What Happened on December 28th in History
30 historical events on this date
Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
Osceola, named Billy Powell at birth, was an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by...
South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of 984,314 square kilometres (380,046 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and...
Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.
Spanish attempts to reconquer Mexico were efforts by the Spanish government to regain possession of its former colony of New Spain, resulting in episodes of war comprised in clashes between the...
Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.
Iowa is a landlocked state in the upper Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the...
Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred during a violent European windstorm on Sunday 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train on the...
The Indian National Congress is founded in Bombay Presidency, British India.
The Indian National Congress (INC), also known as the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a big tent political party in India. It is India’s oldest political party and is widely regarded as...
The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.
The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière and Louis Jean Lumière, were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and...
Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays. In 1901, Röntgen became the first recipient of...
The Syracuse Athletic Club defeat the New York Philadelphians, 5–0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.
A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the American Professional...
The 7.1 Mw Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between about 80,000.
A devastating earthquake occurred on 28 December 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy, with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The epicentre was in...
The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the primary public transit system within San Francisco, California. It operates a system of bus routes, the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable...
Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, becomes the first woman to be elected Member of Parliament (MP) to the British House of Commons.
Constance Georgine Markievicz, also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish revolutionary nationalist politician, suffragist and socialist who was the first woman elected to...
World War II: Operation Anthropoid, the plot to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, commences.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
Soviet authorities launch Operation Ulussy, beginning the deportation of the Kalmyk nation to Siberia and Central Asia.
The Soviets deported more than 93,000 people of Kalmyk nationality, and non-Kalmyk women with Kalmyk husbands, in Operation Ulusy from 28 to 31 December 1943. Families and individuals were forcibly...
World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare...
Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score eight points in one game of NHL ice hockey.
Joseph Henri Maurice Richard was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL...
The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Miami.
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner that was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It had a lasting effect on the airline industry from the 1930s through World War II. It was...
Chin Peng, David Marshall and Tunku Abdul Rahman meet in Baling, Malaya to try to resolve the Malayan Emergency situation.
Chin Peng, born Ong Boon Hua, was a Malayan communist politician, guerrilla leader, and revolutionary. He was the longest-serving General Secretary of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the...
"Greatest Game Ever Played": The Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium to win the NFL Championship.
The 1958 NFL Championship Game was the 26th NFL championship game, played on December 28 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first NFL game to be decided in sudden death overtime. The...
American businesswoman Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
Muriel Faye Siebert was an American businesswoman who was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the first woman to head one of the NYSE's member firms. She joined...
The last scheduled day for induction into the military by the Selective Service System. Due to the fact that President Richard Nixon declared this day a national day of mourning due to former President Harry S Truman's death, approximately 300 men were not able to report due to most Federal offices being closed. Since the draft was not resumed in 1973, they were never drafted.
The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains a database of registered male U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to...
The United States Endangered Species Act is signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal...
United Airlines Flight 173 crashes in a residential neighborhood near Portland International Airport, killing 10 people.
United Airlines Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon, with a scheduled stop in Denver,...
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
The 1989 Newcastle earthquake was an intraplate earthquake that occurred in Newcastle, New South Wales, on Thursday 28 December. The shock measured 5.6 on the Richter scale and was one of...
War in Somalia: The militaries of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and Ethiopian troops capture Mogadishu unopposed.
The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, also known as the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia was an armed conflict lasting from mid-2006 to early 2009. It began when Ethiopian military forces, supported by...
Forty-three people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura.
The 2009 Karachi bombing or Ashura attack took place on 28 December 2009 inside a Shia procession commemorating the day of Ashura, at Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Ashura is the...
Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard.
Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the Airbus A320 flying the...
Nine people die and another 19 are reported missing, when the MS Norman Atlantic catches fire in the Strait of Otranto, in the Adriatic Sea, in Italian waters.
MS Norman Atlantic was a roll-on/roll-off passenger (ROPAX) ferry owned by the Italian ferry company Visemar di Navigazione. The ferry was chartered by ANEK Lines from December 2014. On 28 December...
A truck bomb is detonated in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 85 people and injuring over 140 more. The militant group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility.
On 28 December 2019, a suicide truck bomber killed at least 85 people at the Ex-Control Afgoye police checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia. More than 140 others were wounded and, as of 31 December, 12...
Unrest in the form of mass protests erupt across Iran, the largest uprising in the country since the Iranian Revolution.
The 2025–2026 Iranian protests are a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis. The unrest followed a sharp...