On this day: January 28

/on/january-28

1889 • neutral • 4 views

The First Recorded Serial Killer Confession: H. H. Holmes, January 28, 1889

Late 19th‑century three‑story brick commercial building in Chicago with narrow windows and adjacent vacant lots, exterior view suggesting complex interior layout; period‑appropriate horse‑drawn carriage on unpaved street.

On January 28, 1889, Chicago criminal Herman Webster Mudgett (alias H. H. Holmes) made a detailed confession to authorities about multiple murders connected to his so‑called 'Murder Castle,' producing the earliest widely cited recorded confession of a serial killer in U.S. legal history.

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1986 • neutral • 5 views

Debris from the Challenger shuttle washes ashore in Florida

Workers and volunteers on a Florida beach collecting fragments of shuttle debris, including charred insulation and small tile pieces, with emergency vehicles in the background.

Bits of the Space Shuttle Challenger were recovered along the Florida coastline in the days after the vehicle broke apart on January 28, 1986, as search teams worked to locate wreckage and the remains of the seven crew members.

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1986 • neutral • 4 views

Challenger’s Final Launch: STS-51-L Departs on January 28, 1986

Space Shuttle Challenger on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center moments before liftoff on January 28, 1986, with service structures and clouds in the sky.

Space Shuttle Challenger lifted from Launch Complex 39B on January 28, 1986 for mission STS-51-L, the vehicle’s tenth flight and the program’s 25th mission; 73 seconds after liftoff the shuttle broke apart, killing all seven crew members aboard.

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