January 28
Today in America's Present Past
1787 | Civil Rights: Philadelphia’s Free Africa Society organizes.
1851 | Northwestern University was chartered.
1855 | Inventor William Seward Burroughs was born.
1859 | Historian William H. Prescott died.
1865 | Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints commissioners to negotiate peace with the Union.
1867 | Labor organizer Samuel Gompers weds co-worker Sophia Julian.
1878 | First commercial phone service established in New Haven, Connecticut.
1878 | The first daily college newspaper to start operations was the Yale Daily News.
1890 | Outlaw Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud was born.
1893 | General Samuel S. Carroll died.
1899 | Congress: Incorporates the American Social Science Association.
1900 | Painter Alice Neel was born.
1909 | U.S. military forces leave Cuba for a second time.
1912 | Painter Jackson Pollock was born.
1915 | POTUS: Democrat President Woodrow Wilson refuses to ban illiterate immigrants.
1916 | SCOTUS: Louis Brandeis was nominated for the Supreme Court by Democrat President Wilson.
1917 | Civil Rights: “Bath riots” in El Paso, Texas.
1922 | Biologist Robert Holley was born
1934 | First ski tow begins operation in Woodstock, Vermont.
1936 | Actor Alan Alda was born.
1936 | Murder Richard Loeb died.
1945 | WWII: General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell reopens the “Burma Road” to China.
1956 | Neil Armstrong weds Janet Elizabeth Shearon.
1956 | TV: Musician Elvis Presley debuted on the Dorsey Brother’s “Stage Show.”
1960 | Author Zora Neale Hurston died.
1964 | Cold War: The Soviets shot down a U.S. Air Force trainer.
1972 | SCOTUS: Justice Amy Coney Barrett was born.
1981 | Actor Elijah Wood was born.
1982 | Actor Danny DeVito weds Rhea Perlman.
1985 | Music: Artists record the charity single “We Are the World.”
1986 | Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members.
1994 | Actor Edward James Olmos weds Lorraine Bracco.