On this day in History - Dec. 28

• 418 - St. Boniface I becomes Pope
• 1065 -Westminster Abbey consecrated.
• 1484 - Joachim Vadianus, [von Watt], was born; Swiss physician/mayor of Sankt Gallen
• 1622- Francois de Sales (55), French bishop of Geneva, writer and saint, died
• 1669 - William Semple patenta el chicle.
• 1694, Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.
• 1777 - Alexander I - Russia, was born, Czar de Russia.
• 1798 -Thomas Henderson was born (died 23-Nov-1844). Scottish astronomer who, as royal astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope (1831-33), was the first to measure the parallax of a star (Alpha Centauri).
• 1814 - Sir John Bennet Lawes was born (d. 31-Aug-1900), (1st Baronet) English agronomist who founded the artificial fertilizer industry and Rothamsted Experimental Station, the oldest agricultural research station in the world.
• 1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president in U.S. history to resign from office.
• 1836 - Spain recognizes independence of Mexico.
• 1846 -Iowa became the 29th state in the United States.
• 1852 - Leonardo Torres Quevedo , was born at Santa Cruz de Iruña, Santander, España, scientist and inventor.
• 1856 - Woodrow Wilson, was born in Staunton, Va ; 28th President of the United States (d. 1924); He won Nobel Peace Prize 1919.
• 1861 - Se funda la ciudad de Mulchen en Chile.
• 1861 - Autoproclamación como Rey de la Araucania de Orélie-Antoine.
• 1862 -Joaquim Casimiro Junior, composer, dies at 54.
• 1869 -William F. Semple patented chewing gum.
• 1878 -Jose Bernardo Alcedo, composer, dies at 90.
• 1878 -Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (socialism).
• 1879 - The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
• 1882 -Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was born; English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician who did his greatest work in astrophysics, investigating the motion, internal structure, and evolution of stars.
• 1892 -Alfred Irving Hallowell was born; a U.S. cultural anthropologist known for his work on the North American Indians.
• 1894 - Alfred Sherwood Romer, was born (died 5 Nov 1973). U.S. paleontologist widely known for his concepts of evolutionary history of vertebrate animals.
• 1895 -The Lumiere Brothers gave the first commercial movie show at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
• 1897 - The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.
• 1902 - The first indoor professional American football game is played in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
• 1903 - John von Neumann, was born, mathematician (d. 1957) (Bocher Award 1938).
• 1903 - French Congo is split into Ubangi-Shari, Chad, Gabon, and Middle Congo.
• 1906 - Ecuador adopts its constitution.
• 1908 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
• 1916 - Eduard Strauss, was born, Austrian composer (b. 1835)
• 1917, the New York Evening Mail published a facetious — as well as fictitious — essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.
• 1918 - Olavo Bilac, dies, Brazilien poet (b. 1865)
• 1923 - Gustave Eiffel dies (b. 15-Dec.1832); French civil engineer renowned for the tower in Paris that bears his name. He specialized in metal structures, building a number of iron bridges, beginning with one at Bordeaux in 1858. Eiffel was one of the first engineers to employ compressed-air caissons in bridge building.
• 1927- Muere en Buenos Aires el notable pintor Ernesto de la Cárcova, autor del cuadro "Sin pan y sin trabajo" (1894). Nació en Buenos Aires el 3 de marzo de 1866.
• 1934 - Actress Maggie Smith was born this day ( Death on Nile, Clash of Titans).
• 1935 - Fernando Lopes, was born in Portugal, director (Encoberto, Matar Saudades)
• 1937 - A primeira Constituição da República da Irlanda é estabelecida. Na época, o primeiro-ministro era Eamon de Valera, fundador do Exército Republicano Irlandês (IRA).
• 1937 - Maurice Ravel dies in Paris (b. 1875); musician.
• 1944 - Kary Banks Mullis, was born ; American biochemist, cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1993) for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• 1945 - Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
• 1947 - Victor Manuel III, último rei de Itália, morreu em Alexandria, Egipto, no exílio. Rei desde 1900, devido ao assassinato do seu pai, nomeou Mussolini primeiro ministro, não tendo sido capaz de impedir os fascistas de tomar o poder. Tinha abdicado em 1946.
• 1948 - Egyptian premier, Mahmoud Fatimy, is assassinated by a member of Al Ikhwan al Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood).
• 1950 - The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.
• 1953 - Richard Clayderman, was born, pianist.
• 1954 - Denzel Washington, was born, actor (Dr Chandler-St Elsewhere).
• 1958 - Patrice Emery Lumumba, head of the Congolese National Movement, declares that "independence is a right, not a privilege."
• 1959 - Se promulga la Ley de Seguridad Social que consagra catorce prestaciones y por la que la Dirección de Pensiones Civiles se transformará en Instituto de Seguridad Social de los Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado (ISSSTE), que entrará en vigor el 1º de enero del próximo año (Mexico).
• 1970 - Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) adopts constitution.
• 1970 - Muere en Buenos Aires Elena Sansisena de Elizalde, fundadora de la Asociación Amigos del Arte. Organizó las polémicas muestras de los pintores Emilio Pettoruti y Juan Del Prete y publicó valiosas ediciones de arte, como el "Martín Fierro", ilustrado por Adolfo Belloc. Nació en Buenos Aires en 1882.
• 1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel awarded) published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.
• 1981 -Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
• 1982 - Nevell Johnson Jr., a black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade, setting off three days of race-related disturbances that left another man dead.
• 1983 - Dennis Wilson, musician ("The Beach Boys"), dies (b. 1944).
• 1984 - Sam Peckinpah, film director, dies (b. 1925) .
• 1986 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director, dies (b. 1932) .
• 1989 - O Brasil quebra o recorde negativo de inflação na sua história, chegando a 1.764,86% ao ano.
• 1989 - Alexandre Dubcek, ex-líder comunista da Tchecoslováquia, é nomeado líder do parlamento.
• 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear version is released in Japan.
• 1991 - Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of Year.
• 1992 - O parlamento iugoslavo vota a remoção do primeiro-ministro Milan Panic.
• 1993 - O Vaticano reconhece oficialmente a existência do Estado de Israel.
• 1993 - Banesto, bajo la dirección de Mario Conde, es intervenido por el Banco de España.
• 1994 - CIA Director R. James Woolsey resigned, ending a tenure that was shadowed by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal.
• 1997 - O governo de Hong Kong mata e incinera 1,3 milhão de galinhas na tentativa de eliminar o vírus da gripe, que havia matado quatro pessoas e causado temor de uma epidemia.
• 1999 - Saparmurat Niyazov was proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan.
• 2000 - Adrian Năstase became the Prime Minister of Romania.
• 2000 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
• 2001 -In Argentina thousands of people flooded banks as the government eased a 5-day bank holiday. Demonstrations ensued and riot police used rubber bullets and tear gas to quell violence at the Government House known as Casa Rosada.
• Pakistan arrested some 50 leading members of 2 Islamic militant groups: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mahammed.
• 2001 - Japan’s Nikkei closed at its lowest year-end mark since 1983: 10,542.
• 2003 - Libya for the first time allowed U.N. nuclear officials to inspect four sites related to its nuclear weapons program.