August 28
is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.
*
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.
*
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)
*
1898 -
Charlie Grimm, baseball player (d.
1983)
*
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
*
1936 -
Don Denkinger, former Major League Baseball umpire
*
1938 -
Paul Martin,
Prime Minister of Canada* 1938 -
Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television journalist
*
1940 -
Roger Pingeon, French cylist
*
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
* 1969 -
Mary McCartney Donald, English photographer
*
1971 -
Todd Eldredge, American figure skater
*
1971 -
Janet Evans, American swimmer
*
1975 -
Gareth Farrelly, Irish footballer
*
1978 -
Jess Margera, American drummer
* 1978 -
Shaniqua, Professional wrestling valet
*
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
*
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
*
1820 -
Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor (b.
1754)
*
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)
* 1990 -
Larry Jackson, baseball player (b.
1931)
*
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)
*
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)
*
BBC: On This DayAugust 27 -
August 29 -
July 28 -
September 28 –
listing of all days
