October 28Birthdays & History

On this day: October 28 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 97Roman emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.Europe
2. 306Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor.Europe
3. 312Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West.Europe
4. 969The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule.EuropeMiddle East
5. 1344The lower town of Smyrna is captured by Latin Christians in response to Aydınid piracy during the Smyrniote crusades.Middle EastEurope
6. 1420Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed.Asia
7. 1449Christian I is crowned king of Denmark.Europe
8. 1453Ladislaus the Posthumous is crowned king of Bohemia in Prague.Europe
9. 1492Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan.Latin AmericaAsia
10. 1516Second Ottoman–Mamluk War: Mamluks fail to stop the Ottoman advance towards Egypt at the Battle of Yaunis Khan.Middle East
11. 1520Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean.Latin America
12. 1531Abyssinian–Adal war: The Adal Sultanate seizes southern Ethiopia.Africa
13. 1538The Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino is founded in what is now the Dominican Republic.Latin America
14. 1628French Wars of Religion: The Siege of La Rochelle ends with the surrender of the Huguenots after fourteen months.Europe
15. 1636The Massachusetts Bay Colony votes to establish a theological college, which would later become Harvard University.North America
16. 1640The Treaty of Ripon is signed, ending the hostilities of the Second Bishops' War.Europe
17. 1664The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.Europe
18. 1707The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Japan.Asia
19. 1726The novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift is published.Europe
20. 1746The 1746 Lima–Callao earthquake causes up to 6,000 deaths in Peru, the deadliest in its history up to that point.Latin America
21. 1776American Revolutionary War: British troops under General William Howe attack General George Washington's Continental Army and capture Chatterton Hill in the Battle of White Plains during the New York and New Jersey campaign.North AmericaEurope
22. 1834The Pinjarra massacre occurs in the Swan River Colony. An estimated 30 Noongar people are killed by British colonists.Europe
23. 1835The United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence.Oceania
24. 1864American Civil War: A Union attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond is repulsed.North America
25. 1886US president Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.North America
26. 1891The Mino–Owari earthquake, the largest inland earthquake in Japan's history, occurs.Asia
27. 1893Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique receives its première performance only nine days before the composer's death.Europe
28. 1918World War I: Czech politicians peacefully take over the city of Prague, thus establishing the First Czechoslovak Republic.Europe
29. 1918World War I: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War.Europe
30. 1919The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.North America
31. 1922Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.Europe
32. 1928Indonesia Raya, now the national anthem of Indonesia, is first played during the Second Indonesian Youth Congress.AsiaNorth America
33. 1940World War II: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania a few hours later.Europe
34. 1942The Alaska Highway first connects Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada.North America
35. 1948Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania.North America
36. 1948Paul Hermann Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.Europe
37. 1949An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board.Europe
38. 1954Aeroflot Flight 136 crashes near Krasnoyarsk, killing 19.Europe
39. 1956Hungarian Revolution: A de facto ceasefire comes into effect between armed revolutionaries and Soviet troops, who begin to withdraw from Budapest. Communist officials and facilities come under attack by revolutionaries.Europe
40. 1958John XXIII is elected Pope.Europe
41. 1962The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.Latin AmericaEurope
42. 1965Pope Paul VI promulgates Nostra aetate, by which the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the legitimacy of non-Christian faiths.Europe
43. 1971Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.Europe
44. 1982The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.Europe
45. 1989Aloha Island Air Flight 1712, a Twin Otter 300, crashed into terrain at night in Hawaii killing all 20 occupants onboard.North America
46. 1990Georgia holds its only free election under Soviet rule.Europe
47. 1995The Baku Metro fire sees 289 people killed and 270 injured.Europe
48. 2006A funeral service takes place at the Bykivnia graves for Ukrainians who were killed by the Soviet secret police.Europe
49. 2007Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.Latin America
50. 2009The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213.Asia
51. 2009US President Barack Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.North America
52. 2009NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program.North America
53. 2013Five people are killed and 38 are injured after a car crashes into barriers at Tiananmen Square in China.Asia
54. 2014A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.North America
55. 2018Jair Bolsonaro is elected president of Brazil with 57 million votes, with Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad as the runner-up. It is the first time in 16 years that a Workers' Party candidate is not elected president.Latin America
56. 2023The 2023 Rugby World Cup final is held at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. It saw South Africa defeat New Zealand 12 to 11, claiming their fourth Webb Ellis Cup, becoming the first nation to do so.EuropeAfricaOceania
57. 2025Hurricane Melissa makes landfall near Black River, Jamaica, killing over 30 people, as well as tying the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the most intense landfall in the North Atlantic.Latin America

Source: Wikipedia "October 28" / CC BY-SA 4.0