October 28 - Events

Events

• 97 – Emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.
• 306 – Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
• 312 – Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor.
• 456 – The Visigoths brutally sack the Suebi's capital of Braga (Portugal), churches are burnt to the ground.
• 969 – Byzantine general Michael Bourtzes seizes part of Antioch's fortifications. The capture of the city from the Arabs is completed three days later, when reinforcements under Peter Phokas arrive.
• 1061 – Empress Agnes, acting as regent for her son, brings about the election of bishop Cadalus, the antipope Honorius II.
• 1516 – Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
• 1531 – Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad's control.
• 1538 – The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established.
• 1628 – The Siege of La Rochelle, which had lasted for 14 months, ends with the surrender of the Huguenots.
• 1636 – A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.
• 1664 – The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.
• 1707 – The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyūshū, Japan
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: A British proclamation forbids residents from leaving Boston.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains – British Army forces arrive at White Plains, attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Americans.
• 1834 – The Battle of Pinjarra is fought in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14 and 40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.
• 1835 – The United Tribes of New Zealand is established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence.
• 1848 – The first railroad in Spain – between Barcelona and Mataró – is opened.
• 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road (also known as the Second Battle of Fair Oaks) ends – Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
• 1886 – In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.
• 1891 – The Mino-Owari earthquake, the largest inland earthquake in Japan's history, strikes Gifu Prefecture.
• 1893 – Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique, receives its première performance in St. Petersburg, only nine days before the composer's death.
• 1904 – Panama and Uruguay establishes diplomatic links.
• 1915 – Richard Strauss conducts the first performance of his tone poem Eine Alpensinfonie in Berlin.
• 1918 – World War I: Czechoslovakia is granted independence from Austria-Hungary marking the beginning of an independent Czechoslovak state, after 300 years.
• 1918 – A new Polish government in Western Galicia is established.
• 1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
• 1922 – March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.
• 1928 – Declaration of the Youth Pledge in Indonesia, the first time Indonesia Raya, now the national anthem, was sung.
• 1929 – Black Monday, a day in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which also saw major stock market upheaval.
• 1940 – World War II: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania, marking Greece's entry into World War II.
• 1942 – The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.
• 1948 – Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.
• 1958 – John XXIII, is elected Pope.
• 1962 – End of Cuban missile crisis: Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.
• 1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. officials deny any involvement in bombing North Vietnam.
• 1965 – Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's 760 year-old declaration.
• 1965 – Construction on the St. Louis Arch is completed.
• 1971 – Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket, the only British satellite to date launched by a British rocket.
• 1982 – The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party wins elections, leading to the first Socialist government in Spain after death of Franco. Felipe Gonzalez becomes Prime Minister-elect.
• 1990 – The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic holds the first multiparty legislature election in the country's history.
• 1995 – 289 people are killed and 265 injured in Baku Metro fire, the deadliest subway disaster.
• 1998 – An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan.
• 2005 – Plame affair: Lewis Libby, Vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.
• 2006 – The funeral service takes place for those executed at Bykivnia forest, outside Kiev, Ukraine. 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s are reburied.
• 2006 – A group of angry activists of Bangladesh Awami League attacked one of their rival political party meeting in Dhaka with oars and sculls and killed their 14 activists.
• 2007 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first woman elected President of Argentina.
• 2009 – The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213.
• 2009 – NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its later-cancelled Constellation program.