On January 28

The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its tenth mission (video featured), killing all seven crew members.

Tropical Storm Domoina made landfall in southern Mozambique, causing some of the most severe flooding recorded in the region.

U.S. president Ronald Reagan lifted price controls from petroleum products, contributing to the 1980s oil glut.

Three U.S. Air Force pilots aboard an unarmed T-39 Sabreliner were killed when the aircraft was shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.

In Gitarama, Rwanda, local and other government officials initiated a coup to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic.

The Lego Group, a Danish toy company, filed a patent in Denmark for the design of Lego bricks.

World War II: About three hours after Thai bombers raided Sisophon, a ceasefire paused hostilities in the Franco-Thai War.

Choudhry Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet in which he called for the creation of a Muslim state in north-western India that he termed "Pakstan".

The largest recorded snowstorm in the history of Washington, D.C., collapsed the Knickerbocker Theatre (damage pictured), killing 98 people.

The province of Manitoba passed a law that first granted some Canadian women the right to vote.

The word serendipity, derived from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, was coined by Horace Walpole (pictured) in a letter to a friend.

Anglo-Spanish War: In pursuit of retreating Spanish troops, English soldiers sacked the city of Panama.

Delegates of the Three Nations of Transylvania adopted the Edict of Torda, allowing local communities to elect their preachers freely, in an unprecedented act of religious tolerance.

Nine-year-old Edward VI, the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant, became king.

Charles V and the estates of the Holy Roman Empire met at the Diet of Worms to discuss Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.

King Charles VI of France (pictured) was nearly killed when several other dancers' costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball in Paris.

Robert de Comines, Earl of Northumbria, was killed in Durham, causing William the Conqueror to embark on a campaign to subjugate northern England.