April 28
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Featured Event
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On this day in 1986, a group of archaeologists announced their discovery of more than 400 artifacts in Chinese tombs nearly 2,000 years old. Among their notable finds was one scrap of paper showing waterways, mountains, and roads. It turned out to be the world’s oldest surviving paper map fragment, and it forced a rewriting of the history of papermaking. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Jacques Pavlovsky—Sygma/Getty Images
Saddam Hussein, who as president of Iraq (1979–2003) angered and outraged the international community with invasions of neighboring Iran and Kuwait and who was unseated by the United States, was born this day in 1937.
Famous Birthdays
More on April 28
© Anja Niedringhaus—AFP/Getty Images
2004
During the Iraq War, photographs showing the U.S. military abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were broadcast, by American television network CBS, for the first time.
Courtesy of Apple
2003
Apple launched the iTunes Store, which gave users the ability to purchase and download music from the Internet directly to their iTunes library for transfer to their iPod. By 2010 the store had sold its 10 billionth song. [Test your knowledge of computers and technology.]
NASA (Image ID: KSC-03PD-1489)
2001
American businessman Dennis Tito became the first space tourist when he was launched into orbit aboard a Russian supply mission to the International Space Station; he paid approximately $20 million for the six-day trip. [Take our space exploration quiz.]
Rick Rycroft/AP Images
1996
A mass shooting left 35 people dead and some 18 others wounded in the Port Arthur area of Tasmania, Australia. The country’s worst mass shooting, it led to stricter gun controls.
Bruno Barbey/Magnum Photos
1969
After voters rejected a referendum outlining his proposed political reforms, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France. He died the following year. [Sort fact from fiction in our France quiz.]
Ira Rosenberg/Library of Congress (file no. LC-USZ62-115435)
1967
At the height of the Vietnam War, boxer Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army, citing religious reasons; his subsequent conviction on criminal charges was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. [Watch: The life and times of Muhammad Ali.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1966
The Battle of Sinoia—often cited as the first engagement of the Rhodesian Bush War—was fought between Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army guerrillas and Rhodesian security forces.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1952
The Allied occupation of Japan came to an end after seven years of rapid social and economic change that followed the country’s surrender in World War II. [Test your knowledge of Japanese history.]
National Library of Norway (blds_05860)
1947
Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and a small crew set sail from Peru aboard the raft Kon-Tiki. They arrived in Polynesia three and a half months later. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about history makers.]
H. Roger-Viollet
1945
Dictator Benito Mussolini was executed after he was captured while trying to flee Italy. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
© Terrence Antonio James—Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy
1926
Harper Lee—who won national acclaim for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)—was born in Monroeville, Alabama. [Take our To Kill a Mockingbird quiz.]
Bill Manns/Shutterstock.com
1881
Gunfighter Billy the Kid escaped from prison in Mesilla, New Mexico, where he had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was killed several months later by Sheriff Pat Garrett. [Test your knowledge of criminality and famous outlaws.]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc./The Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, New York City
1789
William Bligh, captain of the British ship Bounty, was set adrift with 18 of his men by mutinous sailors led by the master’s mate Fletcher Christian.
Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia
1758
James Monroe, who was the fifth president of the United States (1817–25) and who asserted a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in the Monroe Doctrine, was born in Virginia. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidents.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1442
King Edward IV of England was born in Rouen, France. [How much do you know about the kings of England?]