28 October
October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining.
Events
- 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor.
- 312 - Battle of
Milvian Bridge: Constantine the
Great defeats the forces of Maxentius. Roman emperor Constantine converts
himself and the empire to Christianity.
- 1492 - Christopher
Columbus lands in Cuba.
- 1516 - Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan
Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains - British forces arrive at White Plains, attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Americans.
- 1864 - American Civil
War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union
forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after
failing to breach the Confederate
defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
- 1868 - Thomas Edison applied
for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.
- 1886 - In New York Harbor,
US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.
- 1918 - Czechoslovakia gains
its independence from Austria-Hungary
- 1919 - Prohibition begins: The
U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
- 1922 - March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and
take over the Italian government with the assistance of the Catholic
Church; pope Pius XI declares that "Mussolini is a man sent by divine
providence."
- 1936 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of
Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
- 1940 - World War II: Italy invades Greece.
- 1942 - The Alaska Highway is
completed.
- 1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the
insecticidal properties of DDT.
- 1949 - Georges Bidault
becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1950 - The Jack Benny
Show, starring Jack Benny, premiers (it ran for 15 years).
- 1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and
takes the name Pope John XXIII.
- 1962 - Cuban Missile
Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
- 1965 - Nostra Aetate, the
"Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, was promulgated by Pope
Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's declaration from 760 years
ago.
- 1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall
catenarian steel Gateway Arch is completed.
- 1970 - land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue
Flame
- 1976 - John D.
Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and
convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security
facility in southeastern Arizona.
- 1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
- 1988 - Abortion: 48 hours after
announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French
manufacturer Roussel Uclaf
states that it would resume distribution of the drug, bowing to pressure from the government of France.
- 1998 - An Air China jetliner is
hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan. After landing the plane
safely, Yuan Bin was arrested.
Births
- 1718 - Ignacije
Szentmartony, Croat geographer (d. 1793)
- 1793 - Eliphalet
Remington, firearm manufacturer (d. 1861)
- 1804 - Pierre François Verhulst
- 1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef
- 1875 - Gilbert Grosvenor
- 1879 - E.M. Forster, novelist (d.
1970)
- 1892 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (d. 1954)
- 1896 - Howard Hanson, composer
- 1902 - Elsa Lanchester,
actress (d. 1986)
- 1903 - Evelyn Waugh, novelist (d. 1966)
- 1907 - Edith Head, costumer (d.
1981)
- 1909 - Francis Bacon, painter
- 1912 - Richard Doll, epidemiologist
- 1914 - Dr. Jonas Salk, scientist,
discoverer of polio vaccine (d. 1995)
- 1915 - Paul Jarrico, screenwriter (d. 1997)
- 1916 - Jack Soo, actor (d. 1979)
- 1922 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwean politician (d. 2003)
- 1930 - Bernie
Ecclestone, Formula 1 racing tycoon
- 1932 - Suzy Parker, actress
- 1937 - Charlie Daniels,
musician
- 1938 - Anne Perry, novelist
- 1939 - Jane Alexander,
actress
- 1944 - Dennis Franz, actor
- 1945 - Wayne Fontana, musician
- 1948 - Telma Hopkins,
singer
- 1949 - Bruce Jenner, athlete
- 1955 - Bill Gates, software tycoon, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft
- 1964 - Paul Wylie, figure skating champion
- 1966 - Steve Atwater, American football player
- 1967 - Julia Roberts,
actress
- 1972 - Terrell Davis, American football player
- 1974 - Joaquin Phoenix,
actor
Deaths
- 1412 - Margaret I
of Denmark
- 1485 - Rodolphus
Agricola, Dutch scholar and humanist
- 1520 - Pier Gerlofs
Donia, pirate and freedom fighter
- 1661 - Agustín Moreto y Cavana, dramatist and playwright
- 1676 - Jean Desmarets, French
dramatist
- 1703 - John Wallis,
mathematician
- 1704 - John Locke, philosopher
- 1708 - Prince
George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne
- 1740 - Anna of Russia
- 1754 - Friedrich
von Hagedorn, poet
- 1794 - John Smeaton, civil engineer
- 1800 - Artemas Ward, politician
and soldier
- 1806 - Charlotte
Turner Smith, poet and novelist
- 1818 - Abigail Adams, First
Lady of the United States
- 1841 - Johan
August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist
- 1857 - Louis
Eugène Cavaignac, French soldier and politician
- 1877 - Robert Swinhoe,
naturalist
- 1879 - Marie
Roch Louis Reybaud, writer
- 1897 - Hercules
Robinson, colonial administrator
- 1899 - Ottmar
Mergenthaler, inventor
- 1900 - Max Müller, orientalist
- 1916 - Oswald Bölcke,
pilot
- 1917 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
- 1918 - Ulisse Dini,
mathematician
- 1929 - Bernhard von
Bülow, Chancellor of Germany
- 1952 - Billy Hughes, seventh
Prime Minister of Australia
- 1957 - Ernst
Gräfenberg, physican and scientist
- 1959 - Camilo
Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary
- 1965 - Earl Bostic, musician
- 1973 - Sergio Tofano, Italian
actor
- 1975 - Georges
Carpentier, boxer
- 1986 - John Braine, novelist
- 1987 - André Masson, French
artist
- 1996 - Morey Amsterdam,
actor and comedian
- 1998 - Ted Hughes, poet
- 2000 - Lída Baarová, Czech
actress
- 2000 - Carlos Guastavino, composer
- 2001 - Grigori Tschuchrai, movie director
- 2001 - Gerard Hengeveld, Dutch composer
- 2002 - Margaret Booth, film
editor
- 2002 - Erling Persson, entrepreneur (Hennes & Mauritz)
Holidays and observances
October 27 - October 29 -
November 28 - September
28 - more historical anniversaries
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