September 28

What happened that day?

• 2014: Hong Kong protests: Benny Tai announces that Occupy Central is launched as Hong Kong's government headquarters is being occupied by thousands of protesters. Hong Kong police resort to tear gas to disperse protesters but thousands remain.
• 2012: Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port city of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
• 2009: The military junta leading Guinea, headed by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, raped, killed, and wounded protesters during a protest rally in a stadium called Stade du 28 Septembre.
• 2008: SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
• 2000: Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
• 1996: Former president of Afghanistan Mohammad Najibullah is tortured and murdered by the Taliban.
• 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• 1995: Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.
• 1994: The cruise ferry MS Estonia sinks in Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
• 1992: A Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashes in a hill in Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 167 passengers and crew.
• 1991: SAC stands down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under START I, as well as its strategic bomber force.
• 1986: The Democratic Progressive Party was established under the martial law in Taiwan, becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.
• 1975: The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, takes place in London.
• 1973: The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the September 11, 1973 coup d'état in Chile.
• 1971: The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 banning the medicinal use of cannabis.
• 1970: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo. Anwar Sadat is named as Nasser's temporary successor, and will later become the permanent successor.
• 1961: A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
• 1958: France ratifies a new [Constitution](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution) of France; the French Fifth Republic is then formed upon the formal adoption of the new constitution on October 4. Guinea rejects the new constitution, voting for independence instead.
• 1951: CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.
• 1944: Soviet Army troops liberate [Klooga](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Klooga) concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
• 1941: Ted Williams, playing for the Boston Red Sox in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics on the final day of the season, gets six hits in eight appearances at the plate, resulting in .406 batting average for the year, and became the last major league player to bat .400 in a season.
• 1941: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
• 1939: Warsaw surrenders to Nazi Germany during World War II.
• 1939: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
• 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
• 1924: First round-the-world flight completed.
• 1919: Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska, US.
• 1918: World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
• 1912: Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash. He and pilot Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell are killed in the crash of an Army Wright Model B at College Park, Maryland.
• 1912: The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Protestant Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
• 1901: Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own, in a surprise attack in Balangiga, Eastern Samar.
• 1892: The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
• 1889: The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
• 1871: The Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil.
• 1868: Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
• 1867: Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario's predecessors since 1796.
• 1844: Oscar I of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
• 1821: The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted. It will be made public on 13 October.
• 1791: France becomes the first country to emancipate its Jewish population.
• 1787: The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
• 1781: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1779: American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
• 1542: Navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, United States.
• 1538: Ottoman-Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
• 1322: Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
• 1238: Muslim Valencia surrenders to the besieging King James I of Aragon the Conqueror.
• 1106: Battle of Tinchebray: Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.
• 1066: William the Conqueror invades England beginning the Norman conquest of England.
• 995: Members of the Slavník dynasty: Spytimír, Pobraslav, Pořej and Čáslav are murdered by Boleslaus's son, Boleslaus II the Pious.
• 935: Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
• 365: Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself Roman emperor.
• 351: Battle of Mursa Major: The Roman emperor Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
• 235: Pope Pontian resigns. He and Hippolytus, church leader of Rome, are exiled to the mines of Sardinia.
• 48 BC: Pompey the Great is assassinated on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.