1. On January 28, 1878, the Mississippi legislature passed the "coon laws," which made it illegal for African Americans to hunt or fish without a permit. The law was designed to restrict the economic opportunities of black people and limit their ability to own firearms.

2. Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on January 28, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. Evers became an instrumental figure in the fight against segregation and discrimination, and his murder in 1963 helped to galvanize the civil rights movement.

3. On January 28, 1948, Mississippi's first leading lady, Elise Winter, was born in Greenwood. Winter served as the wife of former Governor William Winter and was an advocate for education and the arts.

4. The Mississippi River crested at a record high of 48.7 feet in Vicksburg on January 28, 1937, during the Great Flood of 1937. The flood caused widespread devastation and displaced hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Mississippi River valley.

5. On January 28, 1960, students at Tougaloo College in Jackson staged a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth's department store. The protest was one of many throughout the country that helped to spark the broader civil rights movement.