January 28 Birthday
January 28, 1986: The Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart seventy-three seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first teacher in space. The cause was an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster that failed in cold weather. Engineers at Morton Thiokol, the contractor that built the boosters, had warned NASA the night before that the temperature was below the certified minimum for the O-rings. NASA management overruled them. The launch had already been delayed five times, and the agency was under political pressure to fly. The Rogers Commission found that NASA's organizational culture had normalized accepting known risks. Richard Feynman demonstrated the failure during the hearing by dropping an O-ring in ice water. It lost its resilience instantly. In 1547, Henry VIII died at Whitehall Palace at the age of fifty-five. He had reigned for thirty-eight years, married six wives, executed two of them, and transformed England from a Catholic kingdom into a Protestant nation. His body was so bloated that his coffin burst open en route to Windsor, and dogs were seen licking the leaking fluids. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI, who would die at fifteen. Edward's death triggered the succession crisis that brought Mary I, then Elizabeth I, to the throne. Henry had spent his reign trying to produce a male heir, and within eleven years of his death, his dynasty was finished. On this day in 1958, the Lego Group filed a patent for the modern stud-and-tube coupling system — the design that allows bricks to lock together firmly and pull apart cleanly. The company had been making wooden toys since 1932 and plastic bricks since 1949, but the early bricks did not stick together well. The 1958 patent, filed by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the son of the founder, created the interlocking system that is still used today. A Lego brick made in 1958 will fit perfectly with one made in 2024. That backward compatibility is almost unique in product design. Jackson Pollock, born this day in 1912, dripped paint onto canvases laid on the floor of his barn in Springs, New York. The work was mocked as random and childlike. A critic famously offered $5 for a Pollock at an exhibition. Pollock's Number 1A, 1948 was sold in 2015 for $200 million. He died in a car crash at forty-four, driving drunk with two passengers, one of whom also died. People born on January 28 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 28 include 1547: King Henry VIII of England dies, succeeded by Edward VI, 1958: Lego patents the modern stud-and-tube brick design, 1986: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch. Famous people born on January 28 include Jackson Pollock (1912), Alan Alda (1936), Colette (1873).