28 April
April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining.
Events
- 1788 - Maryland becomes the 7th state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
- 1789 - Mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors set adrift and rebel crew sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
- 1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
- 1930 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
- 1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
- 1937 - The Museum of Costume Arts opens in New York City.
- 1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot to death while trying to flee Italy.
- 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
- 1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO in order to run for President of the United States.
- 1952 - Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends.
- 1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate Americans.
- 1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
- 1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe being found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
- 1978 - Afghanistan President Mohammed Daoud Khan is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by procommunist rebels.
- 1987 - The 27-year old American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by US-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua. His death sets off a fierce debate in the United States.
- 1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii a flight attendant is sucked out of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 and falls to her death when an upper part of the plane's cabin area rips off in mid-flight. Metal fatigue is later found to be the cause of the failure.
- 1990 - After 6,237 performances, the Broadway musical A Chorus Line closes.
- 1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
- 1996 - Whitewater scandal: President Bill Clinton gives 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
- 1996 - At Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, the world's worst 'spree killer' of all time, Martin Bryant, kills 35 men, women and children, and wounds another 18.
- 1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, signed in Paris in January 1993, goes into effect. Russia, Iraq and North Korea were notable nations who had not ratified the treaty.
- 2003 - Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store released, sells 1,000,000 songs in first week.
Births
- 1442 - King Edward IV of England (d. 1483)
- 1758 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
- 1810 - Daniel Ullmann, general (d. 1892)
- 1819 - Ezra Abbot, american bible scholar (d. 1884)
- 1874 - Karl Kraus, journalist and author (d. 1936)
- 1878 - Lionel Barrymore, actor (d. 1954)
- 1886 - Ğabdulla Tuqay, poet (d. 1913)
- 1889 - António de Oliveira Salazar, dictator of Portugal (d. 1970)
- 1896 - Charlie Rivel, clown (d. 1983)
- 1900 - Bruno Apitz, author (d. 1979)
- 1906 - Kurt Gödel, mathematician (d. 1978)
- 1908 - Oskar Schindler, businessman (d. 1974)
- 1923 - Horst-Eberhard Richter, psychoanalyst
- 1928 - Yves Klein, painter (d. 1962)
- 1928 - Eugene M. Shoemaker, planetary scientist (d. 1997)
- 1930 - James Baker, politician
- 1937 - Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq
- 1941 - Ann-Margret, actress
- 1948 - Terry Pratchett, author
- 1950 - Jay Leno, comedian
- 1952 - Mark Sparks, emergency manager
- 1958 - Hal Sutton, American golfer
- 1966 - John Daly, American golfer
- 1974 - Penélope Cruz, actress
- 1981 - Jessica Alba, actress
Deaths
- 1772 - Johann Friedrich Struensee, royal physician of Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1737)
- 1813 - Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Russian field marshal, (b. 1745)
- 1905 - Fitzhugh Lee, Confederate general
- 1926 - Zip the Pinhead, born William Henry Johnson (b. 1857)
- 1945 - Benito Mussolini Il Duce and Clara Petacci, shot, hanged upside down, mutilated
- 1978 - Sardar Mohammed Daoud, President of Afghanistan (b. 1909)
- 1992 - Francis Bacon, artist (b. 1909)
- 2000 - Penelope Fitzgerald, writer (b. 1916)
- 2002 - Alexander Lebed, Russian General (b. 1950)
- 2002 - Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie Doll (b. 1916)
Holidays and observances
April 27 - April 29 - March 28 - May 28 -- listing of all days
