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Today in History: January 28

0028
The Roman Emperor Nerva names Trajan, an army general, as his successor.

1077
German King Henry IV is absolved by Holy Roman Emperor Pope Gregory VII and invited back to the Church after his penitent Walk to Canossa

1915
The U.S. Coast Guard is founded to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.

1921
Albert Einstein startles Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe.

1955
The U.S. Congress passes a bill allowing mobilization of troops if China should attack Taiwan.

1964
The Soviets down a U.S. jet over East Germany killing three.

1970
Israeli fighter jets attack the suburbs of Cairo.

1986
Space shuttle challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all 7 crew members, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space

2021
Mexico's COVID-19 death toll becomes the world's third highest, overtaking India's at 155,145

2024
Drone attack on US military base in Jordan kills three American soldiers and injures 40


Today in History: Born on January 28
1693
Anna "Ivanovna", Tsarina of Russia.

1706
John Baskerville, inventor of the "hot-pressing" method of printing.

1853
Jose Marti, Cuban poet and journalist, known as the "Apostle of the Cuban Revolution."

1912
Jackson Pollock, influential abstract expressionist painter.

JOTD
A man settles in his seat next to the window on a plane, when another man sits down next to him and seats his Black Labrador Retriever in-between them. The first man looks very quizzically at the dog and asks why he's allowed on the plane. The second man explains that he's a DEA-Agent, Sniffing-dog.

His name is Sniffer, and he's the best there is. I'll show you once we get airborne, when I put him to work."

The plane takes off, and once it has levelled out, the agent says "Watch this. He tells Sniffer to 'search'". Sniffer jumps down, walks along the aisle, and finally sits very purposefully next to a woman for several seconds. Sniffer then returns to its seat and puts one paw on the agent's arm. The agent says, "Good boy", and he turns to the man and says: "That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I'm making a note of her seat number and the authorities will apprehend her when we land." "Say, that's pretty neat." replies the first man.

Once again, the agent sends Sniffer to search the aisles. The Lab sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds, returns to its seat, and this time, he places TWO paws on the agent's arm. The agent says, "That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I m making a note of his seat number for the police." "I like it!" says his seat mate.

The agent then tells Sniffer to "search" again. Sniffer walks up and down the aisles for a little while, sits down for a moment, and then comes racing back to the agent, jumps into the middle seat and proceeds to poop all over the place. The first man is really grossed out by this behaviour and can't figure out how or why a well-trained dog would act like that, so he asks the agent, "What's going on?"

The agent nervously replies, "He just found a bomb!"