Tuesday 28th of January 1547

King of England Henry VIII of England dies of diabetes at the age of 56 in Palace of Whitehall, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

His last words were "Monks! Monks! Monks!"

Thursday 28th of January 1621

233rd Pope Paulus V dies of a stroke at the age of 99 in Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Thursday 28th of January 1706

Printer and type designer John Baskerville is born in Wolverley, Worcestershire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 28th of January 1768

Composer John Wainwright dies of unknown causes at the age of 45 in Stockport, Cheshire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 28th of January 1802

Colonial administrator Joseph Wall is executed by hanging at the age of 65 in Newgate Prison, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wall was sentenced to death for a series of fatal floggings in 1782. On 10 July 1782 Sergeant Benjamin Armstrong and George Robinson each received 800 lashes and on 11 July Corporal Thomas Upton received 350 lashes, Private George Paterson 800 lashes, William Evans 800 lashes, Joseph Shaw 275 lashes and Private Henry Fawcett 47 lashes. From their wounds Corporal Upton died on the 13th, Sergeant Armstrong on the 15th, and George Paterson on 19 July. With a reward of £200 for his capture Wall had been living under an assumed name in France and Italy.

Wednesday 28th of January 1829

Serial killer William Burke aka The Body Snatchers (with William Hare) is executed by hanging at the age of 37 in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burke was hanged in front of a crowd possibly as large as 25.000; views from windows in the tenements overlooking the scaffold were hired at prices ranging from 5 to 20 shillings. Burke's skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School where it remains. His death mask and a book said to be bound with his tanned skin can be seen at Surgeons' Hall Museum.

Thursday 28th of January 1841

Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley aka Bula Matari (Breaker of Rocks) known for his quote “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” is born as John Rowlands in Denbigh, Wales, United Kingdom.

Sunday 28th of January 1855

Inventor of the calculating machine William Seward Burroughs is born in Rochester, New York, United States.

Friday 28th of January 1887

26-year-old Serial killer Henry Howard Holmes aka The Torture Doctor marries Myrta Z. Belknap while he was still married to Clara Lovering in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Friday 28th of January 1887

Pianist Arthur Rubinstein is born in Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland.

Saturday 28th of January 1888

Sculptor Ossip Zadkine is born as Yossel Aronovich Tsadkin in Vitebsk, Vitebsk Oblast, Russia.

Tuesday 28th of January 1890

Double murderer Robert Franklin Stroud aka The Birdman of Alcatraz is born in Seattle, Washington, United States.

Sunday 28th of January 1912

Abstract expressionist painter Jackson Paul Pollock known for his drip paintings is born in Cody, Wyoming, United States.

Wednesday 28th of January 1914

Actor and murderer Tom Thomas Neal is born in Evanston, Illinois, United States.

Monday 28th of January 1924

Poet and artist Marcel Broodthaers is born in Rue Hôtel des Monnaies, Brussel, Saint-Gilles, Brabant, Belgium.

Monday 28th of January 1929

Pop artist Claes Oldenburg is born in Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

Tuesday 28th of January 1936

Actor Alan Alda aka Hawkeye Pierce is born as Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in New York City, New York, United States.

Tuesday 28th of January 1936

Kidnapper and murderer Richard Albert Loeb aka The Perfect Murderer is slashed to ribbons in the showers by Jimmie James E. Day at the age of 31 in Stateville Correctional Center, Crest Hill, Illinois, United States.

Rumors suggested that Day had desired sexual favors from Loeb who refused him. Loeb's last words to his partner in crime Nathan Leopold were "I think I'm going to make it."

Saturday 28th of January 1939

Poet William Butler Yeats aka W. B. Yeats dies of unknown causes at the age of 74 in Hôtel Idéal Séjour, 188 Avenue Virginie Hériot, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes, France.

Sunday 28th of January 1945

Musician Robert Ellidge Wyatt known from The Soft Machine is born in Bristol, South West England, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 28th of January 1948

Over 300 die in Joo-Maru freighter collision in Seto Inland Sea, Setouchi, Japan.

The Joo-Maru collided with an abandoned mine.

Friday 28th of January 1949

Rapist and murderer Charlie Pool is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 41 in Kentucky State Penitentiary, Eddyville, Kentucky, United States.

Wednesday 28th of January 1953

Cop killer Derek William Bentley is executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at the age of 20 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 28th of January 1956

Victim of Dean Corll aka The Candyman James Eugene Glass is born in Houston, Texas, United States.

Tuesday 28th of January 1958

48-year-old Chester Lauer Ward is shot dead by spree killer Charles Starkweather aka Little Red in S 24th Street 2843, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.

Both 50-year-old Clara Olson Ward and 51-year-old maid Ludmila Lilyan Fencl were already murdered earlier that day by stabbing. Starkweather also snapped the neck of the family dog Suzy.

Monday 28th of January 1974

32-year-old Tana Smith, 45-year-old Jane Holly, 69-year-old Vincent Wollin and 84-year-old John Bambic are shot dead by Murder gang The Black Zebra Killers aka The Death Angels in San Francisco, California, United States.

23-year-old Roxanne McMillan is shot and paralysed from the waist down.

Wednesday 28th of January 1976

Poet and artist Marcel Broodthaers dies of a liver disease at the age of 52 in Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Saturday 28th of January 1978

28-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Richard Trenton Chase aka The Vampire of Sacramento is arrested in Watt Avenue Complex Apartment #15, Sacramento, California, United States.

A search of Chase's apartment revealed assorted human and animal organs in his refrigerator.

Tuesday 28th of January 1986

49-year-old pilot Michael J. Smith, 36-year-old mission specialist Judith Resnik, 35-year-old mission specialist Ronald McNair, 39-year-old mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, 41-year-old payload specialist Gregory Jarvis, 37-year-old payload specialist and teacher Christa MacAuliffe and 46-year-old commander Francis R. Scobee are killed in the explosion of their Challenger OV-99 spacecraft, just 73 seconds after take-off in off coast, Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

Sunday 28th of January 1996

Poet Joseph Brodsky dies of a heart attack at the age of 56 in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Monday 28th of January 2002

94 die in TAME Flight 120 Boeing 727-134 crash into a mountain in Cumbal Volcano, Nariño, Colombia.

Monday 28th of January 2002

Writer Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren known for her children’s books featuring Pippi Longstocking dies of natural causes at the age of 95 in Dalagatan 46, Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

Tuesday 28th of January 2003

Murderer Alva Eziel Curry is executed by lethal injection at the age of 34 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Curry's final meal request was for chicken fried steak, country gravy, hot buttered corn, mashed potatoes, hot buttered rolls, hot apple pie, vanilla ice cream and tea.

Wednesday 28th of January 2004

Murderer Billy Frank Vickers is executed by lethal injection at the age of 59 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Vickers' last meal request was for a four-egg omelet with cheese and onions, a bowl of chili, four slices of fried bologna, four pieces of toast, four slices of cheese, fried potatoes with a bowl of gravy, sliced tomato, hot coffee and black walnut or vanilla ice cream.

Friday 28th of January 2005

Actress Karen Lancaume known from the crime-thriller Baise-moi commits suicide by an overdose of medication at the age of 32 in Paris, XIVe, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 28th of January 2005

Taking his theme from the triumph and tragedy in the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, Ferdinand Hodler created two gigantic dioramas in 1865 and 1894 measuring 7,25 x 4,35m each for the World's Fair in Antwerp. They are a symbolic representation of human fate in general. A figure detail from the diorama 'Plunge' by Ferdinand Hodler in Alpines Museum, Helvetiaplatz 4, Bern, Mittelland, Switzerland.

Thursday 28th of January 2010

Murderer Peter Carlier commits suicide hanging in his cell at the age of 61 in Gevangenis, Zwarte-Brugstraat 4, Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium.

Carlier spent 30 years in prison for the sadist murder of his 21-year-old neighbour girl.