Some things to know about January 28th

On this day in 98 A.D., Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor. Under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

On this day in 814, Charlemagne died.

In 1225, Saint Thomas Aquinas was born.

In 1393, King Charles VI of France was nearly killed when several dancers’ costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball.

In 1547, King Henry VIII died and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI.

In 1754, Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.

In 1821, Alexander Island was discovered by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. [Editor’s note. Wikipedia actually says Alexander Island was first discovered, which causes me to wonder how many times a thing can be discovered. --RWP]

In 1912, American painter Jackson Pollock was born. [Editor’s note. A shout-out here to New Zealand painter Katherine de Chevalle. Yo, Katherine! --RWP]

In 1956, Elvis Presley made his first U.S. television appearance.

In 1981, American actor Elijah Wood was born.

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

In 2002, Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish writer who created Pippi Longstocking, died.

It is Army Day in Armenia.

It is Data Privacy Day worldwide.

(Fossil Bluff Station, Alexander Island, which lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by Marguerite Bay and George VI Sound. 2004 photo by Apacheeng, public domain)

(Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who was actually Faddey Faddeyevich Bellinsgauzen (in the Cyrillic alphabet, Фаддей Фаддеевич Беллинсгаузен), a Russian admiral about whom you can read more here.

(2004 photo by Christian Koehn of Pippi Longstocking’s house, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license)