evangelical pastor Rick Warren is 70. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is
69. Director Frank Darabont is 65. Singer Marvin Sapp is 57. Singer Sarah Mclachlan is 56. Rapper Rakim is 56. Actor Kathryn Morris is
55. Humorist Mo Rocca is 55. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is 52. Singer Monifah is 52. Retired MLB All-star Jermaine Dye is
50. Actor Terri Conn is 49. Singer Joey Fatone Jr. (’N Sync) is 47. Rapper Rick Ross is 47. Actor Rosamund Pike is 45. Singer Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) is 44. Actor Elijah Wood is 43. Actor Ariel Winter is 26.