Poster advertising Henry Ludlowe in “The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe,” 1908

Today in History

• The first lifeboat is tested (1790)
• Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore (1819)
• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is published in the New York Evening Mirror (1845)
• Kansas becomes a US state (1861)
• Karl Benz patents the first successful gas-driven automobile (1886)
• Liliuokalani becomes the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1891)
• Baseball’s American League is organized (1900)
• World War I: German zeppelins bomb Paris (1916)
• The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced (1936)
• The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced (1963)
• Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction on corruption charges (2009)

Birthdays

• Emanuel Swedenborg, founder of Swedenborgianism (1688)
• William McKinley, 25th US President (1843)
• Anton Chekhov, playwright (1860)
• W. C. Fields, actor and comedian (1880)
• Victor Mature, actor (1918)
• John Forsythe, actor (1918)
• Germaine Greer, author and activist (1939)
• Katharine Ross, actress (1940)
• Tom Selleck, actor (1945)
• Tommy Ramone, drummer (1949)
• Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and actress (1954)
• Greg Louganis, diver, Olympic gold medalist (1960)
• Heather Graham, actress (1970)
• Sara Gilbert, actress (1975)
• Adam Lambert, singer-songwriter and actor (1982)

Deaths

• Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, caliph (661)
• George III, UK monarch (1820)
• Edward Lear, poet and illustrator (1888)
• Sara Teasdale, poet (1933)
• H. L. Mencken, journalist and critic (1956)
• Robert Frost, poet (1963)
• Alan Ladd, actor (1964)
• Allen Dulles, CIA director (1969)
• B. H. Lidell Hart, military historian (1970)
• Freddie Prinze, comedian and actor (1977)
• Jimmy Durante, entertainer (1980)
• Lili St. Cyr, ecdysiast and burlesque performer (1999)
• Margaret Truman, author and Presidential daughter (2008)
• Colleen McCullough, author (2015)
• Rod McKuen, poet and musician (2015)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Curmudgeons Day
• Freethinkers Day
• National Puzzle Day
• Seeing Eye Dog Day
• Thomas Paine Day

January 29 is the 29th day of the year. There are 336 days (337 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.