28 September

Events

Pre-1600

*48 BC – Pompey disembarks at Pelusium upon arriving in Egypt, whereupon he is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy XIII.
* 235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome.
* 351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
*365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.
* 935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
* 995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.
*1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
* 1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebray.
* 1213 – Queen consort Gertrude of Merania is assassinated by a group of Hungarian lords.*
*1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.
*1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
*1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
*1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California. He is the first European in California.

1601–1900

*1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
*1781 – American Revolution: French and American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.
*1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
*1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted. It will be made public on 13 October.
*1844 – Oscar I of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
*1867 – Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario's predecessors since 1796.
*1868 – The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
*1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.
*1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a metre.
*1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.

1901–present

*1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
*1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
* 1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
*1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
*1919 – Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska, United States.
*1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation is completed by a team from the US Army.
*1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
*1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland.
* 1939 – World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end.
*1941 – World War II: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
* 1941 – Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.
*1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
*1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.
* 1958 – Fernando Rios, a Mexican tour guide in New Orleans, dies of injuries sustained in an incident of gay bashing.
*1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
*1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.
*1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the coup d'état in Chile.
*1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, takes place in London.
*1986 – The Democratic Progressive Party becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.
*1992 – A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes into a hill in Nepal, killing all 167 passengers and crew.
*1994 – The cruise ferry sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
*1995 – Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.
* 1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
*2000 – Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
*2008 – Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit by the RatSat mission.
* 2008 – The Singapore Grand Prix is held as Formula One's inaugural night race, with Fernando Alonso winning the event. Almost a year later it was revealed that Alonso's team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had been ordered to crash his car to help bring out the safety car and give Alonso the advantage and win.
*2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacks a protest rally, killing or wounding 1,400 people.
*2012 – Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
*2012 – Sita Air Flight 601 crashes in Madhyapur Thimi, Nepal, killing all 19 passengers and crew.
*2014 – The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing.
*2016 – The 2016 South Australian blackout occurs, lasting up to three days in some areas.
*2018 – The 7.5 M_w 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami, leaves 4,340 dead and 10,679 injured.
*2022 – Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Cayo Costa State Park, Florida as a category four hurricane, killing 169 and doing $113 billion in damage, becoming Florida's costliest hurricane and the deadliest in 89 years.
*2023 – The 2023 Rotterdam shootings occurred, during which two people were killed in a shooting and arson incident at a residence in Delfshaven, Rotterdam. Additionally, one person lost their life in a classroom at the Erasmus University Medical Center.

Births

Pre-1600

* 551 BC – Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. (died 479 BC)
* 616 – Javanshir, King of Caucasian Albania (died 680)
* 1494 – Agnolo Firenzuola, Italian poet and playwright (died 1545)
*1555 – Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Marshal of France (died 1623)
*1573 – Théodore de Mayerne, Swiss physician (died 1654)

1601–1900

*1605 – Ismaël Bullialdus, French astronomer and mathematician (died 1694)
*1681 – Johann Mattheson, German composer, lexicographer, and diplomat (died 1764)
* 1705 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (died 1774)
* 1705 – Johann Peter Kellner, German organist and composer (died 1772)
*1735 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1811)
*1746 – William Jones, English-Welsh philologist and scholar (died 1794)
*1765 – Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (died 1814)
*1803 – Prosper Mérimée, French archaeologist, historian, and author (died 1870)
*1809 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (died 1899)
*1819 – Narcís Monturiol, Spanish engineer and publisher (died 1885)
*1821 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, American minister and politician (died 1874)
*1823 – Alexandre Cabanel, French painter and educator (died 1889)
*1824 – Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet and critic (died 1897)
*1836 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber, invented the ballcock (died 1910)
*1841 – Georges Clemenceau, French journalist, physician, and politician, 85th Prime Minister of France (died 1929)
*1844 – Robert Stout, Scottish-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1930)
*1852 – Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1907)
* 1852 – Isis Pogson, British astronomer and meteorologist (died 1945)
* 1852 – John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, British Army officer (died 1925)
*1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (died 1923)
*1860 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French chemist and physicist (died 1934)
*1861 – Amélie of Orléans, queen consort of Portugal (died 1951)
*1867 – Hiranuma Kiichirō, Japanese lawyer and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1952)
* 1867 – James Edwin Campbell, American educator, school administrator, newspaper editor, poet, and essayist (died 1896)
*1870 – Florent Schmitt, French composer and critic (died 1958)
*1877 – Albert Young, American boxer and promoter (died 1940)
*1878 – Joseph Ruddy, American swimmer and water polo player (died 1962)
*1881 – Pedro de Cordoba, American actor (died 1950)
*1882 – Mart Saar, Estonian organist and composer (died 1963)
*1883 – Albert Peyriguère, French priest, hermit and ethnologist (died 1959)
* 1885 – Emil Väre, Finnish wrestler, coach, and referee (died 1974)
*1887 – Avery Brundage, American businessman, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (died 1975)
*1889 – Jack Fournier, American baseball player and coach (died 1973)
*1890 – Florence Violet McKenzie, Australian electrical engineer (died 1982)
*1892 – Elmer Rice, American playwright (died 1967)
* 1893 – Hilda Geiringer, Austrian mathematician (died 1973)
* 1893 – Giannis Skarimpas, Greek author, poet, and playwright (died 1984)
*1898 – Carl Clauberg, German Nazi physician (died 1957)
*1900 – Isabel Pell, American socialite, fought as part of the French Resistance during WWII (died 1951)

1901–present

*1901 – William S. Paley, American broadcaster, founded CBS (died 1990)
* 1901 – Ed Sullivan, American television host (died 1974)
*1903 – Haywood S. Hansell, American general (died 1988)
*1905 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (died 2005)
*1907 – Heikki Savolainen, Finnish gymnast and physician (died 1997)
* 1907 – Bhagat Singh, Indian activist (died 1931)
* 1909 – Al Capp, American author and illustrator (died 1979)
*1910 – Diosdado Macapagal, Filipino lawyer and politician, 9th President of the Philippines (died 1997)
* 1910 – Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino lawyer and politician (died 1942)
*1913 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (died 2007)
* 1913 – Alice Marble, American tennis player (died 1990)
*1914 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American refugee and singer (died 2014)
*1915 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (died 1953)
*1916 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (died 1977)
* 1916 – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Ukrainian-Russian ballerina and educator (died 2008)
*1917 – Wee Chong Jin, Singaporean judge (died 2005)
*1918 – Ángel Labruna, Argentinian footballer and manager (died 1983)
* 1918 – Arnold Stang