Today in History 1/28

814: Charlemagne dies.
1547: King Henry VIII dies. He is succeeded by Edward VI, the first Protestant ruler of England.
1596: Sir Francis Drake dies of dysentery off the coast of Panama.
1754: Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
1724: The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great.
1760: Pownal, Vermont is created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire grants. It's way down in the southwest portion of the state.
1813: Pride and Predjudice, by Jane Austen, is published.
1820: Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discover the Antarctic continent.
1846: The Battle of Aliwal, India is won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
1871: During the Franco-Prussian war, the Siege of Paris ends with French defeat and armistice.
1890: Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, is born. Unlike his portrayal in the movie he really was a very horrible person.
1910: John Banner is born. He played Sgt. Schultz on Hogan's Heroes.
1912: Jackson Pollack is born.
1915: The US Coast Guard is created by an Act of Congress.
1917: Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco (a Quinn-Martin production).
1932: Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
1933: Jack Hill is born. He directed such exploitation classics as Switchblade Sisters, Foxy Brown, and Coffy.
1934: The first ski tow in America beings operation in Woodstock, VT at what would later be known as Suicide Six.
1936: Alan Alda is born.
1945: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly opened Burma Road.
1956: Elvis makes his first TV appearance.
1958: Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their infamous murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister.
1958: The Lego company patented their design of Lego bricks.
1959: Vince Lombardi is named head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
1959: Frank Darabont is born. He directed The Shawshank Redemption.
1969: Mo Rocca is born.
1973: John Banner dies on the same day he was born. Freaky!
1978: Fantasy Island premieres.
1981: Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.
1981: Elijah Wood is born.
1986: The Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all 7 people aboard.
1996: Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, dies.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up