1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven of its crew members: flight commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee; pilot Michael Smith; Ronald McNair; Ellison Onizuka; Judith Resnik; Gregory Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
1547, England's King Henry VIII died; he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI.
1853, Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.
1878, the first daily college newspaper, Yale News (now Yale Daily News), began publication in New Haven, Conn.
1909, the United States withdrew its forces from Cuba as Jose Miguel Gomez became president.
1915, the United States Coast Guard was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service.
1916, Louis D. Brandeis was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court; Brandeis became the court's first Jewish member.
1945, during World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1969, a major oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., occurred as a Union Oil well blew out, sending oil and natural gas into the Santa Barbara Channel.
1973, a cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.
1978, fire swept through the historic downtown Coates House hotel in Kansas City, Mo., killing 20 people.
Ten years ago: Ford Motor Company announced it was buying the Volvo car division in a $6.45 billion deal. Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan honored a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, sparing triple murderer Darrell Mease from being executed.
Five years ago: British Prime Minister Tony Blair won vindication when a judge said the BBC was wrong to report the government had "sexed up" intelligence to justify war in Iraq. Former U.S. Navy commander Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, who'd helped his USS Pueblo crew survive brutal captivity in North Korea, then faced criticism back home, died in Poway, Calif., at age 76.
One year ago: President George W. Bush, in his last State of the Union address, urged passage of an economic stimulus package and asked Americans to remain patient with the long, grinding war in Iraq. In a daring ambush, Iraqi insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in Mosul; five American soldiers were killed in the explosion. A U.S. missile attack in Pakistan killed veteran al-Qaida leader Abu Laith al-Libi. Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama for the White House.
