Today in History for Jan. 28:
In 814, Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, died.
In 1547, Henry VIII, who split the church of England from Rome and presided over the founding of the Anglican church, died. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI.
In 1596, English explorer Sir Francis Drake died.
In 1807, London's Pall Mall became the first street in the world to be lit by gas.
In 1822, Alexander Mackenzie, Canada's second prime minister, was born in Scotland. He led a Liberal government from 1873-78, and died in 1892.
In 1853, a charter was granted to the University of Bishop's College in Lennoxville, Que.
In 1857, William Burroughs, who invented the first practical adding and listing machine, was born in Rochester, N.Y.
In 1870, the ship "City of Boston" sailed from Halifax and disappeared with 191 passengers.
In 1878, the first commercial telephone switchboard went into operation in New Haven, Conn. There were 21 subscribers.
In 1881, Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky died at age 58. Among his most acclaimed works are the novels "Crime And Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov." He is considered to be one of Russia's most significant literary figures.
In 1914, suffragette leader Nellie McClung staged a mock parliament in which men had to ask women for the right to vote. Two years later, Manitoba became the first province to give women the right to vote.
In 1915, the United States Coast Guard was created as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service.
In 1918, Col. John McCrae, the Canadian doctor and poet who wrote "In Flanders Fields" while serving in Belgium during the First World War, died of pneumonia in Boulogne, France. He was 45.
In 1928, the first cellulose self-adhesive tape went on sale. Scotch tape, as it came to be known, was developed by 3M as a masking tape for the spray-paint workshops of auto-manufacturing plants.
In 1962, Transport Minister Leon Balcer announced in the House of Commons that the transport department's 241-ship fleet henceforth would be known as the Canadian Coast Guard.
In 1973, a final ceasefire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.
In 1980, Canadian diplomats daringly smuggled six American diplomats out of Tehran. The Americans hid at the Canadians' homes for more than two months after the U.S. embassy was seized by Iranian students. The six escaped Iran using Canadian passports. Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor left a few hours later, after closing the embassy. Coming at a low point in U.S. self-esteem, the escape caused a sensation. Taylor received the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honour and thousands of other gifts in an outpouring of American gratitude.
In 1983, Progressive Conservative Party convention delegates voted 66.9 per cent against a review of Joe Clark's leadership. But Clark said the mandate was not clear enough and called a leadership convention. He lost the ensuing contest to Brian Mulroney.
In 1986, the space shuttle "Challenger" exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven crew members -- flight commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. U.S. President Ronald Reagan suspended shuttle flights and appointed a panel to investigate. On June 10, the commission said the explosion was caused by an escape of gases from a joint on a solid booster rocket. It urged strict new standards to ensure flight safety.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-2 that Canada's abortion law violated a pregnant woman's right to "security of the person" under the Charter of Rights. The majority decision called the law "manifestly unfair."
In 1989, in the Buddhist faith, the ninth Panchen Lama died in Beijing, China.
In 1998, hockey great Wayne Gretzky finally picked up his Order of Canada medal at a Rideau Hall ceremony. He'd been awarded the medal 14 years earlier.
In 2004, the Bank of Canada unveiled a new $100 bill with additional security features. It went into circulation on March 17.
In 2005, shareholders of Molson Inc., one of the oldest companies in Canada, voted to approve a merger with U.S.-based Adolph Coors Co., setting the stage to create the fifth largest brewer in the world. Adolph Coors Co. shareholders overwhelmingly approved the merger on Feb. 1.
In 2005, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia reached a deal worth $2.6 billion with the federal government on the sharing of revenue from offshore oil resources.
In 2007, the federal and Nova Scotia governments unveiled a $400-million plan to clean up the Sydney tar ponds and coke ovens, one of Canada's worst toxic waste sites.
In 2007, Catholic-backed Sinn Fein voted to co-operate with the Protestant police force in Northern Ireland.
In 2010, Father Klaus Mertes, the director of Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg, reported that several former students were sexually abused by teachers in the 1970s and 1980s. Shortly afterwards, some 300 students at Catholic schools across Germany came forward with claims of physical and sexual abuse. These claims came on the heels of a scandal in Ireland's Catholic Church, where child abuse and church coverups from the 1930s to 1990s involved more than 15,000 children.
In 2011, the NHL held its first-ever fantasy all-star game draft as captains Eric Staal and Nicklas Lidstrom selected their teams. (Team Staal took the skills competition 33-22 but Team Lidstrom won the all-star game 11-10).
In 2017, Serena Williams won her record 23rd Grand Slam singles title in the Open era, defeating older sister Venus 6-4, 6-4, for a record seventh Australian Open.
In 2018, Roger Federer beat Marin Cilic in five sets to win his sixth Australian Open title and extend his career record Grand Slam men's singles titles to 20; Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic won the mixed doubles title.
In 2018, Vancouver Canucks rookie Brock Boeser helped the Pacific Division defeat the Atlantic Division 5-2 to win the NHL All-Star game in Tampa. Boeser was named game MVP.
In 2019, the U.S. Justice Department filed charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei. A 13-count indictment was unsealed in New York charging Huawei, two of its affiliates and a top executive at the company. CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver at the request of the U.S. on Dec. 1, 2018. The charges include bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
In 2022, Russia's top diplomat said Moscow would not start a war. But he warned that it also wouldn't allow the West to trample on its security interests amid fears it was planning to invade Ukraine.
In 2022, Public Health Ontario said data suggested people with the COVID-19 Omicron variant remain contagious for about the same amount of time as those with other forms of the virus. The agency's report said the time span may be longer in some cases.
In 2022, booster shots were now being recommended for 12- to 17-year-olds with underlying conditions or at high-risk of being exposed to COVID-19. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization's new advice also applied to teens in racialized or marginalized communities that have been hit hard by COVID-19 infections.
In 2022, the big rigs rolled into downtown Ottawa. The planned weekend anti-vaccine mandate protest was growing in numbers and in energy. The Ottawa Police Service called in reinforcements to help keep the peace. It was working with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and other agencies to identify any potential threats to public safety. Hundreds of vehicles and long-haul trucks continued their trek toward the nation's capital to demand an end to all COVID restrictions, including vaccine passports, from every level of government.
In 2024, Ed Broadbent, the former leader of the federal NDPs, was honoured by generations of political leaders with a state funeral in Ottawa. Flags on all Government of Canada buildings across the country, including the Peace Tower, were flown at half-mast from sunrise to sunset. Broadbent died Jan. 11 at the age of 87.
In 2024, a drone strike in Jordan killed three U.S. service members and wounded "many" others in an attack President Joe Biden attributed to Iran-backed militia groups. The attack marked the first targeting of American soldiers in Jordan since Israel's war on Hamas began in October 2023.
In 2024, former NHL player Alex Formenton surrendered to police in London, Ont., in the case of an alleged sex assault of a woman in 2018 involving five players from that year's world junior hockey roster.
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The Canadian Press