August 28

Historic Events

2022

Phoenix shooting: A man opens fire on pedestrians outside of a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, resulting in the deaths of three people, including the perpetrator. ›

2017

China–India border standoff: China and India both pull their troops out of Doklam, putting an end to a two-month-long stalemate over China's construction of a road in disputed territory. ›

2016

The first experimental mission of ISRO's Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. ›

2009

NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-128. ›

2003

In "one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI", Brian Wells dies after becoming involved in a complex plot involving a bank robbery, a scavenger hunt, and a homemade explosive device. ›

1999

The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life. ›

1998

Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate. ›

1998

Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa. ›

1996

Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention. ›

1993

NASA's Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl. ›

1993

Singaporean presidential election: Former Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong is elected President of Singapore. Although it is the first presidential election to be determined by popular vote, the allowed candidates consist only of Ong and a reluctant whom the government had asked to run to confer upon the election the semblance of an opposition. ›

1993

The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia in Bosnia and Herzegovina is transformed into the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. ›

1993

A Tajikistan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes during takeoff from Khorog Airport in Tajikistan, killing 82. ›

1990

Gulf War: Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province. ›

1990

An F5 tornado strikes the Illinois cities of Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people. ›

1988

Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy are killed and 346 seriously injured. ›

1973

Norrmalmstorg robbery: Stockholm police secure the surrenders of hostage-takers Jan-Erik Olsson and Clark Olofsson, defusing the Norrmalmstorg hostage crisis. The behaviours of the hostages later give rise to the term Stockholm syndrome. ›

1968

Police and protesters clash during 1968 Democratic National Convention protests as protesters chant "The whole world is watching". ›

1964

The Philadelphia race riot begins. ›

1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech. ›

1957

U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the United States Senate from voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later. This would remain the longest speech ever conducted by a single Senator until Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and five minutes, beginning on March 31, 2025. ›

1955

Black teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement. ›

1946

The Workers' Party of North Korea, predecessor of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is founded at a congress held in Pyongyang, North Korea. ›

1944

World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated. ›

1943

Denmark in World War II: German authorities demand that Danish authorities crack down on acts of resistance. The next day, martial law is imposed on Denmark. ›

1937

Toyota Motors becomes an independent company. ›

1936

Nazi Germany begins its mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses, who are interned in concentration camps. ›

1924

The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union. ›

1921

Russian Civil War: The Red Army dissolves the Makhnovshchina after driving the Revolutionary Insurgent Army out of Ukraine. ›

1917

Ten suffragists, members of the Silent Sentinels, are arrested while picketing the White House in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. ›

1916

World War I: Germany declares war on Romania. ›

1916

World War I: Italy declares war on Germany. ›

1914

World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight. ›

1913

Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague. ›

1909

A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms. ›

1901

Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. It is the first American private school in the country. ›

1898

Caleb Bradham's beverage "Brad's Drink" is renamed "Pepsi-Cola". ›

1890

The strongest storm in Finnish history kills at least three people. ›

1879

Anglo-Zulu War: Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British. ›

1867

The United States takes possession of the (at this point unoccupied) Midway Atoll. ›

1862

American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas, begins in Virginia. The battle ends on August 30 with another Union defeat. ›

1861

American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days. ›

1859

The Carrington event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record to strike the Earth. Electrical telegraph service is widely disrupted. ›

1850

Richard Wagner's Lohengrin premieres at the Staatskapelle Weimar. ›

1849

Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire: After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria. ›

1845

The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published. ›

1833

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal in the British Empire with exceptions. ›

1830

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in U.S. railroads. ›

1810

Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy accepts the surrender of a British Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Grand Port. ›

1789

William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus. ›

1709

Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur. ›

1648

Second English Civil War: The Siege of Colchester ends when Royalist Forces surrender to the Parliamentary Forces after eleven weeks. ›

1640

Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn. ›

1619

Election of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. ›

1609

Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay. ›

1565

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sights land near St. Augustine, Florida and founds the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States. ›

1542

Turkish–Portuguese War: Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed. ›

1524

The Kaqchikel Maya rebel against their former Spanish allies during the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. ›

1521

Ottoman wars in Europe: The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade. ›

1290

The second treaty of Birgham is ratified in which Margaret, Maid of Norway and granddaughter of king Alexander III of Scotland is to marry the English prince Edward of Caernarfon. ›

1189

Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan. ›

663

Silla–Tang armies crush the Baekje restoration attempt and force Yamato Japan to withdraw from Korea in the Battle of Baekgang. ›

632

Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies, with her cause of death being a controversial topic among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. ›

489

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy. ›

475

The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna. ›