28 January in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 28 January is the birth anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai, Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, Rajendra Keshavlal Shah, Vidyanivas Mishra, and Pandit Jasraj,
28 January is also observed as the death anniversary of Sohrab Modi, Devakanta Barua, and Omkar Prasad Nayyar.
Birth Anniversary
28 January in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 – 17 November 1928), is counted among the great revolutionaries of India. He was also known as ‘Punjab Kesari’, who did not care for his life while facing British Raj power for life. Lalaji was a prominent leader of the Garam Dal of the Indian National Congress and representative of the whole of Punjab. He also got the title of ‘Lion of Punjab’. He started advocacy in Hisar after getting an education of law, but later due to coming in contact with Swami Dayanand, he became a strong supporter of Arya Samaj. It was from here that the feeling of militant nationalism was awakened in him. Lalaji has got the same place in Punjab, which Lokmanya Tilak has got in Maharashtra. He was born on 28 January 1865 in Faridkot District, Punjab.
Kodandera Madappa Cariappa (28 January 1899 – 15 May 1993), the first citizen of India who had the privilege of becoming the ‘First Commander in Chief’. Cariappa took office as a general on 15 January 1949. Since then, 15 January was celebrated as ‘Army Day’. Cariappa was associated with the Rajput Regiment of India. In 1953, Cariappa had retired, but still his support in one form or the other was always received by the Indian Army. He was born on 28 January 1899 in Coorg, Karnataka.
Rajendra Keshavlal Shah (28 January 1913 – 2 January 2010), a Gujarati language writer. He was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 2001. He was born on 28 January 1913 in Kapadnaj, Kaira District, Gujarat.
Vidyanivas Mishra (28 January 1926 – 14 February 2005), a famous Hindi litterateur, successful editor, Sanskrit scholar, and well-known linguist. Vidyanivas Mishra, who flavored Hindi literature with the fragrance of his fine essays and folk life, was such a litterateur who absorbed modern ideas into traditional thinking. According to literary critics, Sanskrit penetrating Mishra always gave importance to the words of regional dialects in Hindi. According to Vidyanivas Mishra- “If the words of regional dialects are encouraged in Hindi, then the difficult official language can be avoided, which is very Sanskritised.” For the unprecedented contribution of Mishra, the Government of India honored him with ‘Padma Shri’ and ‘Padma Bhushan’. He was born on 28 January 1926 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Pandit Jasraj (28 January 1930 – 17 August 2020), a world-renowned singer of Indian classical music. Classical music art has been going on in our country for centuries. This art has been considered as an important source of not only entertainment but also of connecting with God. One such voice was the eminent Pandit Jasraj Ji, who at the young age of just three stepped into this cold world of harsh realities with only seven voices inherited from his late father. He belonged to the Mewati Gharana. He was honored with Padma Vibhushan (2000), Padma Bhushan (1990), and Padma Shri (1975) for his remarkable contribution to the field of classical music. He was born on 28 January 1930 in Hisar.
Read More: 27 January in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
28 January in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Sohrab Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984), a famous Indian actor and film producer-director, made the first Hindi color film ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’. He was awarded the ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’ in 1980. He died on 28 January 1984.
Devakanta Barua (22 February 1914 – 28 January 1996), an Indian politician from Assam who served as the President of the Indian National Congress during the Emergency (1975–1977). He died on 28 January 1996.
Omkar Prasad Nayyar (16 January 1926 – 28 January 2007), a famous Hindi film composer. The songs composed by O.P. Nayyar are popular even today. He died on 28 January 2007 in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Read More: 26 January in Indian and World History
Notable events on 28 January in Indian and World History
28 January 1725 – Peter the Great, the third monarch of the Romanov family in Russia, died at the age of 53.
28 January 1807 – Friedrich Albert Windsor, a German businessman, lit the world’s first gas light on Paul Mall Street in London.
28 January 1813 – The book ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was first published in the United Kingdom.
28 January 1819 – Sir Stamford Raffles discovered Singapore.
28 January 1835 – The Calcutta Medical College in West Bengal started.
28 January 1846 – The British army defeated the army of Ranjodh Singh at the Battle of Aliwal.
28 January 1878 – The Yale Daily News, the first daily newspaper to be published in the United States, was created.
28 January 1878 – The first telephone exchange was built in New Haven, USA.
28 January 1886 – Hidetsugu Yagi, was a Japanese electrical engineer from Osaka, was born.
28 January 1887 – Work on the Eiffel Tower in the French capital Paris began.
28 January 1897 – Luz Jiménez, an Indigenous Mexican model and Nahuatl-language linguistic informant, was born.
28 January 1912 – Jackson Pollock, an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, was born.
28 January 1939 – William Butler Yeats an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and Nobel Laureate, died.
28 January 1933 – Chaudhry Rahmat Ali Khan suggested the name of Pakistan for a separate nation to be formed under the demand of the Muslim League.
28 January 1935 – Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.
28 January 1942 – The German army captured Benghazi in Liby.
28 January 1943 – Adolf Hitler ordered the forced recruitment of all young men into the army.
28 January 1949 – Jim Wong-Chu, a Canadian activist, community organizer, poet, author, editor, and historian, was born.
28 January 1950 – Justice Hiralal Kania took over as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
28 January 1960 – Zora Neale Hurston, an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker, died because of a heart attack.
28 January 1961 – The first factory of HMT watches was started in Bangalore.
28 January 1962 – The American spacecraft failed to reach the moon.
28 January 1990 – the fire of demonstration broke out in Romania, on this day there was a big demonstration demanding a change of power.
28 January 1992 – After three decades in power in Algeria, the National Liberation Front resigned.
28 January 1998 – 26 accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the former Prime Minister of India, were given death sentence.
28 January 1999 – For the first time in India, the lamb was born from a preserved embryo.
28 January 2000 – India defeated Sri Lanka badly in the final of the Under-19 Youth World Cup Cricket.
28 January 2002 – a plane crash happened. An Ecuadorian plane crashed on the slopes of the Nevado de Cambel volcano, killing 92 people.
28 January 2006 – France’s Amelie Moscow had a great day on this day she won the women’s singles title of the Australian Open tennis.
28 January 2010 – 5 convicts of the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding leader and first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were sentenced to death.
28 January 2012 – a bomb exploded in Nigeria, killing 185 people.
28 January 2013 – US Secretary of State John Kerry was appointed