April 28
Events
Pre-1600
- 224 - The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V, effectively ending the Parthian Empire.
- 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, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
- 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.
- 1294 - Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols with the reigning title Oljeitu.
- 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.
1601–1900
- 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.
- 1625 - A combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet of 52 ships commences the recapture of Bahia from the Dutch during the Dutch–Portuguese War.
- 1758 - The Marathas defeat the Afghans in the Battle of Attock and capture the city.
- 1788 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1789 - Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift, and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly before setting sail for Pitcairn Island.
- 1792 - France invades the Austrian Netherlands, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars.
- 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.
- 1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
- 1858 - The Bawani Imli massacre, where 52 Indian freedom fighters were hanged to death on a tamarind tree by British colonial forces.
- 1859 - The sailing clipper ship Pomona wrecked on the coast of Ireland with the loss of 424 of the 448 passengers and crew aboard.
- 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.
- 1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
- 1887 - A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé is released on order of William I, German Emperor, defusing a possible war.
1901–present
- 1910 - Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in the United Kingdom.
- 1920 - The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic is founded.
- 1923 - Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium.
- 1930 - The Independence Producers host the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas.
- 1937 - South African medical researcher Max Theiler develops the yellow fever vaccine at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City.
- 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.
- 1944 - World War II: Nine German E-boats attack US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.
- 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.
- 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
- 1948 - Igor Stravinsky conducts the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1952 - The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- 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.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license.
- 1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to take part in the Cambodian campaign.
- 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.
- 1975 - General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closes in on victory.
- 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.
- 1978 - The President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
- 1983 - The West German news magazine Stern begins publishing excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1991 - Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of Defense.
- 1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
- 1996 - Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4 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.
- 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.
Births
Pre-1600
- AD 32 - Otho, Roman emperor
- 1402 - Nezahualcoyotl, Acolhuan philosopher, warrior, poet and ruler
- 1442 - Edward IV, king of England
- 1545 - Yi Sun-sin, Korean commander
- 1573 - Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême, son of Charles IX
1601–1900
- 1604 - Joris Jansen Rapelje, Dutch settler in colonial North America
- 1623 - Wilhelmus Beekman, Dutch politician
- 1630 - Charles Cotton, English poet and author
- 1676 - Frederick I, prince consort and king of Sweden
- 1715 - Franz Sparry, Austrian composer and educator
- 1758 - James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States
- 1761 - Marie Harel, French cheesemaker
- 1765 - Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician and academic
- 1819 - Ezra Abbot, American scholar and academic
- 1827 - William Hall, Canadian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient
- 1838 - Tobias Asser, Dutch lawyer and scholar, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1848 - Ludvig Schytte, Danish pianist, composer, and educator
- 1854 - Hertha Marks Ayrton, Polish-British engineer, mathematician, and physicist.
- 1855 - José Malhoa, Portuguese painter
- 1863 - Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician, 7th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1863 - Nikolai von Meck, Russian engineer
- 1865 - Charles W. Woodworth, American entomologist and academic
- 1868 - Lucy Booth, English composer
- 1868 - Georgy Voronoy, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and academic
- 1874 - Karl Kraus, Austrian journalist and author
- 1874 - Sidney Toler, American actor and director
- 1876 - Nicola Romeo, Italian engineer and businessman
- 1878 - Lionel Barrymore, American actor and director
- 1886 - Erich Salomon, German-born news photographer
- 1886 - Art Shaw, American hurdler
- 1888 - Walter Tull, English footballer and soldier
- 1889 - António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese economist and politician, 100th Prime Minister of Portugal
- 1896 - Na Hye-sok, South Korean journalist, poet, and painter
- 1896 - Tristan Tzara, Romanian-French poet and critic
- 1897 - Ye Jianying, Chinese general and politician, Head of State of the People's Republic of China
- 1900 - Alice Berry, Australian activist
- 1900 - Heinrich Müller, German SS officer
- 1900 - Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer and academic