Today in History: Space Shuttle Challenger Disintegrates 73 Seconds After Launch

January 28 is the 28nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 337.

Railways

• 28 January 1898 The British railways in the Ottoman lands were İzmir-Aydın and Mersin Adana lines and they reached a total of 440 km. In the same year the French had the 1266 and the Germans had the 1020 km long railway.

Events

• 1517 – The Ottoman Army under the command of Yavuz Sultan Selim entered Cairo.
• 1547 – VI. Edward became King of England.
• 1807 - Pall Mall Street became the first street to be illuminated in history.
• 1820 - Russian team led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the continent of Antarctica.
• 1871 – Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders and the war ends.
• 1909 - American troops, who had been there since the Spanish-American War, leave Cuba.
• 1918 – Leon Trotsky begins to form the Red Army in the Soviet Union.
• 1920 – In the secret session of the Ottoman Parliament, the National Pact was accepted.
• 1921 – After arriving in Trabzon, Mustafa Suphi and his friends were put on a motorbike by the Steward of the Pier, Unionist Yahya, and were killed at sea at night.
• 1921 - Albert Einstein proposed that the universe could be measured. It started a debate in the scientific world.
• 1923 – The Ministry of Interior changed the name of Izmit province to Kocaeli.
• 1925 – Progressive Republican Party Istanbul Branch was opened.
• 1929 – The agreement signed between the Ford company and the Ministry of Finance to establish an automobile assembly plant in Istanbul was approved in the Parliament.
• 1932 - Japan occupied Shanghai.
• 1935 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion.
• 1939 – Istanbul Tram Company was purchased by the State for 1.570.000 liras.
• 1956 – Personnel Law announced; The highest salary will be 2 thousand liras.
• 1957 – Two female members were elected to the Council of State for the first time: Nezahat Martı and Şükran Esmerer.
• 1958 – During the rally organized by the Turks in Cyprus, 8 people were killed when British soldiers opened fire and a truck was driven on the people deliberately. The Turkish Grand National Assembly decided to condemn the United Kingdom on 31 January.
• 1959 – There was a flood in Çukurova. 200 orange trees were flooded, a textile factory was flooded. The damage is estimated to be 5 million TL. There was a shortage of food in the region.
• 1963 – 170 workers working at the Kavel Kablo Factory in İstinye, Istanbul, went on a sit-in strike. The workers wanted the reinstatement of their four friends, who were dismissed due to unionisation.
• 1971 – Young people protested the American 6th Fleet in Izmir; 20 young people were detained.
• 1975 – Chairman of the Republican People's Party Bülent Ecevit said, “The Nationalist Front is the chief responsible for the events”.
• 1982 – Fugitive right-wing activist Isa Armağan, sentenced to death, was arrested in Iran.
• 1982 – Kemal Arıkan, Turkey's Consul General to Los Angeles, is killed; “Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos” claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 1983 – 12st execution of the September 31 Coup: Levon Ekmekçiyan, one of the ASALA militants who carried out the attack on Esenboğa Airport on 9 August 72, in which 7 people were killed and 1982 people were injured, was hanged in Ankara Closed Prison.
• 1986 – Sakıp Sabancı was elected President of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD).
• 1986 – Space shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch: seven astronauts die. It was suggested that the fault was caused by a leak in solid fuel engines.
• 1987 – Turkey announced that it accepted the right of individual application to the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commission by making reservations.
• 1988 – THY banned smoking on domestic flights.
• 1992 – The Constitutional Court shuts down the United Communist Party of Turkey.
• 1993 – The General Staff announced that the “coup period” was over.
• 1994 – Turkish warplanes bombarded the PKK's (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Zeli camp in Northern Iraq.
• 1997 – Four police officers on duty during the apartheid rule in South Africa officially admitted that they killed the revolutionary student leader Steve Biko in 1977.
• 1997 – The Promotion Act came into effect. Periodicals will not be able to promote other than cultural purposes.
• 2002 – Ecuadorian Airlines Boeing 727-100 passenger plane crashes into the Andes mountains in southern Colombia: 92 people are killed.
• 2004 – The removal of six zeros from the Turkish lira and the depreciation of the currency. New Turkish Lira The draft law, which envisages that
• 2006 – The roof of an exhibition hall in Katowice, Poland, collapsed under the weight of accumulating snow: 62 people were killed and 140 injured.
• 2008 – In the accident that occurred when the train, which was on the Haydarpaşa-Denizli expedition, derailed at around 02:00 in the town of Çöğürler in Kütahya, 436 people out of 9 passengers died. About 300 people were injured in various parts.

Births

• 1457 – VII. Henry, King of England (d. 1509)
• 1600 – IX. Clemens, Christian clergyman, Pope (d. 1669)
• 1611 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish Protestant council member (d. 1687)
• 1712 – Tokugawa Ieshige, 9th shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (d. 1761)
• 1717 – III. Mustafa, 26th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1774)
• 1768 – VI. Frederick, King of Denmark and Norway (d. 1839)
• 1825 – Benedetto Cairoli, Italian politician, left-wing leader of the Risorgimento era, and three-time Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1889)
• 1833 – Charles George Gordon, English general (d. 1885)
• 1834 – Sabine Baring-Gould, English Anglican priest and novelist (d. 1924)
• 1841 Henry Morton Stanley, American journalist (d. 1904)
• 1844 – Gyula Benczúr, Hungarian painter (d. 1920)
• 1853 – Jose Marti, Cuban poet, author, and pioneer of the Cuban independence struggle (d. 1895)
• 1865 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first president of the Republic of Finland (d. 1952)
• 1872 – Otto Braun, German socialist theorist and Social Democratic Party leader (d. 1955)
• 1872 – Ahmet Baytursun, Kazakh educator, linguist, writer, poet, politician (d. 1937)
• 1873 – Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle), French playwright (female novelist whose style pioneered French literature in the first half of the 20th century) (d. 1954)
• 1875 – Julian Carrillo, Mexican composer (d. 1965)
• 1877 – Wojciech Brydziński, Polish theater, radio and film actor (d. 1966)
• 1878 – Jean de La Hire, French writer (d. 1956)
• 1879 – Julia Bell, British human genetics researcher (d. 1979)
• 1880 – Sergey Malov, Russian linguist, Orientalist, Turcologist (d. 1957)
• 1881 – Siegfried Jacobsohn, German journalist and theater critic (d. 1926)
• 1883 – Necmeddin Okyay, Turkish calligrapher, marbling artist, violinist, rose grower, tugrakes, stockbroker, bookbinder, imam and orator (d. 1976)
• 1884 – Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist (d. 1962)
• 1887 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born American piano virtuoso (d. 1982)
• 1890 – Robert Franklin Stroud, American prisoner (Alcatraz Birder) (d. 1963)
• 1892 – Armen Doryan, Ottoman Armenian poet and teacher (d. 1923)
• 1897 – Valentin Katayev, Russian novelist and playwright (noted for his distinctive style in post-Revolutionary Russia) (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Markos Vafiadis, co-founder of the Communist Party of Greece and Commander of the Democratic Army in the Greek Civil War (d. 1992)
• 1912 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
• 1920 – Xavier de La Chevalerie, French ambassador (d. 2004)
• 1958 – Eşref Kolçak, Turkish actor (d. 2019)
• 1929 – Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-American pop-art sculptor
• 1935 – Maria Eugenia Lima, Angolan poet, dramaturge and novelist
• 1936 – Ismail Kadare, Albanian writer
• 1938 – Leonid Ivanovich Jabotinskiy, Soviet weightlifter
• 1940 – Carlos Slim Helú, Lebanese-Mexican businessman
• 1942 – Brian Jones, English rock musician (d. 1969)
• 1947 – Haydar Baş, Turkish politician, theologian, writer and educator (d. 2020)
• 1948 – İbrahim Yazıcı, Turkish politician and sports administrator (d. 2013)
• 1953 – Anicée Alvina, French actress (d. 2006)
• 1954 – Ümit Yesin, Turkish theater, cinema and TV series actor (d. 2019)
• 1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy, French politician
• 1958 – Sandy Gandhi, Australian comedian and columnist (d. 2017)
• 1968 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian musician
• 1970 – Julia Jäger, German actress
• 1973 – Natalya Morozova, Russian volleyball player
• 1975 – Susana Feitor, Portuguese hiker
• 1975 – Tijen Karaş, Turkish news anchor
• 1978 – Gianluigi Buffon, Italian football player
• 1981 – Elijah Wood, American actor
• 1981 – Volga Sorgun, Turkish cinema and TV series actor
• 1993 – Ezgi Şenler, Turkish actress

Deaths

• 661 – Ali bin Abu Talib, 656th Islamic Caliph of the Islamic State from 661-4 (b. 600)
• 814 – Charlemagne, King of Germany (b. 742)
• 1547 – VIII. Henry, King of England (b. 1491)
• 1621 – Paul V, Pope (b. 1552)
• 1625 – Circassian Mehmed Ali Pasha, Ottoman statesman (b. ?)
• 1687 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish Protestant council member (b. 1611)
• 1688 – Ferdinand Verbiest, Flemish Jesuit missionary, priest (b. 1623)
• 1847 – Pierre Amédée Jaubert, French diplomat, academic, orientalist, translator, politician, and traveler (b. 1779)
• 1864 – Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, French engineer and physicist (b. 1799)
• 1866 – Robert Foulis, Canadian inventor, civil engineer, and artist (b. 1796)
• 1866 – Emil Dessewffy, Hungarian conservative politician (b. 1814)
• 1878 – Cincinnato Baruzzi, Italian sculptor (b. 1796)
• 1884 – Augustin-Alexandre Dumont, French sculptor (b. 1801)
• 1891 – Nikolaus August Otto, German mechanical engineer (b. 1832)
• 1921 – Mustafa Suphi, Turkish communist politician and first Central Committee Chairman of the Communist Party of Turkey (assassinated) (b. 1883)
• 1924 – Teófilo Braga, President of Portugal, writer, playwright (b. 1843)
• 1926 – Kato Takaaki, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1860)
• 1939 – William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
• 1940 – Sultan Galiyev, Tatar leader, thinker and father of national communism (executed) (b. 1892)
• 1953 – Neyzen Tevfik Kolaylı, Turkish ney master and famous satirical poet (b. 1879)
• 1965 – Maxime Weygand, French general (b. 1867)
• 1981 – Özdemir Asaf, Turkish poet (b. 1923)
• 1982 – Kemal Arıkan, Turkish diplomat (b. 1927)
• 1983 – Levon Ekmekçiyan, Armenian ASALA militant (one of the perpetrators of the Esenboğa Airport attack on 7 August 1982) (b. 1958)
• 1986 – Gregory Jarvis, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1944)
• 1986 – Christa McAuliffe, American educator and astronaut (b. 1948)
• 1986 – Ronald McNair, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1950)
• 1986 – Ellison Onizuka, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1946)
• 1986 – Judith Resnik, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1949)
• 1986 – Dick Scobee, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1939)
• 1986 – Michael J. Smith, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1945)
• 1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German theoretical physicist and atomic spy (b. 1911)
• 1989 – Gürbüz Bora, Turkish theater artist
• 1996 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet (b. 1940)
• 2002 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer (b. 1907)
• 2002 – Ayşenur Zarakolu, Turkish publisher, writer and human rights defender (known for her publications on taboo subjects) (b. 1946)
• 2004 – Joe Viterelli, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2005 – Jim Capaldi, English musician (Traffic) (b. 1944)
• 2010 – Ömer Uluç, Turkish painter (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Keriman Halis Ece, Turkish pianist, model and Turkey's first world beauty (b. 1913)
• 2013 – Ferdi Özbegen, Turkish pianist and singer (b. 1941)
• 2015 – Yves Chauvin, French chemist (b. 1930)
• 2016 – Ales Debeljak, Slovenian writer (b. 1961)
• 2017 – Engin Cezzar, Turkish director, theater, cinema and TV series actor (b. 1935)
• 2017 – Alyaksandr Tsihanovic, Belarusian singer (b. 1952)
• 2017 – Mehmet Türker, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1944)
• 2017 – Ion Ungureanu, Moldovan actor and politician (b. 1935)
• 2021 – Paul Crutzen, Dutch atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (b. 1933)
• 2021 – Cicely Tyson, American actress and model (b. 1924)
• 2021 – César Isella, Argentine singer, musician, journalist and songwriter (b. 1938)
• 2021 – Cedric Demangeot, French poet, translator and publisher (b. 1974)
• 2021 – Ryszard Kotys, Polish actor (b. 1932)

Holidays and special occasions

• Storm: Ayandon Storm (2 Days)
• Data Privacy Day