On this day: 28 January
Events, births and deaths on 28 January. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Mohammad Bin Fahd
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Paul Kantner
- Deaths · Signe Toly Anderson
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Katō Takaaki
- Births · Jimmy Bryan
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1061 · Deaths · Spytihněv II, Duke of Bohemia
- 929 · Deaths · Gao Jixing
Events · 12
- 1393(Julian date)Bal des Ardents — masquerade ball held on 28 January 1393 in Paris
- 1573(Julian date)Warsaw Confederation — 1573 statute on religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- 1846Battle of Aliwal — 1846 battle
- 1919Order of the White Rose of Finland — Finnish honorary chivalry order in five classes and an associated medal in three classes (1919–)
- 1932January 28 Incident — conflict
- 19641964 T-39 shootdown incident — a Cold War incident involving an unarmed American T-39 being shot down by a Soviet MiG
- 1986Space Shuttle Challenger disaster — in-flight breakup of the Challenger space shuttle in US
- 2002TAME Flight 120 — aviation accident
- 2006Katowice Trade Hall roof collapse — 2006 roof collapse at Katowice International Fair in Poland
- 20262026 Rubaya mines collapses — 2026 mine collapse in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 20262026 Baramati Learjet 45 crash — aviation accident
- 2026Storm Kristin — Storm that hit Portugal in 2026
Births · 60
- 598(Julian date)Emperor Taizong of Tang — Chinese emperor of the Tang Dynasty (598-649) (r. 626-649)
- 1311(Julian date)Joan II of Navarre — Queen of Navarre (1328-1349)
- 1457(Julian date)Henry VII of England — King of England from 1485 to 1509
- 1540(Julian date)Ludolph van Ceulen — German-Dutch mathematician (*1540 – †1610)
- 1600Clement IX — pope from 1667, lived 1600-1669
- 1608Giovanni Alfonso Borelli — Italian physicist (*1608 – †1679)
- 1611(Julian date)Johannes Hevelius — astronomer setting up the cartography of the Moon
- 1701Charles Marie de La Condamine — French explorer, geographer, and mathematician (1701-1774)
- 1717Mustafa III — 26th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1757–1774)
- 1784George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen — British politician (1784-1860)
- 1822Alexander Mackenzie — 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (1822-1892)
- 1833Charles George Gordon — British army officer and administrator
- 1841Henry Morton Stanley — British journalist and explorer (1841–1904)
- 1853José Martí — Cuban poet, philosopher and nationalist (1853-1895)
- 1865Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg — President of Finland (1865–1952)
- 1865Lala Lajpat Rai — Indian author and politician (1865-1928)
- 1873Colette — French novelist (1873–1954)
- 1884Auguste Piccard — Swiss physicist (1884–1962)
- 1887Arthur Rubinstein — Polish-American classical pianist (1887-1982)
- 1897Valentin Kataev — Soviet writer, playwright, screenwriter, poet (1897–1986)
- 1903Kathleen Lonsdale — Irish crystallographer (1903-1971)
- 1912Jackson Pollock — American painter (1912–1956)
- 1922Robert W. Holley — American biochemist (1922–1993)
- 1929Claes Oldenburg — American sculptor and printmaker (1929–2022)
- 1935David Lodge — English writer (1935–2025)
Deaths · 60
- 724(Julian date)Yazid II — Umayyad caliph
- 814(Julian date)Charlemagne — king of Franks, regarded as the first Holy Roman Emperor (747–814) (742-814)
- 1061(Julian date)Spytihněv II, Duke of Bohemia — Duke of Bohemia
- 1256(Julian date)William II of Holland — Count of Holland and King of the Romans
- 1271(Julian date)Isabella of Aragon — French queen consort (1247-1271)
- 1547(Julian date)Henry VIII of England — King of England from 1509 to 1547 (1491–1547)
- 1596Francis Drake — English sailor and privateer (c. 1540 – 1596)
- 1621Paul V — 233rd pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1605 to 1621
- 1672Pierre Séguier — Ancien Régime office-holder (1588-1672)
- 1687(Julian date)Johannes Hevelius — astronomer setting up the cartography of the Moon
- 1688Ferdinand Verbiest — Flemish Jesuit missionary in Qing dynasty China (1623–1688)
- 1754Ludvig Holberg — Danish-Norwegian writer, philosopher and historian (1684–1754)
- 1782Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville — French cartographer and geographer (1697–1782)
- 1859F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich — British Prime Minister, politician (1782-1859)
- 1859William Hickling Prescott — American historian and Hispanist (1796–1859)
- 1864Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron — French physicist (1799-1864)
- 1903Augusta Holmès — French composer of British-Irish origin
- 1912Gustave de Molinari — Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist (1819–1912)
- 1912Eloy Alfaro — president of Ecuador (1897-1901) / (1906-1914)
- 1918John McCrae — Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I (1872-1918)
- 1926Katō Takaaki — Japanese politician (1860-1926)
- 1930Emmy Destinn — Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-playwright voice (1878-1930)
- 1935Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov — Russian and Soviet composer, conductor , musicologist and music teacher (1859–1935)
- 1937Anastasios Metaxas — Greek architect and sport shooter (1862–1937)
- 1938Bernd Rosemeyer — German racecar driver and icon of national-socialism
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.