April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 247 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- Feast of Jamál (“Beauty”), the first day of the third month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
- National Day of Mourning, to commemorate workers killed, injured, or suffering illness from occupational hazards and accidents. (Canada)
- National Heroes Day (Barbados)
- National Day (Sardinia)
- Restoration of Sovereignty Day (Japan)
- The first day of the Floralia, in honor of Flora. (Roman Empire)
History
In 224, The Battle of Hormozdgān is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V effectively ending the Parthian Empire.
In 357, Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius.
In 1192, Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
In 1253, Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
In 1503, The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as the first battle in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.
In 1559, Elizabeth’s “Act of Uniformity” is passed by Parliament
In 1611, Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the largest Catholic university in the world.
In 1635, Virginia Gov. John Harvey, he was suspended and impeached by the House of Burgesses (who named John West as a temporary replacement), and he returned to England. He was restored to his post by the King in 1636 and returned to Virginia the following year. His government has been described as tyrannical and Harvey himself has been called “an obnoxious ruler” and was generally held to be unpopular. In 1639 Harvey was replaced as governor by Sir Francis Wyatt.
In 1686, first volume of Isaac Newton’s “Principia” published.
In 1781, Cornelius Harnett, American merchant, farmer, and politician (b. 1723) dies. He was an American merchant, farmer, and statesman from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary in the Cape Fear region, and a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779. Harnett was born to Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett in Chowan County, North Carolina. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to Wilmington. He became a leading merchant there, and was interested in farming, milling, and mercantile ventures. Harnett was an Episcopalian, but has also been identified as a deist. In 1750 Harnett became involved in public affairs when he was elected Wilmington town commissioner. He was appointed a justice of the peace for New Hanover County by Governor Gabriel Johnston. Harnett was elected to represent Wilmington in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1754.
In 1765, Harnett became the chairman of the Sons of Liberty, and was a leader in the resistance to the Stamp Act. In 1775-1776, he served as the first president of the North Carolina Provincial Council, or Council of Safety, essentially the chief executive of the revolutionary state, although with limited powers. In 1776 he was excepted by Sir Henry Clinton from his proclamation of general amnesty. He was a member of the Continental Congress for 1777–1779.
In 1781 he was captured by the British upon their occupation of Wilmington in January. His health steadily declined while imprisoned. He died April 28, 1781, shortly after being released on parole. He was buried in St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington, North Carolina. Cornelius Harnett is the namesake of Harnett County, North Carolina.
In 1788, Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
In 1789, Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
In 1792, France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.
In 1796, The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
In 1817, Britain and the United States signed the Rush-Bagot Treaty, in which they agreed not to have guns or ships of war on the frontier waters of the Great Lakes.
In 1865, News reaches Jackson, Tennessee that the Civil War (The War of Northern Aggression) was over. The Confederacy failed.
In 1869, Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay 10 miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
In 1881, Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
In 1883, John Russell, English hunter and dog breeder (b. 1795) dies. He known as “The Sporting Parson”, vicar of Swimbridge and rector of Black Torrington in North Devon, was an enthusiastic fox-hunter and dog breeder, who developed the Jack Russell Terrier, a variety of the Fox Terrier breed.
In 1887, A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, Alsatian police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé is released on order of German Emperor William I, defusing a possible war.
In 1896, The addressograph was patented by J.S. Duncan of Sioux City, IA.
In 1905, Fitzhugh Lee, American general and politician, 40th Governor of Virginia (b. 1835) dies in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. He was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of Sydney Smith Lee, a captain in the Confederate States Navy, and the nephew of General Robert E. Lee. Lee joined the Confederate States Army as a lieutenant of cavalry and served at first as a staff officer to Brig. Gen. Richard S. Ewell at the First Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Virginia Cavalry in August 1861, serving under Colonel J.E.B. Stuart.
In 1910, Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in England.
In 1914, W.H. Carrier patented the design of his air conditioner.
In 1919, The first successful jump with Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute was made by Leslie Ervin, but it was almost a perfect landing until he broke his ankle.
In 1920, Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
In 1923, The Ford Motor Company starts a partial payment plan for the small car buyer.
The 1923 FA Cup Final was an association football match between Bolton Wanderersand West Ham United on 28 April, the first to be played at the original Wembley Stadium in London. This Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup), the showpiece match of English football’s primary cup competition, drew a chaotic crowd of up to 300,000, far exceeding the stadium’s official capacity of around 125,000. Mounted policemen, including one on a light-coloured horse (pictured) that became the defining image of the day, had to be brought in to clear the crowds from the pitch. (The match is still referred to as the “White Horse Final”.) Although West Ham started strongly, Bolton proved the dominant team for most of the match and won 2–0. David Jack scored a goal two minutes after the start of the match and Jack Smith added a controversial second goal during the second half. The pre-match events prompted discussion in the House of Commons and led to the introduction of safety measures for future finals.
In 1930, The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
In 1932, A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
In 1934, President FDR signed the Home Owners Loan Act.
In 1937, The first commercial flight across Pacific was by Pan Am.
In 1937, The first animated-cartoon electric sign was displayed on a building on Broadway in New York City. The sign was the creation of Douglas Leight. It consisted of several thousand light bulbs and presented a four-minute show that featured a cavorting horse and ball-tossing cats.
In 1939, Hitler claims German-Polish non-attack treaty still in effect.
In 1939, Small cars were offered for sale in the U.S. for the first time. Actually, these little cars would make today’s compact cars look like land yachts! Imagine a car that sold for $325, was 10-feet long, had an 80-inch wheelbase and a four-gallon gas tank. We just described the Crosley which became fairly popular back in 1939 — but wouldn’t survive.
In 1944, World War II: Nine German E-boats attacked US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.
In 1945, Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
In 1948, Igor Stravinsky conducted the premier of his American ballet, Orpheus, in New York City at New York City Center.
In 1949, Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.
In 1950, Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.
In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
In 1952, Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends as the Treaty of San Francisco, ratified September 8, 1951, comes into force.
In 1952, The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.
In 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 U.S. Army troops.
In 1969, Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
In 1970, Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
In 1975, General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on victory.
In 1975, North Vietnamese forces were invading Saigon, when helicopters evacuated the last American civilians from the South Vietnamese capital…the Americans giving up the Vietnam war and exiling themselves from Indochina.
In 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.
In 1977, The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.
In 1978, President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
In 1986, The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
In 1986, High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident.
In 1987, American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
In 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.
In 1994, Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
In 1996, Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
In 1996, Port Arthur Massacre (Australia): Gunman Martin Bryant opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.
In 2001, Dennis Tito becomes the world’s first space tourist.
In 2008, With all the self-congratulatory backslapping going on around Friday, it might be wise for somebody to keep a rotator cuff specialist on speed dial. President Bush started things off at the White House this day, saying the tax rebate checks that start going out Monday will help cure the country’s economic woes. “This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,” he said.
Not to be outdone, Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Leader Hoyer and House Minority Leader Boehner scheduled a noon news conference so they, too, can claim some credit for the fact that the checks will soon be in the mail.
In 2008, The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let Indiana demand photo identification from voters paves the way for other states to do the same, experts say. While the court’s 6-3 decision leaves the door open for future legal challenges if proof is presented that voters couldn’t cast their ballots because of the new rules, the court didn’t specify how many people must be affected for it to consider striking down the law.
The photo ID previous to voting has been upheld by the US supreme court. This has always seemed like a no brainer to me. It takes a photo ID to get a library card, to get on an airplane or to drive a car but none to vote.
In Tennessee, in an attempt to pass voter ID, Rep. Deborah Maggart offered free photo ID for those who could not afford one. Her bill even allowed people to vote on a provisional ballot if they did not have an ID (But they were required to provide proof before their vote was counted). She even provided proof that requiring a photo ID to vote does not disenfranchise legal voters. It was still killed in the house.
In 2010, Summit-Brantley Building Innovations LLC (SBBI), moves into the property that was once occupied by the Salvation Army and owned by JACNE LP which occupies 21 Windwood Dr. which intern is owned by Charles (Chuck) Clark. The property was not historically zoned for manufacturing.
In 2011, Alfred Martin Creswell dies at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. He was 88 years old. He was born December 8, 1922 in Cleveland, OH. He resided in Mobile, AL from 1923 to 1930 and was sent to the Presbyterian Home for children in Talladega, AL from 1930 to 1937. From age 15, he was raised on a farm in Nankipoo, TN by foster parents, E. Marvin Browning and Bertha C. Browning, along with their daughter, Elna Browning McBride. Dr. Creswell attended David Lipscomb College in Nashville from 1939 to 1941, and graduated from UT Knoxville with a degree in Animal Husbandry in 1944. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Auburn University in 1951.
In 2013, According to a new report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI), President Barack Obama has spent over twice as many hours on vacation and golf (976 hours) as he has in economic meetings of any kind (474.4 hours). The report, “Presidential Calendar: A Time-Based Analysis,” used the official White House calendar, Politico’s comprehensive presidential calendar, and media reports through March 31, 2013 to calculate its results. GAI’s findings may actually understate Obama’s recreational hours. Read More.
In 2015, Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations.
In 2015, The National Football League announces it is giving up its tax-exempt status.
In 2016, Women would be required to register for the military draft under a House committee bill that comes just months after the Defense Department lifted all gender-based restrictions on front-line combat units. The United States has not had a military draft since 1973 in the Vietnam War era, but all men must register with the Selective Service Systems within 30 days of turning 18. Military leaders maintain that the all-volunteer force is working and the nation is not returning to the draft.