1928
1928 (
MCMXXVIII) was a
leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).
January-May
*
January 6-
7 -
River Thames floods in London - 14 drowned
*
January 7 -
Moat at the
Tower of London, previously drained in 1843, is completely refilled by a tidal wave
*
January 12 - US murderer
Ruth Snyder executed at
Ossining*
January 17 -
OGPU arrests
Lev Trotsky in
Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance and is exiled to
Turkestan* February -
Kurume University (
Japan) established
*
February 11 -
II Olympic Winter Games open in
St. Moritz,
Switzerland*
February 12 - Heavy
hails kill 11 in England
*
February 25 -
Charles Jenkins Laboratories of
Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a
television license from the
Federal Radio Commission.
*
March 12 -
Malta becomes a British
dominion*
March 12 - In
California, the
St. Francis Dam north of
Los Angeles fails killing 400
*
March 21 -
Charles Lindbergh is presented the
Medal of Honor for his first trans-
Atlantic flight.
*
April 10 -
Pineapple Primary -
Republican Party primary elections in
Chicago preceded by assassinations and bombings
*
April 12 - Bomb attack against the Dictator of Italy in Milan - 17 bystanders dead
*
April 22 -
Earthquake destroys
Corinth - 200.000 buildings destroyed
*
May 15 -
Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, commenced operations
*
May 15 - Release of the
animated short Plane Crazy, featuring the first appearances of
Mickey and
Minnie Mouse.
*
May 23 - Bomb attack against Italian consulate in
Buenos Aires - 22 dead, 41 injured
*
May 24 -
Airship Italia crashes on the
North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general
Umberto Nobile*
May 30 - A rescue expedition leaves for the North Pole
June-August
*
June 11 - Medical doctor's strike begins in
Vienna*
June 14 - Students take over the medical wing of
Rosario University in
Argentina*
July 6 - The world's largest
hailstone falls in
Potter, Nebraska.
*
July 12 -
Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the
New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from a goodwill flight to
New York City.
*
June 17 - Aviator
Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an
aircraft across the
Atlantic Ocean (she succeeded the next day).
*
July 17 -
Jose del León Toral assassinates
Alvaro Obregon, president of
Mexico*
June 20 - Shooting incident in
Yugoslavian parliament -
Punica Rasic shoots 3 opposition representatives and injures three others
*
June 24 - Swedish aeroplane rescues part of Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. Soviet icebreaker
Krasin saves the rest
July 12*
June 28 - The
Great Gorge and International Railwayswitches to one-man crews for its
trolleys in
Canada.
*
June 29 -
New York Governor Alfred E. Smith becomes the first
Catholic nominated by a major political party for
U.S. President, at the
Democratic National Convention in
Houston, Texas.
*
July 16 -
Leon Toral assassinates
Álvaro Obregón,
president of Mexico*
July 25 - USA recalls its troops from
China*
July 27 -
Tich Freeman becomes only
bowler ever to take 200
first-class wickets before end of July.
*
July 28 - Official opening ceremony of the
1928 Summer Olympics in
Amsterdam.
*
August 16 - Murderer
Carl Panzram is arrested in
Washington, DC after killing about 20 people.
*
August 25 -
Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself
King Zog I of
Albania; he is crowned
September 1*
August 27 - The
Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in
Paris - it was the first treaty which outlawed aggressive war.
*
August 29 -
Club Deportivo Motagua of Honduras is founded.
September-December
*
September 1 -
Richard Byrd leaves New York for Arctic
*
September 3 -
Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
*
September 15 -
Tich Freeman sets all-time record for number of wickets taken in an English
cricket season.
*
September 16 - The
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in
Florida.
*
October 2 -
Saint Josemaria Escriva, founds
Opus Dei*
October 7 -
Haile Selassie crowned king (not yet emperor) of
Abyssinia*
October 12 - An
iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital,
Boston.
*
November 4 - At Park Central Hotel in
Manhattan,
Arnold Rothstein,
New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a
poker game.
*
November 6 -
Swedes start a tradition of eating
Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the old warrior king.
*
November 6 -
U.S. presidential election, 1928:
Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over
Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
*
November 10 -
Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of
Japan.
*
November 18 -
Mickey Mouse appears in
Steamboat Willie, the first sound cartoon.
*
December 3 - In
Rio de Janeiro, a
seaplane sunk near
Cap Arcona with
Alberto Santos-Dumont on board.
*
December 5 - Police disperses Sicilian gangs' meeting in
Cleveland*
December 21 - U.S. Congress approves the construction of The Boulder Dam, later renamed The
Hoover Dam*
December 31 - Bells of
Big Ben first time in a radio
Unknown dates
*
Charles King elected president of
Liberia with 600,000
votes; the whole of country has only 15,000 voters.
*
Chaco war*
Coca Cola enters Europe through the Amsterdam Olympics.
*
Eliot Ness begins to lead the
prohibition unit in
Chicago, Illinois.
* The old
Canaanite city of
Ugarit is rediscovered.
*
Turkey switches from the
Arabic to the
Latin-based modern
Turkish alphabet.
*The right to vote extended to all women in the
United Kingdom.
*
Frederick Griffith conducts
Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving existence of
DNA.
*
Motorola is founded.
* First (and last)
Best Title Writing Academy Award given.
* The
Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the
Book of Common Prayer.
* W2XBS,
RCA's first television station, is established in
New York City.
* Australian farmer, Jack Trott, finds
Rhizanthella gardneri in his garden.
*
Mount Vesuvius erupts.
January
*
January 5 -
Quaid-e-Awam Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,
President of Pakistan and
Prime Minister of Pakistan (d.
1979)
*
January 5 -
Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
*
January 7 -
William Peter Blatty, American writer
*
January 11 -
David L. Wolper, television producer
*
January 16 -
William Kennedy, American author
*
January 17 -
Jean Barraqué, French composer (d.
1973)
*
January 17 -
Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
*
January 23 -
Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan
Major League Baseball player (d.
2005)
*
January 23 -
Jeanne Moreau, French actress
*
January 24 -
Desmond Morris, anthropologist and writer
*
January 26 -
Roger Vadim, French film director (d.
2000)
*
January 30 -
Hal Prince, American stage producer and director
February
*
February 5 -
Andrew Greeley, American Catholic priest and novelist
*
February 9 -
Frank Frazetta, American illustrator
*
February 9 -
Roger Mudd, American journalist
*
February 22 -
Bruce Forsyth, Entertainer
*
February 23 -
Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d.
1990)
*
February 26 -
Fats Domino, American musician
*
February 26 -
Anatoli Filipchenko, cosmonaut
*
February 27 -
Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister
March-April
*
March 4 -
Alan Sillitoe, English writer
*
March 6 -
Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
March 8 -
Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (d.
1990)
*
March 10 -
James Earl Ray, American assassin (d.
1998)
*
March 12 -
Edward Albee, American dramatist
*
March 16 -
Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
*
March 19 -
Hans Küng, Swiss theologian
*
March 19 -
Patrick McGoohan, Irish actor
*
March 20 -
Fred Rogers, American children's television host (d.
2003)
*
March 24 -
Byron Janis, American pianist
*
March 25 -
Jim Lovell, astronaut
*
March 28 -
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born U.S. National Security Advisor
*
March 31 -
Gordie Howe, Canadian hockey player
*
March 31 -
Lefty Frizzell, American country music performer
*
April 1 -
Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
*April 1 -
George Grizzard, American actor
*
April 2 -
Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (d.
1991)
*
April 4 -
Maya Angelou, American poet and novelist
*
April 6 -
James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
April 7 -
James Garner, American actor
*
April 7 -
Alan J. Pakula, American producer and director (d.
1998)
*
April 7 -
James White, Northern Irish science fiction writer (d.
1999)
*
April 8 -
Eric Porter, English actor (d.
1995)
*
April 9 -
Tom Lehrer, American songwriter
*
April 12 -
Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
*
April 19 -
Alexis Korner, British blues musician (d.
1984)
*
April 23 -
Shirley Temple, American actress and politician
May-June
*
May 1 -
Desmond Titterington, Northern Irish racecar driver (d.
2002)
*
May 3 -
Dave Dudley, American singer (d.
2003)
*
May 4 -
Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter
*
May 4 -
Hosni Mubarak,
President of Egypt*
May 8 -
Theodore Sorenson, American lawyer and speechwriter
*
May 9 -
Colin Chapman, English automotive engineer (d.
1982)
*
May 9 -
Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d.
1995)
*
May 9 -
Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
*
May 12 -
Burt Bacharach, American composer
*
May 13 -
Jim Shoulders, Champion Rodeo Cowboy
*
May 16 -
Billy Martin, baseball player and manager (d.
1989)
*
May 18 -
Pernell Roberts, American actor
*
May 23 -
Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d.
2002)
*
May 26 -
Jack Kevorkian, American physician
*
June 1 -
Georgi Dobrovolski, cosmonaut (d.
1971)
*
June 1 -
Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (d.
2003)
*
June 12 -
Richard M. Sherman, American songwriter
*
June 13 -
John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Economics*
June 14 -
Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, Argentine-born revolutionary (d.
1967)
*
June 19 -
Nancy Marchand, American actress (d.
2000)
*
June 25 -
Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
June 26 -
Jacob Druckman, American composer (d.
1996)
*
June 28 -
Harold Evans, British newspaper editor
July-September
*
July 5 -
Warren Oates, American actor (d.
1982)
*
July 10 -
Moshe Greenberg, American-Israeli Bible scholar
*
July 11 -
Bobo Olson, American boxer (d.
2002)
*
July 12 -
Elias James Corey, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
July 13 -
Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (d.
1999)
*
July 16 -
Robert Sheckley, American writer
*
July 25 -
Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d.
2005)
*
July 26 -
Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d.
1999)
*
July 26 -
Bernice Rubens, British novelist (d.
2004)
*
August 6 -
Andy Warhol, American artist (d.
1987)
*
August 10 -
Eddie Fisher, American singer
*
August 12 -
Bob Buhl, baseball player (d.
2001)
*
August 15 -
Nicolas Roeg, English film director
*
August 18 -
Marge Schott, baseball team owner (d.
2004)
*
August 25 -
Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
August 31 -
Jaime Cardinal Sin, Hero of People Power I and II (d.
2005)
*
September 11 -
William Kienzle, American author (d.
2001)
*
September 14 -
Angus Ogilvy, husband of
Princess Alexandra of Kent (d.
2004)
*
September 15 -
Julian Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist
*
September 22 -
James Lawson, American civil rights activist and minister
*
September 30 -
Elie Wiesel, Romanian Holocaust survivor, writer, and lecturer, recipient of the
Nobel Peace PrizeOctober-December
*
October 1 -
George Peppard, American actor (d.
1994)
*
October 8 -
Bill Maynard, British actor
*
October 9 -
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
*
October 30 -
Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1999)
*
November 3 -
Osamu Tezuka, Japanese artist (d.
1989)
*
November 3 -
George Yardley, American basketball player (d.
2004)
*
November 10 -
Ennio Morricone, Italian composer
*
November 11 -
Carlos Fuentes, Panamanian writer
*
November 17 -
Rance Howard, American actor
*
November 29 -
Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (d.
2003)
*
December 7 -
Noam Chomsky, American linguist
*
December 15 -
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d.
2000)
*
December 16 -
Philip K. Dick, American author (d.
1982)
*
December 25 -
Dick Miller, American actor
*
December 31 -
Siné, French cartoonist
Unknown date
*
Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, King of Malaysia
*
January 1 -
Loie Fuller, American dancer (b.
1862)
*
January 6 -
Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b.
1876)
*
January 11 -
Thomas Hardy, English writer (b.
1840)
*
January 29 -
Douglas Haig, British soldier (b.
1861)
*
January 30 -
Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1867)
*
February 1 -
Hughie Jennings, baseball player (b.
1869)
*
February 4 -
Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1853)
*
February 15 -
Herbert Henry Asquith,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1852)
*
February 16 -
Eddie Foy, American vaudevillian (b.
1856)
*
April 2 -
Theodore William Richards, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1868)
*
April 5 -
Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b.
1890)
*
June 4 -
Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b.
1873)
*
June 16 -
Dr. Mark Keppel,
County Superintendent of
Los Angeles County Schools from 1902-1928 (b.
1867)
*
June 22 -
A. B. Frost, American illustrator (b.
1851)
*
August 12 -
Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b.
1854)
*
August 30 -
Wilhelm Wien, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1864)
*
October 22 -
Andrew Fisher, fifth
Prime Minister of Australia (b.
1862)
*
December 1 -
José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (b.
1888)
*
December 10 -
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b.
1868)
*
Robert Abbe, American surgeon (b.
1851)
*
Physics -
Owen Willans Richardson*
Chemistry -
Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus*
Physiology or Medicine -
Charles Jules Henri Nicolle*
Literature -
Sigrid Undset*
Peace - not awarded
