History: October 28

October 28

0312 Roman emperor Constantine the Great, aged 32, defeats the army of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, a contender to the throne, at Mulvian Bridge in Rome, after trusting in a vision he had seen of the cross, inscribed with the words, "In this sign conquer." Constantine is converted soon after and becomes the first Roman emperor to embrace the Christian faith. (Bradley)


0969 After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.

1017 Birth: Henry III, Holy Roman emperor (1046-56).

1628 After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces.


1636 Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1646 At Nonantum, Massachusetts, colonial missionary John Eliot (Apostle to the New England Indians), aged 42, conducts the first Protestant worship service for the Indians of North America. He also delivers the first sermon preached to the Indians in their native tongue. (Bradley)

1768 Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans.

1776 US Revolutionary War: At the Battle of White Plains, Washington retreats to New Jersey.


1790 New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000.


1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively, a job which was previously done by hand.


1793 Birth: Eliphalet Remington, riflemaker.

1794 Birth: Robert Liston, who will carry out the first operation in Britain with the aid of an anesthetic.

1810 Birth: Brigadier General Adley H. Gladden, in Louisiana, will be killed at Shiloh.


1831 Michael Faraday demonstrates the first dynamo.


1846 The pioneering Donner Party of 90 people sets out from Springfield, Illinois, for California.

1863 US Civil War: In a rare night attack, the Confederates under General James Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to cut their supply line, the 'cracker line.' They fail.

1886 The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, New York, formerly Bedloe's Island, by President Grover Cleveland. It is celebrated by the first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City. (Bradley)

1891 An earthquake devastates Mino-Owari, Japan killing 7,300.

1901 Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34.

1904 The St. Louis police try a new investigation method; fingerprints.


1909 Birth: Francis Bacon, English artist who will paint expressionist portraits.

1912 Birth: Richard Doll, English epidemiologist who will establish a link between tobacco smoke and lung cancer.

1914 Birth: Jonas Salk, in New York City, Polio vaccine pioneer; will make polio a thing of the past.


1914 WW1: The German cruiser Emden, disguised as a British ship, steams into Penang Harbour near Malaya and sinks the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug. The exploits of the lone, resourceful cruiser capture world attention, and establish tactics for commerce raiding that give tradition to a new navy.

1914 George Eastman announces the invention of a color photo process to be marketed by Eastman Kodak Company.

1918 WW1: British and French troops gain a large bridgehead on the Piave River in Italy, splitting the front.


1918 Czechoslovakia gains independence as Austria-Hungary breaks up.

1919 Over President Wilson's veto, the US Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.


1922 After the Fascists march on Rome, Benito Mussolini secures a mandate from King Victor Emmanuel III to form a coalition government.

1924 Following the British example of February 1, the French extend de jure recognition of the USSR. Romania and Yugoslavia refuse.

1933 Gustav Ranzenhoffer, Austrian High Court Justice, demands a numerus clausus for Jews in all professions.

1933 Holocaust: The Nazis boast that their anti-Semitic propaganda has inspired Arab riots in Palestine.

1934 The Arab Federation of Labor calls for a Jewish boycott in Palestine.

1937 Spanish Civil War: The Spanish Loyalists (Socialists) government escapes to Barcelona.

1938 Holocaust: Oct 28-29 Some 15,000 "stateless" Jews are forced to leave their homes throughout Germany and to go, with only one suitcase, to the nearest railway station. They are then taken through the night to the German-Polish border and forced across at gun point. (Atlas)

1939 Holocaust: Starting with the town of Piotrkow, German authorities begin confining the Jews of Poland to a particular area (ghetto) of each city or town in which they live. Sometimes this area is the already prominently Jewish quarter, but often it is a poor or neglected part of the town, away from the center. Jews from the rest of the town are then forced to leave their homes, and to move into this, often much smaller area, in which even the basic amenities are unavailable. In each of these ghetto areas, food and medical supplies are restricted. Intense overcrowding, hunger and disease lead to widespread suffering and death. (Atlas)


1939 Volkishness: Himmler sets off a controversy when he issues an extraordinary "order" for the entire SS and police to father as many children as possible, even outside of marriage, to compensate for the German blood lost in the war. Himmler pledges to provide generous support for all such children, regardless of their parents marital status. (Architect)


1940 WW2: Mussolini unexpectedly and without warning attacks Greece, launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania. Greece successfully resists the attack. Privately, Hitler is furious with Duces unilateral aggression, feeling that it will take Axis strength from other fronts.

1940 Holocaust: A second escape from Auschwitz results in a rollcall from 12 noon to 9PM in bitter weather, during which 200 prisoners die. (Atlas)


1940 Holocaust: Himmler inspects Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Silesia. (Architect)


1942 WW2: The US government orders the seizure of two Nazi front organizations run by Prescott Bush (above) and Averell Harriman: The Holland-American Trading Company and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation.


1943 Church and Reich: Ambassador Weizsäcker reports: "Although under pressure from all sides, the Pope has not let himself be drawn into any demonstrative censure of the deportation of Jews from Rome. Although he must expect that his attitude will be criticized by our enemies and exploited by the Protestant and Anglo-Saxon countries in their propaganda against Catholicism, he has done everything he could in this delicate matter not to strain relations with the German government and German circles in Rome. As there is no reason to expect other German actions against the Jews of Rome, we can consider that a question so disturbing to German-Vatican relations has been liquidated." (PA Bonn; Poliakov; Lewy)

1944 Diary of Leon Gladun: (Italy) New position further north at Sta Marina. Interesting only in that it's near a church and a cemetery. I had my P.D. on a wagon just two meters from the church door. At first it seemed that we wouldn't be shooting from here but it turned out that we did and quite heavily. I was on duty during All Saint's Day and I was firing right in the middle of church services. During shooting, one of our cannon exploded as a result of a bad lock. Pieces landed just meters from the church door but there were no casualties. On our last day here snow fell--the first this year.

1944 WW2: The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission from the airfields in the Mariana Islands strike against the Japanese base at Truk.

1946 German rocket engineers begin work in the USSR.


1948 The flag of Israel is adopted.

1955 Birth: Bill Gates.


1959 Birth: Walther Bauersfeld, 1919 inventor, first modern projection planetarium.

1960 In a note to the Organization of American States, the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians from the Soviet bloc.


1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Russian leader Khrushchev decides to orders the withdrawal of missiles from Cuba.

1965 The death penalty is abolished in Britain for murder.

1965 Pope Paul VI proclaims that Jews are not collectively guilty for the crucifixion.

1970 The US and USSR sign an agreement to discuss joint space efforts.


1971 England becomes the sixth nation to have a satellite (Prospero) in orbit.

1971 The Conservative-dominated House of Commons votes to join the Common Market by a majority of 112. The UK eventually joins in 1973.

1974 Luna 23 is launched by the USSR. (Lunar Lander - Mare Crisium).

1985 The leader of the so-called 'Walker family spy ring', John Walker, pleads guilty to giving US Navy secrets to the Soviet Union.

1986 The Statue of Liberty reaches the actual 100th anniversary of its dedication, without the hoopla of the 4 July ceremonies.


1987 Death: Andre Masson, in France, surrealist artist, was one of the major early French Surrealist painters. A close friend of Andre Breton, Joan Miro and Max Ernst, he joined the Surrealist movement in the early 20s. (Labyrinth).


1991 Two Israeli Jewish settlers are killed by gunmen in the occupied West Bank. Israel blames the attack on Palestinian radicals opposed to the peace talks.

1993 A US budget deficit of $254.9 billion is reported for fiscal year 1993.

1994 President Clinton visits US troops in Kuwait during a Middle Eastern trip.

2001 An early morning US raid on Kabul's northern outskirts kills at least 10 people, witnesses say, the second claim of a stray attack.

2001 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm a third New Jersey postal worker has inhalation anthrax infection, bringing the total number to eight, including three people who have died from the most serious form of the disease.

2001 Gunmen storm into a Christian church in Behawalpur Pakistan, during Sunday services, and spray the congregation with gunfire, killing the minister and 15 others.

2001 Israeli tanks leave Bethlehem after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gives the green light for withdrawal despite attacks by Palestinians that killed five people in Israel. 


2001 A WTC memorial service, attended by victim's families, is held in New York City at "Ground Zero", amidst the still smoldering ruins.

2001

2003

2004

2004



Visit: Visit:
Click Here to email the History: One Day At a Time webmaster.
Subscribe to History1Day
Powered by groups.yahoo.com