On This Day — 28 August

2022

Phoenix shooting: A man opens fire on pedestrians outside of a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, resulting in the deaths of three people, including the perpetrator.

2022 Phoenix shooting

2017

China–India border standoff: China and India both pull their troops out of Doklam, putting an end to a two-month-long stalemate over China's construction of a road in disputed territory.

2017 China–India border standoff

2016

The first experimental mission of ISRO's Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

ISRO

2009

NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-128.

Space Shuttle Discovery

2003

In "one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI", Brian Wells dies after becoming involved in a complex plot involving a bank robbery, a scavenger hunt, and a homemade explosive device.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

1999

The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life.

Soyuz TM-29

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.

Pakistan

1998

Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa.

Second Congo War

1996

Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention.

Chicago Seven

1993

NASA's Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl.

NASA

1993

Singaporean presidential election: Former Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong is elected President of Singapore. Although it is the first presidential election to be determined by popular vote, the allowed candidates consist only of Ong and a reluctant whom the government had asked to run to confer upon the election the semblance of an opposition.

1993 Singaporean presidential election

1993

The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia in Bosnia and Herzegovina is transformed into the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1993

A Tajikistan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes during takeoff from Khorog Airport in Tajikistan, killing 82.

Tajik Air

1990

Gulf War: Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.

Gulf War

1990

An F5 tornado strikes the Illinois cities of Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people.

1990 Plainfield tornado

1988

Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy-five are killed and 346 seriously injured.

Ramstein air show disaster

1973

Norrmalmstorg robbery: Stockholm police secure the surrenders of hostage-takers Jan-Erik Olsson and Clark Olofsson, defusing the Norrmalmstorg hostage crisis. The behaviours of the hostages later give rise to the term Stockholm syndrome.

Norrmalmstorg robbery

1968

Police and protesters clash during 1968 Democratic National Convention protests as protesters chant "The whole world is watching".

1968 Democratic National Convention protests

1964

The Philadelphia race riot begins.

1964 Philadelphia race riot

1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech.

March on Washington

1957

U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the United States Senate from voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later. This would remain the longest speech ever conducted by a single Senator until Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and five minutes, beginning on March 31, 2025.

United States Senate

1955

Black teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement.

African Americans

1946

The Workers' Party of North Korea, predecessor of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is founded at a congress held in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Workers' Party of North Korea

1944

World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.

World War II

1943

Denmark in World War II: German authorities demand that Danish authorities crack down on acts of resistance. The next day, martial law is imposed on Denmark.

Denmark in World War II

1937

Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.

Toyota

1936

Nazi Germany begins its mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses, who are interned in concentration camps.

Nazi Germany

1924

The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

1921

Russian Civil War: The Red Army dissolves the Makhnovshchina after driving the Revolutionary Insurgent Army out of Ukraine.

Russian Civil War

1917

Ten suffragists, members of the Silent Sentinels, are arrested while picketing the White House in favor of women's suffrage in the United States.

Suffragists

1916

World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.

Kingdom of Romania

1916

World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.

Kingdom of Italy

1914

World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.

World War I

1913

Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

1909

A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.

Hellenic Army

1901

Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. It is the first American private school in the country.

Silliman University

1898

Caleb Bradham's beverage "Brad's Drink" is renamed "Pepsi-Cola".

Caleb Bradham

1890

The strongest storm in Finnish history kills at least three people.

August Storm of 1890

1879

Anglo-Zulu War: Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.

Anglo-Zulu War

1867

The United States takes possession of the (at this point unoccupied) Midway Atoll.

Midway Atoll

1862

American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas, begins in Virginia. The battle ends on August 30 with another Union defeat.

Second Battle of Bull Run

1861

American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days.

American Civil War

1859

The Carrington event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record to strike the Earth. Electrical telegraph service is widely disrupted.

Carrington Event

1850

Richard Wagner's Lohengrin premieres at the Staatskapelle Weimar.

Richard Wagner

1849

Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire: After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria.

Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire

1845

The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.

Scientific American

1833

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal in the British Empire with exceptions.

Slavery Abolition Act 1833

1830

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in U.S. railroads.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

1810

Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy accepts the surrender of a British Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Grand Port.

Napoleonic Wars

1789

William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus.

William Herschel

1709

Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.

Gharib Niwaz (Manipur)

1648

Second English Civil War: The Siege of Colchester ends when Royalist Forces surrender to the Parliamentary Forces after eleven weeks.

Second English Civil War

1640

Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn.

Bishops' Wars

1619

Election of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

1609

Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.

Henry Hudson

1565

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sights land near St. Augustine, Florida and founds the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

1542

Turkish–Portuguese War: Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed.

Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560)

1524

The Kaqchikel Maya rebel against their former Spanish allies during the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.

Kaqchikel people

1521

Ottoman wars in Europe: The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.

Ottoman wars in Europe

1189

Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.

Third Crusade

663

Silla–Tang armies crush the Baekje restoration attempt and force Yamato Japan to withdraw from Korea in the Battle of Baekgang.

Silla

632

Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies, with her cause of death being a controversial topic among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims.

Fatima

489

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.

Theodoric the Great

475

The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna.

Roman Empire