2024 Calendar

April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 247 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1950

357 – Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius.
1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem.
1220 – The foundation stone is laid for Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England.
1253 – Nichiren Buddhism is founded.
1503 – The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is the first battle won by small arms using gunpowder.
1611 - Founding of the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, the largest Roman Catholic university in the world.
1788 – Maryland becomes the 7th US State.
1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty by Fletcher Christian: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are cast adrift in a boat, reaching the island of Tofua on the same day, while Christian sails to Tonga.
1792 – The French Revolutionary Wars begin.
1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean Sea coast.
1869 – Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the first transcontinental railroad lay 10 miles of track in one day.
1877 - The Stamford Bridge stadium in London, is opened, for use as an athletics stadium, though it later becomes the home ground of Chelsea FC.
1885 - Buddhism: Ceylon's first Vesakh celebration is held. The international Buddhist flag is hoisted for the first time.
1902 – Manchester United F.C. comes into being, through a name change to avoid the bankruptcy of Newton Heath F.C.
1903 – An earthquake in Turkey kills 2,200 people.
1908 - World Esperanto Association is founded.
1910 - Frenchman Louis Paulham wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in England.
1920 – Azerbaijan is taken over by Soviet Russia.
1923 – London's Wembley Stadium is opened.
1930 – The first night game in baseball is held in Independence, Kansas.
1932 – A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
1944 – World War II: Nine German bombers attack US and UK units while they rehearsed for the Normandy landings. 946 people are killed.
1945 – World War II: Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed.
1945 - World War II: The city of Augsburg surrenders to US forces.
1947 – Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition of the Pacific Ocean begins in Callao, Peru. This is to prove his theory of Polynesia being settled from South America.
1948 – Igor Stravinsky conducts the first performance of his American ballet, Orpheus, in New York City.
1949 – Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon is assassinated.
1950 – Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit.

From 1951

1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
1952 – US occupation of Japan officially ends.
1952 – The Second Sino-Japanese War officially ends.
1965 - US troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall the establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate US troops.
1967 - Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) is stripped of his boxing titles, after saying that he would not join United States Military operations in Vietnam. The titles are later re-instated.
1969 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
1975 – South Vietnamese President Tran Van Huong resigns after a week in office, and flees, as the Vietnam War is in its final stages.
1977 – Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe are found guilty of murder.
1978 – President of Afghanistan Mohammed Daoud Khan is overthrown and killed by pro-Communist rebels.
1986 - United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to travel through the Suez Canal, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
1986 - The Soviet Union admits that there was a nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, after scientists in Finland and Sweden detected unusually high levels of radiation in the air.
1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death, when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
1994 – Former CIA counter-intelligence officer and analyst Adrian Ames pleads guilty to leaking US secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia.
1996 – In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people.
2001 – Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist.
2002 – The Green Party of Pakistan is formed.
2008 – A train collision in Shandong, China, kills 72 people, and injures 416.
2008 – Hong Kong Disneyland opens.
2010 - Then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown apologises after being recorded referring to a 66-year-old voter as a "bigoted woman" during the General Election campaign.
2013 - Enrico Letta becomes Prime Minister of Italy, after political deadlock following an inconclusive election two months earlier. At the same time, two police officers are injured in a shooting outside the Prime Minister's office.
2019 - Spain holds an early general election: The Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is the largest party on 29%; the far-right Vox party enters parliament for the first time.

Births

Up to 1900

32 – Marcus Salvius Otho, Roman Emperor (d. 69)
1402 – Nezahualcoyotl, ruler, philosopher and poet in Pre-Columbian Central America (d. 1472)
1442 – Edward IV of England (d. 1483)
1545 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean military leader and admiral (d. 1598)
1612 - Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1646)
1630 - Charles Cotton, English poet (d. 1687)
1652 – Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt, German composer (d. 1712)
1686 - Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor (d. 1721)
1715 - Frank Sparry, Austrian composer (d. 1767)
1753 - Frank Karl Achard, German naturalist (d. 1821)
1758 – James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
1761 - Marie Harel, French cheesemaker (d. 1844)
1765 - Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician (d. 1834)
1774 – Francis Baily, English astronomer (d. 1844)
1788 – Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect and archaeologist (d. 1863)
1795 – Charles Sturt, English explorer of Australia (d. 1861)
1819 - Ezra Abbot, American scholar (d. 1884)
1831 - Peter Tait, Scottish physicist (d. 1901)
1838 – Tobias Asser, Dutch jurist (d. 1913)
1842 – Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, Prince and Brazilian marshal (d. 1922)
1848 - Ludvig Schytte, Danish composer, pianist and teacher (d. 1909)
1868 – Lucy Booth, Indian songwriter and commander (d. 1953)
1868 - Georgy Voronoy, Russian mathematician (d. 1908)
1869 – C. C. Young, 26th Governor of California (d. 1947)
1874 - Karl Kraus, Austrian journalist and writer (d. 1936)
1876 – Nicola Romeo, Italian automobile engineer and entrepreneur (d. 1938)
1878 – Lionel Barrymore, American actor (d. 1954)
1886 - Art Shaw, American hurdler (d. 1955)
1888 – Walter Tull, English footballer (d. 1918)
1889 – Antonio Oliveira de Salazar, Portuguese political leader (d. 1970)
1891 - Charles Patton, American blues guitarist (d. 1934)
1896 - Na Hye-sok, Korean writer, painter, educator and journalist (d. 1948)
1897 – Ye Jianying, Chinese general and politician (d. 1986)
1898 – Grantley Herbert Adams, Barbadian politician (d. 1971)
1900 - Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer (d. 1992)

1901 – 1950

1901 - Henry Stallard, Belgian middle-distance runner (d. 1973)
1902 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian writer (d. 1979)
1906 – Kurt Gödel, Austrian mathematician (d. 1978)
1906 - Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)
1908 – Oskar Schindler, German industrialist and humanitarian (d. 1974)
1912 - Odette Sansom Hallowes, French resistance worker (d. 1945)
1916 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (d. 1993)
1919 - Wally Stanowski, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
1921 - Simin Daneshvar, Iranian writer and academic (d. 2012)
1923 - William Guarnere, American sergeant (d. 2014)
1924 - Dick Ayers, American comic book artist and cartoonist (d. 2014)
1924 - Donatas Banionis, Lithuanian actor (d. 2014)
1924 – Kenneth Kaunda, 1st President of Zambia
1924 - Blossom Dearie, American jazz singer and pianist (d. 2009)
1926 – Harper Lee, American writer and activist (d. 2016)
1928 – Eugene Shoemaker, American astronomer (d. 1997)
1928 - Yves Klein, French artist (d. 1962)
1930 – James Baker, 61st United States Secretary of State
1930 - Carolyn Jones, American actress (d. 1983)
1933 - Miodrag Radulovacki, Serbian-American scientist and inventor (d. 2014)
1934 - Lois Duncan, American actress (d. 2016)
1934 - Diane Johnson, American writer
1936 - Tariq Aziz, Iraqi politician (d. 2015)
1937 - Jean Redpath, Scottish singer (d. 2014)
1937 - John White, Scottish footballer (d. 1964)
1937 – Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (d. 2006)
1938 - Fred Dibnah, English steeplejack and television personality (d. 2004)
1941 - John Madejski, English businessman
1941 – Ann-Margret, Swedish actress
1941 – Karl Barry Sharpless, American chemist
1941 - Iryna Zhylenko, Ukrainian poet
1942 - Mike Brearley, English cricketer
1943 - Jacques Dutronc, French singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer and actor
1943 - Bob Siebert, American jazz musician and composer
1943 - Yoav Talmi, Israeli conductor and composer
1943 - Jeffrey Tate, English musical director and conductor
1944 - Günter Verheugen, German politician
1944 - Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberge, Belgian politician in Wallonia
1946 - Nour El-Sherif, Egyptian actor (d. 2015)
1947 - Nicola LeFanu, English composer and academic
1948 – Terry Pratchett, English writer (d. 2015)
1948 - Marcia Strassman, American actress (d. 2014)
1949 – Paul Guilfoyle, American actor
1949 – Bruno Kirby, American actor (d. 2006)
1950 – Jay Leno, American comedian and showmaster
1950 - Steve Rider, English sports broadcaster

1951 – 1975

1952 - Chuck Leavell, American keyboardist
1952 - Mary McDonnell, American actress
1953 – Kim Gordon, American singer
1954 - Jimmy Barnes, Australian singer
1954 - Tom McCabe, Scottish politician (d. 2015)
1954 - Mary Jo Randle, English actress
1958 – Kenny MacAskill, Scottish politician
1959 – Erhard Loretan, Swiss mountaineer (d. 2011)
1960 – Ian Rankin, Scottish crime fiction writer
1960 - Elena Kagan, United States Supreme Court Justice
1960 – Walter Zenga, Italian footballer
1960 – Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Icelandic strength athlete (d. 1993)
1961 - Anna Oxa, Italian singer
1964 - L'Wren Scott, American fashion designer and model (d. 2014)
1964 - Stephen Ames, Canadian golfer
1966 – Ali-Reza Pahlavi, Iranian royal (d. 2011)
1966 – John Daly, American golfer
1966 – Too Short, American rapper, producer and actor
1968 – Howard Donald, English singer, musician and producer (Take That)
1968 – Andy Flower, Zimbabwean cricketer
1970 – Diego Simeone, Argentine footballer
1971 - Bridget Moynahan, American actress
1972 - Anita Anand, English television and radio journalist
1972 – Joseph Bruce, American actor, rapper, producer and wrestler
1973 – Pauleta, Portuguese footballer
1973 - Ian Murdock, American software engineer (d. 2015)
1973 – Jorge Garcia, American actor
1974 – Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress
1974 – Vernon Kay, British radio and television presenter
1974 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player (d. 2011)

From 1976

1977 - Thorstein Helstad, Norwegian footballer
1978 – Lauren Laverne, British radio and television presenter
1980 - Josh Howard, American basketball player
1980 - Bradley Wiggins, British cyclist
1981 – Jessica Alba, American actress
1981 - Pietro Travagli, Italian rugby player
1981 - Ilary Blasi, Italian actress and model
1981 - Alex Riley, American wrestler
1982 – Nikki Grahame, English television personality
1982 - Harry Shum, Jr., Costa Rican actor and dancer
1983 – Roger Johnson, English footballer
1984 - Dmitri Torbinski, Russian footballer
1985 - Lukas Jakubczyk, German sprinter and long jumper
1985 - Louise Pentland, English vlogger, blogger, YouTuber and writer
1986 - Roman Polak, Czech ice hockey player
1986 – Jennifer Palm Lundberg, Swedish model
1986 - Jenna Ushkowitz, Korean-American actress
1987 - Zoran Tosic, Serbian footballer
1987 - Daequan Cook, American basketball player
1988 – Juan Mata, Spanish footballer
1988 - Spencer Hawes, American basketball player
1989 - Kim Sung-kyu, South Korean singer and actress
1991 - Jordan Robinson, English footballer
1994 - Izzy Bizu, English singer
1995 - Melanie Martinez, American singer and songwriter

Deaths

Up to 1900

1074 – Sweyn II of Denmark (b. 1019)
1192 – Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem
1489 – Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, English politician
1530 - Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I, Swiss polymath (b. 1484)
1695 - Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet (b. 1621)
1716 - Louis de Montfort, French priest and saint (b. 1673)
1721 - Mary Reid, English pirate (b. 1685)
1741 - Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general and statesman (b. 1668)
1772 – Johann Christian Struensee, physician (b. 1737)
1781 – Cornelius Harnett, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1723)
1799 - Matthew Griswold, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1714)
1802 - Richard Howell, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1754)
1813 - Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (b. 1745)
1851 - Edward Codrington, English admiral (b. 1770)
1853 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773)
1865 – Samuel Cunard, Canadian-British shipping magnate (b. 1787)
1881 - Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon, French sculptor and photographer (b. 1818)
1883 – Jack Russell, English parson, hunter and dog breeder (b. 1795)
1885 - Conrad Baker, Governor of Indiana (b. 1817)

1901 – 2000

1905 - Fitzhugh Lee, American politician, 40th Governor of Virginia (b. 1835)
1909 - Frederick Holbrook, Governor of Vermont (b. 1813)
1918 – Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian-Serb assassin (b. 1894)
1934 - Charley Patton, American blues musician (b. 1891)
1936 – King Fuad I of Egypt (b. 1868)
1944 – Frank Knox, American politician (b. 1874)
1945 – Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascist dictator (b. 1883)
1945 – Clara Petacci, Italian mistress to Benito Mussolini (b. 1912)
1946 - Louis Bachelier, French mathematician (b. 1875)
1949 – Aurora Quezon, First Lady of the Philippines (b. 1888)
1954 – Leon Jouhaux, French Labor leader (b. 1879)
1964 – Milton Margai, 1st Prime Minister of Sierra Leone (b. 1895)
1970 – Ed Begley, American actor (b. 1901)
1973 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (b. 1882)
1973 – Clas Thunberg, Finnish speed skater (b. 1893)
1976 - Richard Hughes, American writer (b. 1900)
1977 – Sepp Herberger, German footballer and coach (b. 1897)
1978 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (b. 1909)
1981 - Steve Currie, American musician (b. 1947)
1992 – Francis Bacon, Irish painter (b. 1909)
1992 – Iceberg Slim, American writer (b. 1918)
1993 - Jim Valvano, American basketball player, coach and broadcaster (b. 1946)
1998 - Jerome Bixby, American writer and screenwriter (b. 1923)
1999 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist (b. 1921)
2000 – Penelope Fitzgerald, English writer (b. 1916)
2000 - Jerzy Einhorn, Polish-Swedish physician, researcher and politician (b. 1925)

From 2001

2002 – Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician (b. 1950)
2005 – Chris Candido, American professional wrestler (b. 1972)
2007 - Dabbs Greer, American actor (b. 1917)
2007 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker, German physicist and philosopher (b. 1912)
2009 – Ekaterina Maximova, Russian ballerina (b. 1939)
2011 – Erhard Loretan, Swiss mountaineer (b. 1959)
2012 – Matilde Camus, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1919)
2013 - Janos Starker, Hungarian-American cellist (b. 1924)
2014 - Ryan Tandy, Australian rugby league player (b. 1981)
2014 - Jack Ramsay, American basketball coach (b. 1925)
2014 - Edgar Laprade, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
2014 - Dennis Kamakahi, American musician (b. 1953)
2014 - Idris Sardi, Indonesian violinist and composer (b. 1938)
2015 - Ashura Hara, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1947)
2015 - Keith Harris, English ventriloquist (b. 1947)
2015 - Xu Guangxian, Chinese chemist (b. 1920)
2015 - Deng Minghe, Chinese actor (b. 2006)
2015 - Michael J. Ingelido, American air force general (b. 1916)
2015 - René Féret, French actor and director (b. 1945)
2015 - Duri Camichel, Swiss ice hockey player (b. 1982)
2015 - Jack Ely, American singer (b. 1943)
2016 - Georg Kronawitter, German politician (b. 1928)
2016 - Edward Ashmore, British naval officer (b. 1919)
2016 - Conrad Burns, American politician (b. 1934)
2016 - Jenny Diski, English writer (b. 1947)
2016 - Igor Fesunenko, Russian journalist (b. 1933)
2016 - René Hausman, Belgian writer and artist (b. 1936)
2016 - Barry Howard, English actor (b. 1937)
2016 - Ingram Olkin, American professor of statistics (b. 1924)
2017 - Vito Acconci, American artist and architectural designer (b. 1940)
2017 - Brazo de Oro, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1959)
2017 - Janelle Kirtley, American water skier (b. 1943)
2017 - John Shifflett, American jazz musician (b. 1953)
2017 - Chad Young, American cyclist (b. 1995)
2018 - James H. Cone, American theologian (b. 1936)
2018 - Alfie Evans, British child in parental rights case (b. 2016)
2018 - Larry Harvey, American artist, philanthropist and activist (b. 1948)
2018 - Art Paul, American graphic designer (b. 1925)
2018 - Agildo Ribeiro, Brazilian actor (b. 1932)
2018 - Art Shay, American photographer (b. 1922)
2018 - Karl Toft, Canadian sex offender (b. 1936)
2018 - Eric Koch, German-Canadian writer, broadcaster and academic (b. 1919)
2019 - Sylvia Bretschneider, German politician (b. 1960)
2019 - Wayson Choy, Canadian writer (b. 1939)
2019 - Damon Keith, American judge (b. 1922)
2019 - Jo Sullivan Loesser, American actress (b. 1927)
2019 - Richard Lugar, American politician, United States Senator for Indiana (b. 1932)
2019 - Karol Modzelewski, Polish historian, writer, politician and academic (b. 1937)
2019 - Menachem Mandel Taub, Israeli concentration camp survivor (b. 1923)

Observances

Workers Memorial Day
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
National Heroes Day (Barbados)
National Day (Sardinia)