August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.
- 475 - The German general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints Romulus Augustus in his place.
- 1521 - The Turks occupy Belgrade
- 1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
- 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay[?].
- 1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1830 - The Tom Thumb starts the first railway service in the United States.
- 1833 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
- 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes first issue
- 1849 - After a siege of over one month, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
- 1850 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres.
- 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run- also known as the battle of Second Manassas
- 1867 - The United States occupies Midway Island.
- 1879 - Cetshwayo[?], last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
- 1884 - First known photograph of a tornado is made.
- 1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace[?] in The Hague.
- 1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the so-called Battle of Heligoland Bight (actually a comparatively minor engagement).
- 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
- 1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
- 1917 - Ten suffragists[?] are arrested when picketing the White House.
- 1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
- 1938 - The concentration camp Mauthausen is opened.
- 1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
- 1944 - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
- 1955 - Black Mississippi boy Emmett Till[?] is murdered for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
- 1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King gives his famous I have a dream speech.
- 1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois during the Democratic National Convention
- 1972 - During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
- 1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.
- 1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis[?] and Kaposi's sarcoma[?] in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
- 1986 - Stage of siege[?] declared in Bolivia.
- 1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
- 1988 - At an air show in Ramstein, West Germany, three stunt fighters collide; 70 people die.
- 1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.
- 1993 - A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
- 1993 - 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
- 1993 - Teng Cheong[?] elected president of Singapore
- 1994 - First gay pride march[?] in Japan.
- 1995 - A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The NATO action against Bosnian Serbs was a reaction to this incident.
- 1996 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana are divorced.
- 1998 - A new legal system, based on the Koran, is established in Pakistan.
- 2001 - Dutch prime minister Wim Kok announces that he will not be available for another term as PvdA party leader or prime minister after the 2002 elections.
- 1749 - Goethe, writer, scientist (+ 1832)
- 1774 - Elizabeth Ann Seton[?], first American-born Catholic saint (+ 1821)
- 1814 - Sheridan le Fanu, writer (+ 1873)
- 1828 - Leo Tolstoy, writer (+ 1910)
- 1897 - Charles Boyer, actor (+ 1978)
- 1903 - Bruno Bettelheim[?], psychologist
- 1904 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (+ 1980)
- 1908 - Roger Tory Peterson[?], ornithologist, illustrator
- 1911 - Joseph Luns, Dutch politician (+ 2002)
- 1913 - Robertson Davies, novelist, playwright (+ 1995)
- 1917 - Jack Kirby, comic book artist (+ 1994)
- 1924 - Janet Frame, author
- 1925 - Donald O'Connor[?], singer, dancer, actor
- 1930 - Ben Gazzara[?], actor
- 1957 - Daniel Stern, actor
- 1958 - Scott Hamilton[?], Olympic Games gold medal winning figure skater
- 1960 - Emma Samms[?], actress
- 1961 - Kim Appleby[?], singer (Mel & Kim[?])
- 1965 - Shania Twain, singer
- 1969 - Jason Priestley, actor
- 1971 - Janet Evans, Olympic swimmer
- 1982 - LeAnn Rimes, singer
- 430 - Augustine of Hippo
- 1481 - Alphonso V, king of Portugal
- 1818 - Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, founder of Chicago
- 1900 - Henry Sidgwick, philosopher
- 1919 - Louis Botha[?], Boer leader
- 1943 - King Boris III of Bulgaria
- 1959 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
- 1964 - Gracie Allen, actress, comedienne
- 1985 - Ruth Gordon, actress
- 1987 - John Huston, movie director
- 1990 - Willy Vandersteen[?], cartoonist
- 1995 - Michael Ende, writer
See Also:
August 27 - August 29 - July 28 - September 28 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December