This Day in History

 

Last year I made a post specifically for the Challenger explosion: Here

But January 28 has more history as well.

Such as this, from 1985.

We had to sing this for a school concert once, holding a banner that then hung in the music teacher's classroom.

In 1777, General John Burgoyne thought he had a plan to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies, allowing for an attack on Philadelphia.  He might have been successful had he not overextended his supply chain.  As they marched south, the Americans were able to cut the supply line.  He surrendered in Saratoga in October of the same year.

Had he not been involved in the war, he most likely would have been remembered as a dramatist.  He was a notable playwright and poet.  He also wrote and translated operatic pieces.

Stephen Biko was a leader of the "Black Consciousness" movement in South Africa during apartheid.  In 1972 he helped organize the Black People's Convention but was banned from politics the following year.  He was arrested in 1977 for subversion.  He was brutally beaten in custody, and then after a 700 mile drive to Pretoria, he was thrown into a cell, where he later died, naked and shackled to the floor.

It wasn't until this day in 1997 that the officers responsible admitted their abuse before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  They were denied amnesty.

More history Here