History of 28 April
1902 – A revolution broke out in the Dominican Republic.
1910 – First-night air flight was performed by Claude Grahame-White in England.
1914 – W.H. Carrier patented the design of his air conditioner.
1916 – The British declared martial law throughout Ireland.
1919 – The League of Nations was founded.
1920 – Azerbaijan joined the USSR.
1923 – The British Empire Exhibition Stadium (or Empire Stadium) opened to the public.
1930 – The first organized night baseball game was played in Independence, Kansas.
1932 – The yellow fever vaccine for humans was announced.
1937 – The first animated-cartoon electric sign was displayed on a building on Broadway in New York City. It was created by Douglas Leight.
1945 – Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.
1946 – The Allies indicted Tojo with 55 counts of war crimes.
1947 – Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip began in Peru and took 101 days to complete the crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
1952 – The U.S. occupation of Japan officially ended when a treaty with the U.S. and 47 other countries went into effect.
1953 – French troops evacuated northern Laos.
1957 – Mike Wallace was seen on TV for the first time. He was the host of “Mike Wallace Interviews.”
1959 – Arthur Godfrey was seen for the last time in the final broadcast of “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends” on CBS-TV.
1962 – In the Sahara Desert of Algeria, a team led by Red Adair used explosives to put out the good fire known as the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter. The fire was caused by a pipe rupture on November 6, 1961.
1965 – The U.S. Army and Marines invaded the Dominican Republic to evacuate Americans.
1967 – Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army and was stripped of boxing title. He cited religious grounds for his refusal.
1969 – Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.
1969 – In Santa Rosa, CA, Charles M. Schulz’s Redwood Empire Ice Arena opened.
1977 – Christopher Boyce was convicted of selling U.S. secrets.
1985 – The largest sand castle in the world was completed near St. Petersburg, FL. It was four stories tall.
1988 – In Maui, HI, one flight attendant was killed when the fuselage of a Boeing 737 ripped open in mid-flight.
1989 – Mobil announced that they were divesting from South Africa because congressional restrictions were too costly.
1992 – The U.S. Agriculture Department unveiled a pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart.
1994 – Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had given U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pled guilty to espionage and tax evasion. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1996 – U.S. President Clinton gave a 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.
1997 – A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons took effect. Russia and other countries such as Iraq and North Korea did not sign.
1999 – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected (on a tie vote of 213-213) a measure expressing support for NATO’s five-week-old air campaign in Yugoslavia. The House also voted to limit the president’s authority to use ground forces in Yugoslavia.
2000 – Jay Leno received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2001 – A Russian rocket launched from Central Asia with the first space tourist aboard. The crew consisted of California businessman Dennis Tito and two cosmonauts. The destination was the international space station.
2008 – India set a world record when it sent 10 satellites into orbit from a single launch.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Jessica Alba, American model, and actress
- 1981 – Pietro Travagli, Italian rugby player
- 1982 – Nikki Grahame, English model, and journalist
- 1982 – Chris Kaman, American basketball player
- 1983 – Josh Brookes, Australian motorcycle racer
- 1983 – David Freese, American baseball player
- 1983 – Roger Johnson, English footballer
- 1983 – Graham Wagg, English cricketer
- 1983 – Thomas Waldrom, New Zealand-English rugby player
- 1984 – Dmitri Torbinski, Russian footballer
- 1985 – Lucas Jakubczyk, German sprinter and long jumper
- 1985 – Deividas Stagniūnas, Lithuanian ice dancer
- 1986 – Roman Polak, Czech ice hockey player
- 1986 – Jenna Ushkowitz, Korean-American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1987 – Ryan Conroy, Scottish footballer
- 1987 – Samantha Akkineni, Indian actress, and model
- 1987 – Bradley Johnson, English footballer
- 1987 – Zoran Tosic, Serbian footballer
- 1988 – Jonathan Biabiany, French footballer
- 1988 – Juan Manuel Mata, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Katariina Tuohimaa, a Finnish tennis player
- 1989 – Emil Salomonsson, Swedish footballer
- 1989 – Kim Sung-kyu, South Korean singer, member of the South Korean boy band INFINITE
- 1990 – Niels-Peter Mørck, Danish footballer
- 1992 – Blake Bortles, American football player
- 1992 – DeMarcus Lawrence, American football player
- 1993 – Craig Garvey, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Eva Samková, Czech snowboarder
- 1995 – Jonathan Benteke, Belgian footballer
- 1995 – Melanie Martinez, American singer