April 28

Historic Events

2004

CBS News releases evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over Iraqi detainees. ›

1996

Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 41⁄2 hour videotaped testimony for the defense. ›

1996

Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others. ›

1994

Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia. ›

1991

Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of Defense. ›

1988

Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." 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. ›

1986

High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident. ›

1983

The West German news magazine Stern begins publishing excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries. ›

1978

The President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels. ›

1977

The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder. ›

1975

General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closes in on victory. ›

1973

The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded in Abbey Road Studios goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run. ›

1970

Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to take part in the Cambodian campaign. ›

1969

Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France. ›

1967

Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license. ›

1965

United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate US Army troops. ›

1952

Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in order to campaign in the 1952 United States presidential election. ›

1952

The Treaty of San Francisco comes into effect, restoring Japanese sovereignty and ending its state of war with most of the Allies of World War II. ›

1949

The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed. ›

1948

Igor Stravinsky conducts the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center. ›

1947

Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia. ›

1945

Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement. ›

1945

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communist leaders in Mauthausen concentration camp. ›

1944

World War II: Nine German E-boats attack US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946. ›

1941

The Ustaše massacre nearly 200 Serbs in the village of Gudovac, the first massacre of their genocidal campaign against Serbs of the Independent State of Croatia. ›

1937

South African medical researcher Max Theiler develops the yellow fever vaccine at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. ›

1930

The Independence Producers host the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas. ›

1923

Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium. ›

1920

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic is founded. ›

1910

Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in the United Kingdom. ›

1887

A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé is released on order of Wilhelm I, German Emperor, defusing a possible war. ›

1881

Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico. ›

1869

Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the first transcontinental railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched. ›

1859

The sailing clipper ship Pomona is wrecked on the coast of Ireland with the loss of 424 of the 448 passengers and crew aboard. ›

1858

The Bawani Imli massacre, where 52 Indian freedom fighters are hanged to death on a tamarind tree by British colonial forces. ›

1796

The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast. ›

1794

Sardinians, headed by Giovanni Maria Angioy, start a revolution against the Savoy domination, expelling Viceroy Balbiano and his officials from Cagliari, the capital and largest city of the island. ›

1792

France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium and Luxembourg), beginning the French Revolutionary Wars. ›

1789

The Mutiny on the Bounty occurs, with the ship's captain, Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors, set adrift, and the rebel crew setting sail for Tahiti. Eventually the majority of rebels sail for Pitcairn Island. ›

1788

Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution. ›

1758

The Marathas defeat the Afghans in the Battle of Attock and capture the city. ›

1738

Pope Clement XII issues the first papal condemnation of Freemasonry and formally prohibits Catholics from becoming Freemasons. ›

1625

A combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet of 52 ships commences the recapture of Bahia from the Dutch during the Dutch–Portuguese War. ›

1611

Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, the Catholic University of the Philippines and the largest Catholic university in the world. ›

1503

The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder. ›

1294

Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols with the reigning title Oljeitu. ›

1253

Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism. ›

1192

Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin. ›

357

Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius. ›

224

The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V, effectively ending the Parthian Empire. ›