World/nation trivia: The week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1

Jan. 26:

1887, groundbreaking began for the construction of the Eiffel Tower; the tower would be completed just over two years later.

1998, President Bill Clinton forcefully denied having an affair with a former White House intern, telling reporters, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

2020, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed when their helicopter plunged into a steep hillside in dense morning fog in Southern California; the former Lakers star was 41.

Jan. 27:

1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

1945, during World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1967, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1973, the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Jan. 28:

1956, Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

1985, to raise funds in support of famine relief in Ethiopia, the supergroup USA For Africa recorded the song “We Are the World.”

1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven crew members including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

2011, chaos engulfed Egypt as protesters seized the streets of Cairo, battling police, burning down the ruling party’s headquarters and defying a military curfew.

Jan. 29:

1891, following the death of her brother Kalākaua, Lili‘uokalani was sworn in as the first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom. (Her reign would end two years later when the Hawaiian monarchy was abolished following a U.S. military-supported coup d’état.)

1936, the first five inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame — Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson — were named in Cooperstown, New York.

2018, the Cleveland Indians announced they would remove the Chief Wahoo logo from their uniforms in the coming baseball season, after decades of protests and complaints that the grinning, red-faced caricature was racist. (The team changed its name to the Cleveland Guardians starting in the 2022 season.)

Jan. 30:

1933, Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany.

1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.

1972, 13 Catholic civil rights marchers were shot and killed by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

2020, health officials reported the first known case in which the new coronavirus was spread from one person to another in the United States.

Jan. 31:

1863, during the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black Union regiment composed of many escaped slaves, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, South Carolina.

1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral.

1988, Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, led the Washington Redskins (now Washington Commanders) to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos and was named Super Bowl MVP.

2020, the United States declared a public health emergency over the new coronavirus, and President Donald Trump signed an order to temporarily bar entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens, who traveled in China in the preceding 14 days.

Feb. 1:

1865, abolitionist John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1960, four Black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they had been refused service.

2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

– Associated Press