28 January History
- 28 - The Roman Emperor Nerva names Trajan, an army general, as his successor.
- 1547 - Henry VIII of England dies and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Edward VI.
- 1757 - Ahmed Shah, the first King of Afghanistan, occupies Delhi and annexes the Punjab.
- 1792 - Rebellious slaves in Santo Domingo launch an attack on the city of Cap.
- 1871 - Surrounded by Prussian troops and suffering from famine, the French army in Paris surrenders. During the siege, balloons were used to keep contact with the outside world.
- 1915 - The U.S. Coast Guard is founded to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.
- 1915 - The German navy attacks the U.S. freighter William P. Frye, loaded with wheat for Britain.
- 1921 - Albert Einstein startles Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe.
- 1932 - The Japanese attack Shanghai, China, and declare martial law.
- 1936 - A fellow prison inmate slashes infamous kidnapper, Richard Loeb, to death.
- 1941 - French General Charles DeGaulle's Free French forces sack south Libya oasis.
- 1945 - Chiang Kai-shek renames the Ledo-Burma Road the Stilwell Road, in honor of General Joseph Stilwell.
- 1955 - The U.S. Congress passes a bill allowing mobilization of troops if China should attack Taiwan.
- 1964 - The Soviets down a U.S. jet over East Germany killing three.
- 1970 - Israeli fighter jets attack the suburbs of Cairo.
- 1986 - The space shuttle Challenger explodes just after liftoff.
28 January Birthdays
- 1693 - Anna "Ivanovna", Tsarina of Russia.
- 1706 - John Baskerville, inventor of the "hot-pressing" method of printing.
- 1933 - Susan Sontag, American essayist and novelist (The Style of Radical Will, Illness as a Metaphor).