August 28

is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.

Events

475 - The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints his own son Romulus Augustus in his place.
489 - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
888 - Today was the last day until February 2 2000 that all of the digits in the date were even.
1521 - The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade
1542 - Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp in the Battle of Wofla. The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1830 - The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States.
1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue
1849 - After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
1850 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres in Weimar, Germany.
1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas
1867 - The United States occupies Midway Island.
1879 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
1884 - First known photograph of a tornado is made.
1898 - Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
1907 - UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
1918 - PFC Spartak Varna founded.
1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
1944 - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
1953 - Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
1955 - Black Mississippian Emmett Till is murdered, allegedly for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
1964 - The Philadelphia race riot began.
1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention
1971 - The dollar is allowed to float against the yen for the first time.
1972 - During the Olympic Games in Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
1975 - Missionary Armand Doll is imprisoned in Mozambique by Marxist extremists.
1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.
1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
1986 - Stage of siege declared in Bolivia.
1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
1988 - At an air show in Ramstein, West Germany, three stunt fighters collide; 69 people die.
1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
1991 - A drunk motorman speeds into the Union Square station on the No. 4 line in New York City. The train derails on the curve, killing six passengers and injuring dozens.
1993 - A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
1993 - 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
1994 - First Japanese gay pride march.
1995 - A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
1996 - Britain's Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, are divorced.
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.
2005 - A mandatory evacuation is ordered by New Orleans, Louisiana mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco as Hurricane Katrina moved nearer to Louisiana.

Births

1025 - Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (d. 1068)
1582 (O.S.) - Taichang Emperor, of the Ming dynasty of China (d. 1620)
1592 - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (d. 1628)
1612 - Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (d. 1653)
1714 - Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1774)
1749 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (d. 1832)
1774 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, American-born Catholic saint (d. 1821)
1814 - Sheridan le Fanu, Irish writer (d. 1873)
1828 (O.S.) - Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1910)
1840 - Alexander Cameron Sim, Scottish merchant in Japan
1849 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (d. 1895)
1853 - Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer and inventor (d. 1939)
1867 - Umberto Giordano, Italian composer (d. 1948)
1878 - George Whipple, American scientist, and Nobel laureate (d. 1976)
1894 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)
1894 - Elisha Scott, footballer (d. 1959)
1899 - Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
1903 - Bruno Bettelheim, American psychologist (d. 1990)
1904 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet engine pioneer (d. 1980)
1906 - John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
1908 - Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist and illustrator (d. 1996)
1910 - Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
1911 - Joseph Luns, Dutch politician (d. 2002)
1913 - Robertson Davies, Canadian writer (d. 1995)
1913 - Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)
1916 - Jack Vance, American author
1917 - Jack Kirby, American comic book artist (d. 1994)
1919 - Godfrey Hounsfield, English inventor and Nobel Laureate (d. 2004)
1920 - Frits Bernard, pedophile activist
1924 - Janet Frame, New Zealand author
1924 - Peggy Ryan, American actress (d. 2004)
1925 - Donald O'Connor, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 2003)
1929 - Istvan Kertesz, Hungarian conductor (d. 1973)
1930 - Ben Gazzara, American actor
1931 - John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
1932 - Andy Bathgate, Canadian ice hockey player
1938 - Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
1938 - Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television journalist
1941 - Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, Belgian aristocrat
1942 - Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (d. 1995)
1943 - David Soul, American actor
1943 - Lou Piniella, baseball manager
1944 - Marianne Heemskerk, Dutch swimmer
1944 - Melvin Dummar, claimed Howard Hughes heir
1947 - Liza Wang, Hong Kong actress
1952 - Rita Dove, former U.S. poet laureate
1952 - Wendelin Wiedeking, German businessman
1957 - Daniel Stern, American actor
1957 - Rick Rossovich, American actor
1958 - Scott Hamilton, American figure skater
1960 - Emma Samms, English actress
1961 - Kim Appleby, British singer
1965 - Amanda Tapping, Canadian actress
1965 - Shania Twain, Canadian singer
1966 - René Higuita, Colombian footballer
1968 - Billy Boyd, Scottish actor
1969 - Jason Priestley, Canadian actor
1969 - Jack Black, American actor and musician
1971 - Todd Eldredge, American figure skater
1971 - Janet Evans, American swimmer
1975 - Gareth Farrelly, Irish footballer
1978 - Jess Margera, American drummer
1979 - Robert Hoyzer, German football referee
1979 - Markus Pröll, German footballer
1980 - T.J. Beam, Baseball Player
1981 - Martin Erat, Czech hockey player
1982 - LeAnn Rimes, American singer
1986 - Gilad Shalit, Israelian military

Deaths

388 - Magnus Maximus, Roman usurper against Valentinian III
430 - Augustine of Hippo, North African saint and theologian (b. 354)
1341 - King Leo V of Armenia (murdered) (b. 1309)
1481 - King Afonso V of Portugal (b. 1432)
1645 - Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and writer (b. 1583)
1654 - Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (b. 1583)
1678 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, English soldier (b. 1602)
1757 - David Hartley, English philosopher (b. 1705)
1784 - Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary (b. 1713)
1785 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
1793 - Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general (executed) (b. 1740)
1805 - Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (b. 1722)
1818 - Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, founder of Chicago
1839 - William Smith, English geologist (b. 1769)
1900 - Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (b. 1838)
1903 - Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (b. 1822)
1919 - Louis Botha, Boer leader (b. 1862)
1943 - King Boris III of Bulgaria (b. 1894)
1959 - Bohuslav Martinů, Romanian composer (b. 1890)
1965 - Giulio Racah, Israeli physicist (b. 1909)
1975 - Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor (b. 1907)
1981 - Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (b. 1900)
1985 - Ruth Gordon, American actress (b. 1896)
1987 - John Huston, American movie director (b. 1906)
1990 - Willy Vandersteen, Belgian cartoonist (b. 1913)
1993 - William Stafford, American writer (b. 1914)
1995 - Michael Ende, German writer (b. 1929)
2005 - Esther Szekeres, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1910)
2005 - George Szekeres, Hungarian mathematican (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

Hong Kong: Liberation Day (1945)
Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.
Yugoslavia - Uspenije Presvete Bogorodice - Velika Gospojina (Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos (Mother of God)

External links

BBC: On This Day

August 27 - August 29 - July 28 - September 28 – listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: August 28

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links