December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are three days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- Abel (Coptic Church)
- Caterina Volpicelli
- Feast of the Holy Innocents or Childermas. In Spain and Latin American countries the festival is celebrated with pranks (inocentadas), similar to April Fools’ Day. (Catholic Church, Church of England, Lutheran Church)
- December 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- King Taksin Memorial Day (Thailand)
- Proclamation Day, celebration started on the day following Christmas. (South Australia)
- The fourth day of Christmas. (Western Christianity)
History
In 169 BC, The menorah is lit to rededicate the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after two centuries of foreign rule and religious oppression and a seven-year revolt. The menorah burns for eight days without the sufficient fuel needed to do so, birthing the holiday Hanukkah.
In 418, Pope Boniface I is elected.
In 457, Majorian is crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire and recognized by Pope Leo I.
In 484, Alaric II succeeds his father Euric and becomes king of the Visigoths. He establishes his capital at Aire-sur-l’Adour (Southern Gaul).
In 893, An earthquake destroys the city of Dvin, Armenia.
In 1065, Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
In 1308, The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Japan, begins.
In 1612, Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
In 1659, The Marathas defeat the Adilshahi forces in the Battle of Kolhapur
In 1734, Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish criminal (b. 1671) died in his house at Inverlochlarig Beg, Balquhidder, on 28 December 1734. He usually known simply as Rob Roy, was a famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century, who is sometimes known as the Scottish Robin Hood. Rob Roy is anglicised from the Gaelic Raibeart Ruadh, or Red Robert. (He had red hair, Ruadh being Gaelic for red-haired, though it darkened to auburn in later life.) Rob Roy was born at Glengyle, at the head of Loch Katrine, as recorded in the Baptismal Register of Buchanan Parish. His father was Donald MacGregor and his mother Margaret Campbell. In January 1693, at Corrie Arklet farm near Inversnaid, he married Mary Helen MacGregor of Comar (1671-1745), who was born at Leny Farm, Strathyre. They had four sons: James (known as Mor or Big), Ranald, Coll and Robert (known as Robin Oig or Young Rob). They also adopted a cousin named Duncan.
In 1768, King Taksin‘s coronation achieved through conquest as a king of Thailand and established Thonburi as a capital.
In 1795, Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
In 1824, The Bathurst War comes to an end with the surrender of the Wiradjuri.
In 1832, John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
In 1835, Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
In 1836, South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
In 1836, Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.
In 1846, Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.
In 1867, United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
In 1879, Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
In 1885, Indian National Congress a political party of India is founded in Bombay, British India.
In 1895, The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema.
In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
In 1897, William Corby, American priest (b. 1833) He was an American priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and a Union Army chaplain in the American Civil War attached to the Irish Brigade. He later served twice as President of the University of Notre Dame. He is perhaps best known for giving general absolution to the Irish Brigade on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Of the Brigade’s original 3,000 men, only about 500 remained, and more than a third of them were killed or wounded in the battle. The scene of Fr. Corby blessing the troops was dramatized in the 1993 film Gettysburg. A statue by Samuel Murray – Father Corby, with right hand raised in the gesture of blessing – stands upon the same boulder on which the priest stood while blessing the troops that morning. It was the first statue of a non-general erected on the Gettysburg Battlefield, and was dedicated in 1910. He is widely remembered among military chaplains and celebrated by Irish-American fraternal organizations. Corby Hall at Notre Dame is named for him, and a copy of the Gettysburg statue stands outside the building. An organization of Notre Dame alumni is named The William Corby Society
In 1902, The Syracuse Athletic Club defeated the New York Philadelphians, 5-0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.
In 1908, A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily, Italy killing over 75,000.
In 1912, The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California.
In 1918, Constance Markievicz while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.
In 1935, Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.
In 1943, World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
In 1944, Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score 8 points in one game of NHL ice hockey.
In 1948, The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami, Florida.
In 1956, Chin Peng, David Marshall and Tunku Abdul Rahman meet in Baling, Malaya to try and resolve the Malayan Emergency situation.
In 1958, “Greatest Game Ever Played” – Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York‘s Yankee Stadium.
In 1972, Kim Il-sung, already Prime Minister of North Korea and First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, becomes the first President of North Korea.
In 1973, The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.
In 1978, With the crew investigating a problem with the landing gear, United Airlines Flight 173 runs out of fuel and crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10. As a result, United Airlines instituted the industry’s first crew resource management program.
In 1984, David Samuel “Sam” Peckinpah dies of heart failure. He was an American film director and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch (1969). He was known for the innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence, as well as his revisionist approach to the Western genre. Peckinpah’s films generally deal with the conflict between values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human society. He was given the nickname “Bloody Sam” owing to the violence in his films. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable, but are forced to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality.
Peckinpah’s combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation and career during his lifetime. Some of his films, including Straw Dogs (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), remain controversial.
In 1989, A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
In 1993, Howard Caine (born Howard Cohen; January 2, 1926 – December 28, 1993) died. He was an American popular character actor, probably best known as Gestapo agent Major Wolfgang Hochstetter in the television series Hogan’s Heroes. He also played Lewis Morris of New York in the musical film 1776, and Everett Scovill, a thinly disguised portrait of Charles Manson‘s attorney Irving Kanarek, in the television movie, Helter Skelter.
In 1999, Clayton Moore died. (September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999) He was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character the Lone Ranger from 1949–1951 and 1954–1957 on the television series of the same name.
In 2000, U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
In 2006, War in Somalia: The militaries of Somalia‘s Transitional Federal Government and Ethiopian troops capture Mogadishu unopposed.
In 2009, 43 people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura.
In 2010, Arab Spring: Popular protests begin in Algeria against the government.
In 2011, Uludere airstrike: Turkish warplanes bomb 34 Kurds of Turkish nationality in the district of Uludere.
In 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard.
In 2014, Nine people die and another 19 are reported missing, when the MS Norman Atlantic catches fire in the Strait of Otranto, in the Adriatic Sea, in Italian waters.
