August 28

August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.

Events

• 475 - The German general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints Romulus Augustus in his place.
• 489 - Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
• 1521 - The Turks occupy Belgrade
• 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 starts the first railway service in the United States.
• 1833 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
• 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes first issue
• 1849 - After a siege of over one month, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
• 1850 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres.
• 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.
• 1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
• 1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the so-called Battle of Heligoland Bight (actually a comparatively minor engagement).
• 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
• 1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
• 1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
• 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.
• 1955 - Black Mississippi boy Emmett Till is murdered 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.
• 1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois during the Democratic National Convention
• 1972 - During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
• 1975 - Missionary Armand Doll is imprisoned in Mozambique by Marxist extremists. Over the next several months he will smuggle letters out inside toothpaste tubes.
• 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 a province of Iraq.
• 1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hit in Plainfield, Illinois and Joliet, Illinois killing 28 people.
• 1993 - A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
• 1993 - 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
• 1993 - Ong Teng Cheong elected president of Singapore
• 1994 - First gay pride march in Japan.
• 1995 - A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The NATO action against Bosnian Serbs was a reaction to this incident.
• 1996 - Britain's Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced.
• 1998 - A new legal system, based on the Koran, is established in Pakistan.
• 2001 - Dutch prime minister Wim Kok announces that he will not be available for another term as PvdA party leader or prime minister after the 2002 elections.

Births

• 1749 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, scientist (d. 1832)
• 1774 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, first American-born Catholic saint (d. 1821)
• 1786 - Pavloec, author
• 1814 - Sheridan le Fanu, writer (d. 1873)
• 1828 - Leo Tolstoy, writer (d. 1910)
• 1897 - Charles Boyer, actor (d. 1978)
• 1903 - Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist
• 1904 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)
• 1908 - Roger Tory Peterson, ornithologist, illustrator
• 1911 - Joseph Luns, Dutch politician (d. 2002)
• 1913 - Robertson Davies, novelist, playwright (d. 1995)
• 1917 - Jack Kirby, comic book artist (d. 1994)
• 1924 - Janet Frame, author
• 1925 - Donald O'Connor, singer, dancer, actor
• 1930 - Ben Gazzara, actor
• 1943 - Lou Piniella, baseball manager
• 1953 - Gates McFadden, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• 1957 - Daniel Stern, actor
• 1958 - Scott Hamilton, Olympic Games gold medal winning figure skater
• 1960 - Emma Samms, actress
• 1961 - Kim Appleby, singer (Mel & Kim)
• 1965 - Shania Twain, singer
• 1969 - Jason Priestley, actor
• 1971 - Janet Evans, Olympic swimmer
• 1981 - Martin Erat, NHL hockey player
• 1982 - LeAnn Rimes, singer

Deaths

• 430 - Augustine of Hippo
• 1481 - Afonso V, king of Portugal
• 1818 - Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, founder of Chicago
• 1839 - William Smith, geologist
• 1900 - Henry Sidgwick, philosopher
• 1919 - Louis Botha, Boer leader
• 1943 - King Boris III of Bulgaria
• 1959 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
• 1964 - Gracie Allen, actress, comedienne
• 1965 - Giulio Racah, physicist (b. 1909)
• 1985 - Ruth Gordon, actress
• 1987 - John Huston, movie director
• 1990 - Willy Vandersteen, cartoonist
• 1993 - William Stafford, poet and essayist
• 1995 - Michael Ende, writer

Holidays and observances

• Hong Kong: Liberation Day (1945)
• Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

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