April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining.

Events

1700-1899

• 1788 - Maryland becomes the 7th state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
• 1789 - Mutiny on the HMAV Bounty. Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors set adrift and rebel crew sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.

1900-1999

• 1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
• 1930 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
• 1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
• 1937 - The Museum of Costume Arts opens in New York City.
• 1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot to death by members of the Italian resistance movement while trying to flee Italy.
• 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
• 1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO in order to run for President of the United States.
• 1952 - Occupied Japan: The Japan ends.
• 1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate Americans.
• 1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
• 1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
• 1978 - Afghanistan President Mohammed Daoud Khan is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by procommunist rebels.
• 1987 - The 27-year old American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by US-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua. His death sets off a fierce debate in the United States.
• 1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii a flight attendant is sucked out of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 and falls to her death when an upper part of the plane's cabin area rips off in mid-flight. Metal fatigue is later found to be the cause of the failure.
• 1990 - After 6,237 performances, the Broadway musical A Chorus Line closes.
• 1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
• 1996 - Whitewater scandal: President Bill Clinton gives 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
• 1996 - The world's worst 'spree killer' of all time, Martin Bryant, kills 35 people, and wounds another 18 at the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, Australia.
• 1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, signed in Paris in January Russia, Iraq and North Korea were notable nations who had not ratified the treaty.
• 2003 - Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store released, sells 1,000,000 songs in first week.

Births

1400-1899

• 1442 - King Edward IV of England (d. 1483)
• 1758 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
• 1810 - Daniel Ullmann, general (d. 1892)
• 1819 - Ezra Abbot, American bible scholar (d. 1884)
• 1874 - Karl Kraus, journalist and author (d. 1936)
• 1878 - Lionel Barrymore, actor (d. 1954)
• 1886 - Ğabdulla Tuqay, poet (d. 1913)
• 1889 - Portugal (d. 1970)
• 1896 - Charlie Rivel, clown (d. 1983)

1900-1999

• 1900 - Bruno Apitz, author (d. 1979)
• 1906 - Kurt Gödel, mathematician (d. 1978)
• 1908 - Oskar Schindler, businessman (d. 1974)
• 1923 - Horst-Eberhard Richter, psychoanalyst
• 1928 - Yves Klein, painter (d. 1962)
• 1928 - Eugene M. Shoemaker, planetary scientist (d. 1997)
• 1930 - James Baker, politician
• 1937 - Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq
• 1941 - Ann-Margret, actress
• 1948 - Terry Pratchett, author
• 1950 - Jay Leno, comedian
• 1958 - Hal Sutton, American golfer
• 1966 - John Daly, American golfer
• 1974 - Penélope Cruz, actress
• 1981 - Jessica Alba, actress
• 1991 - David Balme, coolest kid

Deaths

1700-1899

• 1772 - Johann Friedrich Struensee, royal physician of Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1737)
• 1813 - Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Russian field marshal, (b. 1745)

1900-1999

• 1905 - Fitzhugh Lee, Confederate general
• 1926 - Zip the Pinhead, born William Henry Johnson (b. 1857)
• 1945 - Benito Mussolini Il Duce and Clara Petacci, shot, hanged upside down, mutilated
• 1978 - Sardar Mohammed Daoud, President of Afghanistan (b. 1909)
• 1992 - Francis Bacon, artist (b. 1909)

2000-2099

• 2000 - Penelope Fitzgerald, writer (b. 1916)
• 2002 - Alexander Lebed, Russian General (b. 1950)
• 2002 - Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie Doll (b. 1916)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - first day of the Floralia in honor of Flora
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Jamál (Beauty) - First day of the third month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• World Day for Safety and Health at Work (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/worldday/)

April 27 - April 29 - March 28 - May 28 -- listing of all days