On this day in History - Dec. 28

• 0418 - St. Boniface I becomes Pope.
• 1065 -Westminster Abbey consecrated.
• 1164 - Emperor Rokujo of Japan was born (d. 1176)
• 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, emperor of Japan, begins.
• 1367 - Ashikaga Yoshiakira dies (b. 1330). Japanese shogun.
• 1446 - Antipope Clement VIII dies.
• 1484 - Joachim Vadianus, [von Watt], was born; Swiss physician/mayor of Sankt Gallen.
• 1522 - Margaret of Austria was born (d. 1583). Regent of the Netherlands
• 1612 - Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune when it was in conjunction with Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic at that time. Neptune was not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sighted it with his telescope.
• 1619 - Antoine Furetière was born (d. 1688). French writer.
• 1622 - Francis de Sales dies (b. 1567). French bishop of Geneva, writer and saint.
• 1655 - Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis was born (d. 1698). First Lord of the British Admiralty
• 1663 - Francesco Maria Grimaldi dies (b. 1618). Italian mathematician and physicist .
• 1665 - George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland was born (d. 1716). English general.
• 1671 - Johann Friedrich Gronovius dies (b. 1611). German classical scholar.
• 1694 - Mary II of England died of smallpox in London at age 32, after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.
• 1703 - Mustafa II dies (b. 1664). Ottoman Sultan
• 1706 - Pierre Bayle dies (b. 1647). French philosopher.
• 1708 - Joseph Pitton de Tournefort dies (b. 1656). French botanist.
• 1734 - Rob Roy dies (b. 1671). Outlaw known as the Scottish Robin Hood.
• 1736 - Antonio Caldara dies (b. 1670). Italian composer.
• 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.
• 1829 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck dies (b. 1744). French scientist.
• 1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president in U.S. history to resign from office.
• 1835 - Osceola led his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the U.S. Army.
• 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.
• 1855 - Juan Zorrilla de San Martin was born. Uruguay's diplomat/poet (Tabar)
• 1856 - Woodrow Wilson, was born in Staunton, Virginia ; 28th President of the United States (d. 1924); He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
• 1861 - Se funda la ciudad de Mulchen en Chile.
• 1861 - Autoproclamación como Rey de la Araucania de Orélie-Antoine.
• 1862 - Joaquim Casimiro Júnior dies (b. 30 May 1808). Portuguese composer.
• 1869 - William F. Semple patented chewing gum. See The History of Chewing Gum and Bubble Gum (in About).
• 1878 - Jose Bernardo Alcedo dies (b. 1788) . Peruvian composer.
• 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.
• 1879 - Billy Mitchell was born (d. 1936). American military aviation pioneer.
• 1882 - Sir Arthur Eddington was born (d. 1944). English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician who did his greatest work in astrophysics, investigating the motion, internal structure, and evolution of stars.
• 1888 - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was born ( †11 Mar 1931). German fillm producer. After graduating in dramatic arts, he founded the Murnau-Veidt Filmgesellschaft and shot his first film, "Der Knabe in Blau" (“The Blue Boy”). In 1922 he produced "Nosferatu", a film that became one of the most important silent film works.
• 1889 - Tereza Cristina dies in Porto, Portugal. Brazilian Emperess
• 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.
• 1898 - Carl-Gustaf Rossby was born (d. 1957). Swedish meteorologist.
• 1899 - Eugeniusz Bodo was born (d. 1943). Polish actor.
• 1900 - Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto dies (b. 1846). Portuguese explorer.
• 1902 - Mortimer Adler was born (d. 2001). American philosopher.
• 1902 - The first indoor professional American football game is played in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
• 1903 - John von Neumann, was born (d. 1957). Hungarian-born Mathematician (Bocher Award 1938).
• 1903 - Earl "Fatha" Hines was born (d. 1983). American musician.
• 1903 - French Congo is split into Ubangi-Shari, Chad, Gabon, and Middle Congo.
• 1905 - Cliff Arquette was born (d. 1974). American actor and comedian.
• 1906 - Ecuador adopts its constitution.
• 1908 - Elvira Vargas Rivera was born (d. 1967). Mexican journalist.
• 1908 - Lew Ayres was born (d. 1996). American actor.
• 1908 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
• 1916 - Eduard Strauss dies (b. 1835). Austrian composer.
• 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 (b. 1865). Brazilian poet.
• 1919 - Johannes Rydberg dies (b. 1854). Swedish physicist.
• 1922 - Stan Lee was born. American comic book writer.
• 1924 - Milton Obote was born (d. 2005). President of Uganda.
• 1924 - Léon Bakst dies (b. 1866). Russian artist.
• 1925 - Hildegard Knef was born (d. 2002). German actress, singer and writer.
• 1927 - Ernesto de la Cárcova dies in Buenos Aires (b. 3 Mar 1866). Argentine painter "Sin pan y sin trabajo" (1894).
• 1929 - Brian Redhead was born (d. 1994). English journalist and broadcaster.
• 1931 - Guy Debord was born (d. 1994). Member of the Lettrist International, Socialisme ou Barbarie and a founder and chief essayist of the Situationist International.
• 1932 - Dhirubhai Ambani was born (d. 2002). Indian businessman.
• 1932 - Manuel Puig was born (d. 1990). Argentine writer (Blood of Requited Love)
• 1932 - Roy Hattersley was born. British politician
• 1933 - Nichelle Nichols was born. American actress and singer
• 1934 - Maggie Smith was born. English actress ( Death on Nile, Clash of Titans).
• 1934 - Pablo Gargallo dies. Spanish sculptor known for his figures sculpted from iron and other metals.
• 1935 - Fernando Lopes was born at Maçãs de D. Maria, Alvaiazere. Portuguese film director (Belarmino - 1964, O Encoberto - 1975, Crónica dos Bons Malandros -1984, Matar Saudades -1988, O Delfim - 2002... )
• 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); Swiss/French composer (Bolero) .
• 1938 - Florence Lawrence dies (b. 1886). American actress.
• 1940 - Don Francisco was born. Chilean TV host
• 1941 - Starts the Operation Anthropoid (the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague).
• 1943 - Richard Whiteley was born (d. 2005). British television presenter
• 1944 - Kary Mullis was born, American chemist, 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.
• 1945 - Theodore Dreiser dies (b. 1871). American author.
• 1946 - Edgar Winter was born. American musician
• 1947 - Aurelio Rodríguez was born (d. 2000). Baseball player.
• 1947 - Wynonie Harris records "Good Rockin' Tonight"
• 1947 - Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy (1900-46) and Ethiopia, dies at 78 /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).
• 1949 - Jack Lovelock dies (b. 1910). New Zealand athlete.
• 1950 - The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.
• 1951 - José Pedro Gomes was born. Portuguese actor and author.
• 1952 - Fletcher Henderson dies (b. 1897). American musician.
• 1953 - Richard Clayderman was born. French pianist.
• 1954 - Denzel Washington was born. American actor (Dr Chandler-St Elsewhere).
• 1956 - Nigel Kennedy was born. English violinist
• 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).
• 1963 - Paul Hindemith dies (b. 1895). German composer.
• 1967 - Chris Ware was born. American cartoonist.
• 1967 - Katharine McCormick dies (b. 1875). American women's rights activist.
• 1969 - Linus Torvalds was born. Finnish computer programmer
• 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.
• 1971 - Frank Sepe was born. American bodybuilder and model
• 1972 - Patrick Rafter was born. Australian tennis player
• 1972 - Adam Viniteri was born. Australian Football player
• 1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel awarded) published "Gulag Archipelago", an expose of the Soviet prison system.
• 1974 - Senegalese marxist group Reenu-Rew founds the political movement And-Jëf at a clandestine congress.
• 1976 - Katharine Byron dies (b. 1903). U.S. Congresswoman.
• 1978 - John Legend was born. American singer, songwriter, and pianist
• 1981 - Sienna Miller was born. English actress
• 1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
• 1981 - Allan Dwan dies (b. 1885). Canadian-born film director.
• 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.
• 1982 - Cedric Benson was born. American football player .
• 1982 - Wanessa Camargo was born. Brazilian singer.
• 1983 - Dennis Wilson dies (b. 1944). Musician ("The Beach Boys").
• 1983 - William Demarest dies (b. 1892). American actor.
• 1983 - Jimmy Demaret dies (b. 1910). American golfer.
• 1984 - Sam Peckinpah dies (b. 1925). American film director .
• 1986 - Andrei Tarkovsky dies (b. 1932). Russian film director.
• 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.
• 1989 - Mackenzie Rosman was born. American actress.
• 1989 - Hermann Oberth dies (b. 1894). German physicist.
• 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear version is released in Japan.
• 1991 - Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of Year.
• 1991 - Ninibeth Beatriz Leal Jiminez, 20, of Venezuela, crowned 41st Miss World
• 1991 - Cassandra Harris dies (b. 1952). Australian actress.
• 1992 - O parlamento iugoslavo vota a remoção do primeiro-ministro Milan Panic.
• 1992 - Daniella Perez dies murdered (b. 11 Aug 1970). Brazilian actress.
• 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.
• 1998 - Claudia Benton of West University Place, Texas is murdered in her home by Angel Maturino Resendiz. This is Angel's third victim in his third incident.
• 1998 - Claudia Benton dies (b. 1959). Peruvian child psychologist.
• 1999 - Saparmurat Niyazov was proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan.
• 1999 - Clayton Moore dies (b. 1914). American actor.
• 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.
• 2001 - 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.
• 2001 - William X. Kienzle dies (b. 1928). American novelist.
• 2003 - Libya for the first time allowed U.N. nuclear officials to inspect four sites related to its nuclear weapons program.
• 2003 - Benjamin Hacker dies (b. 1935). U.S. admiral
• 2003 - Dinsdale Landen dies (b. 1932). British actor.
• 2004 - Jerry Orbach dies (b. 1935). American actor.
• 2004 - Susan Sontag dies at 71. Writer and activist.
• Massacre of the Innocents or el Día de los Santos Inocentes, it is a day of practical jokes, in the same spirit as April Fool's Day.
• Proclamation Day (South Australian public holiday), for the foundation of the Australian state of South Australia