Today in History - Famous Events

🏰 On this day in History - January 29, 2026

1967 Kees Verkerk becomes European skating champ

1985 pop stars in LA record "We Are The World"

1863 Battle at Bear River, Washington: US army vs indians

1988 Largest NBA crowd-Boston Celtics at Detroit (61,938)

1989 NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 34-3

1982 Old Dominion ends La Tech's women's basketball rec 54-game win streak

1932 Test debut of Bill O'Reilly, vs South Africa at Adelaide

1961 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bradley Lord

1979 Chinese vice-premier Deng Xiaoping visits Washington, DC

1958 Murderer, Charles Starkweather, captured by police in Wyoming

1966 US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming

1985 Jari Kurri of Edmonton Oilers scores 100th pt of season in game 39

1732 Paris churchyard Saint-M‚dard closed after Jansenistic ritual

1967 WDAZ TV channel 8 in Devils Lake, ND (ABC) begins broadcasting

1943 New Zealand's Kiwi cruiser collides with Jap sub I-1 at Guadalcanal

1979 9th AFC-NFC pro bowl, NFC wins 13-7

1983 "Down Under" by Men At Work hit #1 on UK pop chart

1980 Cleve Cavaliers beat LA Lakers 154-153 in quadruple OT

1848 Sicily accepts new Constitution (choose parliament/freedom of press)

1947 Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," premieres in NYC

1839 Charles Darwin marries Emma Wedgwood

1922 Union of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador dissolved

1989 Cleveland's Chris Dudley misses 5 free throws during 1 foul attempt

1988 Canadian Ben Johnson breaks own 50-yard dash world record at 5.15

1988 Detroit's Kirk Gibson signs a 3-year contract with Dodgers

1980 6 Iranian held US hostages escape with help of Canadians

1845 Edgar Allen Poe's "Raven" 1st published (NYC)

1942 German & Italian troops occupy Banghazi

1978 Joanne Carner wins Colgate Triple Crown Match-Play Golf Championship

1988 United Airlines Boeing 747SP, circles world in 36h54m15s

1927 4th German govt of Marx forms

1957 Graham Greene's "Potting Shed," premieres in NYC

1975 "Men on the Moon" opens at Little Theater NYC for 5 performances

1974 27th NHL All-Star Game: West beat East 6-4 at Chicago

1919 Secretary of state proclaims 18th amendment (prohibition)

1970 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1942 1st broadcast of Roy Plomley's "Desert Island Discs" on BBC

1995 Superbowl MVP: Steve Young, San Francisco, QB

1969 Jimi Hendrix & Peter Townshend wage a battle of guitars

1987 Lisa files for separation from husband NY Met Darryl Strawberry

1834 Pres Jackson orders 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute

1998 Soyuz TM-27 launches to MIR

1998 Thick Fog causes highway carnage in Belgium & Netherlands, 6 die

1933 German president von Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor

1906 Coen de King skates world record time: 32,370 km

1954 Arnold Schoenberg's "De Profundis," premieres in Cologne

1895 King Koko's Kopermannen assault on Akassa Niger, 100's killed

1908 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, at Cornell University, incorporates

1995 Greg Blewett scores century on Test debut vs England, Adelaide

1964 Unmanned Apollo 1 Saturn launcher test attains Earth orbit

1900 Boers under Joubert beat English at Spionkop Natal, 2,000 killed

1904 1st athletic letters given (Univ of Chicago football team)

1996 6,138th performance of "Cats" is held in London, surpassing record of Broadway's longest-running musical, "A Chorus Line"

1983 40th Golden Globes: Gandhi, ET & Tootsie win

1971 Test debut of Dennis Keith Lillee, v England at Adelaide

1925 British Liberals choose David Lloyd George as party leader

1996 Last day of Test cricket for David Boon

1984 Silvia Bertolaccini wins LPGA Mazda Golf Classic of Deer Creek

1788 Australia Day

1903 Dutch railroad workers strike

1966 Snow storm in north east US kills 165

1958 Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward wed

1864 Battle of Moorefield, WV (Rosser's Raid)

1986 Yoweri Museveni sworn in as president of Uganda

1990 Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill

1587 Deventer & Zutphen surrender to Spain

1989 USSR's Phobos II enters Martian orbit

1728 John Gays' "Beggar's Opera," premieres in London [NS=Feb 9]

1984 34th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 154-145 (OT) at Denver

1523 Sermon of Constanz: Zwingli defends 67 Schlussreden

1850 Henry Clay introduces a comprise bill on slavery to US Senate

1574 Sea battle of Reimerswaal - Admiral Boisot beats Spanish fleet

1989 Episcopal church appoints 1st female bishop

1966 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Allen

1613 Galileo observes Neptune but fails to recognize what he sees

1886 1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe

1982 Wayne Garland, baseball 1st millionaire free agent, waived by Indians

1953 1st movie in Cinemascope (The Robe) premieres

1916 1st bombings of Paris by German Zeppelins takes place

1964 Most lopsided high-school basketball score 211-29 (Louisiana)

1963 Jim Thorpe, Red Grange & George Halas elected to football hall of fame

1987 William J Casey, ends term as 13th director of CIA

1942 Peru & Ecuador sign Protocol of Rio (boundary determiniation)

1956 F DЃrrenmatt's "Der Besuch der Alten Dame," premieres in ZЃrich

1967 "Let's Sing Yiddish" closes at Brooks Atkinson NYC after 107 perfs

1936 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame-Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson

1943 Sidney Kingsley's "Patriots," premieres in NYC

1951 "Where's Charley?" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 56 performances

1981 AL approves sale of White Sox to Jerry Reinsdorf & Eddie Einhorn for $20 million, & 80% of Mariners to George Argyros for $104 million

1964 NBC purchases AFL 5 year (1965-69) TV rights for $36 million

1979 Emerson, Lake & Palmer disband after 10 years together

1989 L I preacher Gene Profeta pleads guilty to tax-evasion

1995 Andre Agassi defeats Pete Sampras to win Australian Open

1996 23rd American Music Award: Garth Brooks wins

1968 Nauru adopts constitution

1989 77th Australian Men Tennis: Ivan Lendl beats Miloslav Mecir (62 62 62)

1955 John Williams Cox buys Yankee Stadium, sells grounds to Knights of Columbus, later leaves structure to Rice University (1962)

1923 1st flight of autogiro (Juan de la Cierva, Madrid Spain)

1998 Singers Bobby Brown found guiilty of DWI in Ft Lauderdale Fla

1948 "Look Ma, I'm Dancin'" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 188 perfs

1961 US female Figure Skating championship won by Laurence Owen

1872 Francis L Cardoza elected State Treasurer of South Carolina

1920 Walt Disney starts 1st job as an artist; $40 week with KC Slide Co

1921 Hurricane hits Washington & Oregon

1964 Stanley Kubrick's"Dr Strangelove," premieres

1967 Branch Rickey & Lloyd Waner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

1975 W I win Fifth Test against India to take exciting series 3-2

1991 Nelson Mandela & Mangosuthu Buthelezi meet after 28 years

1966 "Sweet Charity" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 608 performances

1989 Game-winning RBI, official statistic dropped after 9 years of use NY Mets Keith Hernandez is the all-time leader with 129

1976 Zeiss planetarium in Hague destroyed by fire

1951 Liz Taylor's 1st divorce (Conrad Hilton Jr)

1972 5th ABA All-Star Game: East 142 beats West 115 at Louisville

1984 Actress Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) marries Robert Altman

1802 John Beckley of Virginia appointed 1st Librarian of Congress

1995 Superbowl XXIX: SF 49ers beat SD Chargers, 49-26 in Miami

1917 English submarine K13 leaves Gaire Loch

1781 Mozart's opera "Idomeneo" premieres, Munich

1984 Pres Reagan formally announces he will seek a 2nd term

1969 Sheahan & Connolly hang on for exciting draw Aust v W Indies

1989 Dow jumps 38.06 recoups 508-pt loss since Oct 1987; index at 2,256.43

1896 Emile Grubbe is 1st dr to use radiation treatment for breast cancer

1989 Orlando Arena opens

1913 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, at Howard University, incorporates

1966 Lawry & Simpson complete 244 opening stand v England, Adelaide

1993 Test debut of Vinod Kambli, prolific Indian batsman

1989 Dottie Mochrie wins Oldsmobile LPGA Golf Classic

1979 Brenda Spencer kills 2, inspires Boomtown Rats "I Don't Like Mondays"

1861 Kansas becomes 34th state

1912 Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence, MA

1975 1st Annual Comedy Awards of the Year hosted by Alan King

1948 Commissioner Happy Chandler fines the Yankees, Cubs, & Phillies $500 each for signing high school players

1984 Space Shuttle 41-B (STS-11) Challenger launched

1979 Pres Carter commuted Patricia Hearst's 7 year sentence to 2 years

1879 Custer Battlefield National Monument, Mont established

1860 American College established in Rome by Pope Pius IX

1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland

1984 NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 45-3

1986 193.8 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange

1949 Brit, Belgium, Lux, Neth, NZ & Switz recognize Israel

1998 "Capeman," opens at Marquis Theater NYC

1979 NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 13-7

1951 Baseball signs 6 year All-Star pact for TV-radio rights for $6 million

1856 Victoria Cross established to acknowledge bravery

1929 Seeing Eye Guide Dog Organization forms

1964 Beatles record in German "Komm, Gib Mir Diene Hand" & "Sie Leibt Dich"

1676 Fjodor Aleksejevitsj becomes czar of Russia

1959 Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released

1900 American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee & Minneapolis

1998 Woman's Clinic in Birmingham Ala bombed, 1 killed

1944 285 German bombers attack London

1964 9th Winter Olympic games open in Innsbruck, Austria

1991 "Piano Lesson" closes at Walter Kerr Theater NYC after 320 perfs

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