28th November

Events

• 1520 - After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).
• 1660 - At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray meet after a lecture by Wren and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning}" (later known as the Royal Society).
• 1582 - In Stratford-upon-Avon, 18 year-old William Shakespeare and 26 year-old Anne Hathaway pay a 40-pound bond for their marriage license (Shakespeare would later become one of the greatest playwrights in history).
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cane Hill - Union troops led by General John Blunt push back Confederate forces commanded by General John Marmaduke into northwestern Arkansas' Boston Mountains.
• 1905 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin as a political party whose goal is the independence for all of Ireland.
• 1907 - In Haverville, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater (in a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England and in 1917 he founded his own production company, which eventually became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).
• 1912 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
• 1914 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
• 1919 - American-born Lady Nancy Astor is elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, becoming the first female member of that institution.
• 1920 - The Mask of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. opens.
• 1925 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it would later become the longest-running live music show).
• 1942 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
• 1943 - World War II: Teheran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy.
• 1958 - Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.
• 1960 - Mauritania becomes independent of France.
• 1964 - Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor agree to recommend that US President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: In response to US President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
• 1969 - The Newcomers stopped airing on the BBC
• 1975 - East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.
• 1979 - In Antarctica, a DC-10 carrying Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
• 1982 - Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.
• 1984 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.
• 1987 - A Boeing 747 carrying South African Airways 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.
• 1987 - In Wappingers Falls, New York, Tawana Brawley is found wrapped in garbage bags, with feces smeared all over her body and a racial slur on her body (she later told police that she was held against her will for four days and repeatedly raped by a group of white men, one of which had a police badge. Her story did not check out, however).
• 1989 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - With other communist regimes falling all around it and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in December 1989 brought the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years).
• 1994 - In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death in by a deranged inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium.
• 1994 - Voters in Norway reject European Union membership.
• 1995 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.

Births

• 1628 - John Bunyan, cleric, author (Pilgrim's Progress) (d. 1688)
• 1632 - Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer (d. 1687)
• 1700 - Revd Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal (d. 1764)
• 1757 - William Blake, poet, painter (d. 1827)
• 1785 - Achille-Charles, duc de Broglie, Prime Minister of France (d. 1870)
• 1805 - John Stephens, archeologist (d. 1852)
• 1810 - William Froude, engineer, naval architect (d. 1879)
• 1820 - Friedrich Engels, social philosopher (d. 1895)
• 1821 - Nikolai Nekrasov, poet, journalist (d. 1878)
• 1829 - Anton Rubinstein, composer, pianist, conductor (d. 1894)
• 1837 - John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of celluloid, first synthetic plastic (d. 1920)
• 1853 - Helen Magill White, educator, first American woman to earn a Ph.D (1877) (d. 1944)
• 1866 - Henry Bacon, architect (Lincoln Memorial) (d. 1924)
• 1881 - Stefan Zweig, poet, essayist, dramatist (d. 1942)
• 1887 - Ernst Röhm, Nazi official (d. 1934)
• 1894 - Brooks Atkinson, drama critic (d. 1984)
• 1895 - José Iturbi, pianist (d. 1980)
• 1896 - Lilia Skala, actress (d. 1994)
• 1902 - Victor Jory, actor (d. 1982)
• 1904 - Nancy Mitford, essayist, satirist (d. 1973)
• 1907 - Alberto Moravia, writer (d. 1990)
• 1908 - Claude Levi-Strauss, social anthropologist
• 1908 - Erich von Holst, behaviorist (d. 1962)
• 1916 - Guy Lapebie, cyclist
• 1916 - Mary Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, Belgium (d. 2002)
• 1920 - Cecilia Colledge, figure skater
• 1925 - Gloria Grahame, actress (d. 1981)
• 1925 - Virginia Hewitt, actress (d. 1986)
• 1929 - Berry Gordy Jr, record company owner (Motown)
• 1931 - Hope Lange, actress
• 1931 - Tomi Ungerer, graphic artist, author
• 1936 - Gary Hart, U.S. politician
• 1941 - Laura Antonelli, actress
• 1942 - Paul Warfield, American football player
• 1943 - Randy Newman, composer, musician
• 1949 - Alexander Godunov, composer, ballet dancer (d. 1995)
• 1949 - Paul Shaffer, orchestra leader, musician
• 1950 - Ed Harris, actor
• 1957 - David Van Day, musician
• 1959 - Judd Nelson, actor
• 1961 - Jane Sibbett, actress
• 1961 - Alfonso Cuarón, director
• 1962 - Jon Stewart, comedian, actor, television host
• 1964 - Cornelia Guest, debutante
• 1967 - Anna Nicole Smith, model, television personality

Deaths

• 741 - St. Gregory III, Pope
• 1170 - Owain ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd
• 1262 - Shinran, founder of Japan's True Pure Land Buddhist sect
• 1815 - Johann Peter Salomon, violinist, impresario and composer
• 1827 - Dov Baer Schneersohn, Lubavitch leader, author
• 1859 - Washington Irving, writer
• 1935 - Erich von Hornbostel, musicologist
• 1939 - James A Naismith, creator of basketball
• 1945 - Dwight Davis, donator of the Davis cup
• 1954 - Enrico Fermi, physicist
• 1960 - Richard Wright, author
• 1962 - Queen Mother Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
• 1963 - Fred Uttal, television host
• 1963 - Karyn Kupcinet, actress
• 1964 - Charles Meredith, actor
• 1971 - Wasfi Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan
• 1972 - Havergal Brian, composer
• 1976 - Rosalind Russell, actress
• 1977 - Trevor Bardette, actor
• 1983 - Christopher George, actor
• 1986 - Herb Vigran, actor
• 1987 - Choh Hao Li, biochemist
• 1994 - Jerry Rubin, 1960s anti-war activist
• 1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith: Holy Day - Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha

See also

November 27 - November 29 - October 28 - December 28 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December