October 28

Events

• 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor.
• 312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine the Great defeats the forces of Maxentius. Roman emperor Constantine converts himself and the empire to Christianity.
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.
• 1516 - Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
• 1776 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains - British forces arrive at White Plains, attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Americans.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
• 1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.
• 1886 - In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.
• 1918 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary.
• 1918 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe).
• 1919 - Prohibition begins: The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
• 1922 - March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government with the assistance of the Catholic Church; pope Pius XI declares that "Mussolini is a man sent by divine providence."
• 1936 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
• 1940 - World War II: Italy invades Greece.
• 1942 - The Alaska Highway is completed.
• 1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.
• 1949 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1950 - The Jack Benny Show, starring Jack Benny, premiers (it ran for 15 years).
• 1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII.
• 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
• 1965 - French foreign minister Couve de Murville travels to Moscow.
• 1965 - Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's declaration from 760 years ago. In short, Pope Paul VI announces that ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ.
• 1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic (catenarian) steel Gateway Arch is completed.
• 1970 - land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue Flame
• 1976 - John D. Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security facility in southeastern Arizona.
• 1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
• 1986 - Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the murder of his parents, sister and twin nephews and is given five life sentences.
• 1988 - Abortion: 48 hours after announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it would resume distribution of the drug, bowing to pressure from the government of France.
• 1998 - An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan. After landing the plane safely, Yuan Bin was arrested.
  

  Births

• 1510 - St. Francis Borgia, Spanish duke and Jesuit priest (d. 1572)
• 1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croat geographer (d. 1793)
• 1793 - Eliphalet Remington, firearm manufacturer (d. 1861)
• 1804 - Pierre François Verhulst
• 1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef
• 1875 - Gilbert Grosvenor
• 1879 - E.M. Forster, novelist (d. 1970)
• 1892 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (d. 1954)
• 1896 - Howard Hanson, composer (d. 1981)
• 1902 - Elsa Lanchester, actress (d. 1986)
• 1903 - Evelyn Waugh, comic, satirical and tragic novelist (d. 1966)
• 1907 - Edith Head, costumer (d. 1981)
• 1909 - Francis Bacon, painter
• 1912 - Richard Doll, epidemiologist
• 1914 - Dr. Jonas Salk, medical scientist, discoverer/inventor of polio vaccine (d. 1995)
• 1915 - Paul Jarrico, screenwriter (d. 1997)
• 1916 - Jack Soo, actor (d. 1979)
• 1922 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwean politician (d. 2003)
• 1930 - Bernie Ecclestone, Formula 1 racing tycoon
• 1932 - Suzy Parker, actress
• 1937 - Charlie Daniels, musician
• 1938 - Anne Perry, novelist
• 1939 - Jane Alexander, actress
• 1944 - Dennis Franz, actor
• 1945 - Wayne Fontana, musician
• 1948 - Telma Hopkins, singer
• 1949 - Bruce Jenner, athlete
• 1955 - Bill Gates, software tycoon, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft
• 1964 - Paul Wylie, figure skating champion
• 1966 - Steve Atwater, American football player
• 1967 - Julia Roberts, actress
• 1967 - John Romero
• 1972 - Terrell Davis, American football player
• 1974 - Joaquin Phoenix, actor
• 1981 - Milan Baros, Czech soccer player
  

  Deaths

• 1412 - Margaret I of Denmark
• 1485 - Rodolphus Agricola, Dutch scholar and humanist
• 1520 - Pier Gerlofs Donia, pirate and freedom fighter
• 1661 - Agustín Moreto y Cavana, dramatist and playwright
• 1676 - Jean Desmarets, French dramatist
• 1703 - John Wallis, mathematician
• 1704 - John Locke, philosopher
• 1708 - Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne
• 1740 - Anna of Russia
• 1754 - Friedrich von Hagedorn, poet
• 1794 - John Smeaton, civil engineer
• 1800 - Artemas Ward, politician and soldier
• 1806 - Charlotte Turner Smith, poet and novelist
• 1818 - Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States
• 1841 - Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist
• 1857 - Louis Eugène Cavaignac, French soldier and politician
• 1877 - Robert Swinhoe, naturalist
• 1879 - Marie Roch Louis Reybaud, writer
• 1897 - Hercules Robinson, colonial administrator
• 1899 - Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor
• 1900 - Max Müller, orientalist
• 1916 - Oswald Boelcke, pilot
• 1916 - Cleveland Abbe, U.S. meteorologist (b. 1838)
• 1917 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.
• 1918 - Ulisse Dini, mathematician
• 1929 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany
• 1952 - Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia
• 1957 - Ernst Gräfenberg, physican and scientist
• 1959 - Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary
• 1965 - Earl Bostic, musician
• 1973 - Sergio Tofano, Italian actor
• 1975 - Georges Carpentier, boxer
• 1986 - John Braine, novelist
• 1987 - André Masson, French artist
• 1996 - Morey Amsterdam, actor and comedian
• 1998 - Ted Hughes, poet
• 2000 - Lída Baarová, Czech actress
• 2000 - Carlos Guastavino, composer
• 2001 - Grigori Tschuchrai, movie director
• 2001 - Gerard Hengeveld, Dutch composer
• 2002 - Margaret Booth, film editor
• 2002 - Erling Persson, entrepreneur (Hennes & Mauritz)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Feast day of Saint Jude the Thaddaeus
• Feast day of Saint Simon the Canaanite
• Greece - Oxi (No) Day
• Czech Republic - Independence Day (Founding Day)

External links