August 28

August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.

Events

• 475 – The German general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints Romulus Augustus in his place.
• Sunday, August 28, 489 – Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
• Sunday, August 21, 1521 – The Turks occupy Belgrade
• Saturday, August 28, 1565 – St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
• Friday, August 28, 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
• Wednesday, August 28, 1619 – Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1830 – The Tom Thumb starts the first railway service in the United States.
• 1833 – Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
• 1845 – Scientific American magazine publishes first issue
• 1849 – After a siege of over one month, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
• 1850 – Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres.
• 1862 – Second Battle of Bull Run- also known as the battle of Second Manassas
• 1867 – The United States occupies Midway Island.
• 1879 – Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
• 1884 – First known photograph of a tornado is made.
• 1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
• 1914 – The British fleet beats the German fleet in the so-called Battle of Heligoland Bight (actually a comparatively minor engagement).
• 1916 – Germany declares war on Romania.
• 1916 – Italy declares war on Germany.
• 1917 – Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
• 1937 – Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
• 1943 – In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
• 1944 – Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
• 1955 – Black Mississippi boy Emmett Till is murdered for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
• 1963 – During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
• 1968 – Riots in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention
• 1972 – During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
• 1975 – Missionary Armand Doll is imprisoned in Mozambique by Marxist extremists.
• 1979 – An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.
• 1981 – The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
• 1986 – Stage of siege declared in Bolivia.
• 1986 – US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
• 1988 – At an air show in Ramstein, West Germany, three stunt fighters collide; 69 people die.
• 1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.
• 1990  – The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hit in Plainfield, Illinois and Joliet, Illinois killing 28 people.
• 1993 – A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
• 1993 – 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
• 1993 – Ong Teng Cheong elected president of Singapore
• 1994 – First gay pride march in Japan.
• 1995 – A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The NATO action against Bosnian Serbs was a reaction to this incident.
• 1996 – Britain's Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced.
• 1998 – Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill was defeated in the Senate.
• 2001 – Dutch prime minister Wim Kok announces that he will not be available for another term as PvdA party leader or prime minister after the 2002 elections.

Births

• 1025 – Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (d. 1068)
• 1749 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (d. 1832)
• 1774 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, first American-born Catholic saint (d. 1821)
• 1786 – Pavloec, author
• 1814 – Sheridan le Fanu, Irish writer (d. 1873)
• 1828 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1910)
• 1849 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (d. 1895)
• 1894 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)
• 1897 – Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
• 1903 – Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist (d. 1990)
• 1904 – Secondo Campini, Italian jet engine pioneer (d. 1980)
• 1906 – John Betjeman, poet (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Roger Tory Peterson, ornithologist and illustrator
• 1911 – Joseph Luns, Dutch politician (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Robertson Davies, Canadian writer (d. 1995)
• 1913 – Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)
• 1917 – Jack Kirby, comic book artist (d. 1994)
• 1924 – Janet Frame, author
• 1925 – Donald O'Connor, singer and dancer, actor
• 1929 – Istvan Kertesz, Hungarian conductor (d. 1973)
• 1930 – Ben Gazzara, actor
• 1931 – John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
• 1938 – Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television journalist
• 1943 – David Soul, actor
• 1943 – Lou Piniella, baseball manager
• 1947 – Liza Wang, actress
• 1951 – Benji Durden, runner
• 1957 – Daniel Stern, actor
• 1958 – Scott Hamilton, figure skater
• 1960 – Emma Samms, actress
• 1961 – Kim Appleby, singer (Mel & Kim)
• 1965 – Shania Twain, singer
• 1968 – Billy Boyd, Scottish actor
• 1969 – Jason Priestley, actor
• 1971 – Janet Evans, swimmer
• 1979 – Robert Hoyzer, disgraced German football referee
• 1980 – Eric Schomburg, author
• 1981 – Martin Erat, hockey player
• 1980 – Debra Lafave, teacher
• 1982 – LeAnn Rimes, singer

Deaths

• 430 – Augustine of Hippo, saint and theologian (b. 354)
• 1481 – Afonso V, king of Portugal (b. 1432)
• 1784 – Blessed Junípero Serra, Franciscan friar and missionary (b. 1713).
• 1818 – Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, founder of Chicago
• 1839 – William Smith, geologist (b. 1769)
• 1900 – Henry Sidgwick, philosopher (b. 1838)
• 1903 – Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect (b. 1822)
• 1919 – Louis Botha, Boer leader (b. 1862)
• 1943 – King Boris III of Bulgaria (b. 1894)
• 1959 – Bohuslav Martinu, composer (b. 1890)
• 1965 – Giulio Racah, physicist (b. 1909)
• 1985 – Ruth Gordon, actress (b. 1896)
• 1987 – John Huston, movie director (b. 1906)
• 1990 – Willy Vandersteen, cartoonist (b. 1913)
• 1993 – William Stafford, poet and essayist (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Michael Ende, writer (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

• Hong Kong: Liberation Day (1945)
• Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.
• Software Freedom Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

August 27 – August 29 – July 28 – September 28 — listing of all days