August 28
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1898: Pepsi got its name
On this day pharmacist Caleb Bradham began marketing his popular “Brad’s Drink” as Pepsi-Cola. The sweet, carbonated concoction was already a hit at his North Carolina drugstore, but Bradham had ambitions beyond his local market. Indeed, the catchy rebranding helped transform a hometown favorite into one of the world’s most recognizable soft drinks, and PepsiCo, Inc. eventually became one of the largest food and beverage companies.
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© R. Gates—Archive Photos/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
AP Images
On this day in 1963, some 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., an event that became a high point of the civil rights movement, especially remembered for the famous “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. [Read about the largest single-day protests in U.S. history.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Everett Collection/age fotostock
While visiting relatives in Mississippi, Emmett Till, an African American teenager from Chicago, was murdered on this day in 1955, after allegedly flirting with a white woman; his death catalyzed the civil rights movement.
Famous Birthdays
More on August 28
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
2020
American actor Chadwick Boseman, who had iconic roles in such movies as Black Panther (2018), died from colon cancer at age 43. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz of A-list actors.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2014
American spy John Walker, a U.S. Navy communications specialist who passed classified documents to Soviet agents for nearly two decades (1967–85) before being caught, died in prison at age 77. [Read our list of 10 famous names in the espionage game.]
Press Association/AP Images
1996
The 15-year marriage of Charles, prince of Wales, and Diana, princess of Wales, ended as a final divorce decree was issued. [How much do you know about Princess Diana?]
© Everett Collection Historical/Alamy
1968
Protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention—fueled, in part, by opposition to the Vietnam War—culminated in the so-called Battle of Michigan Avenue, a violent confrontation between demonstrators and police. [Read our list of 10 Democrats who made history.]
Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech
1993
The spacecraft Galileo took pictures of the asteroid Ida. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about space objects.]
Chris Felver/© Archive Photos
1952
Writer and teacher Rita Dove, poet laureate of the United States (1993–95) and winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Thomas and Beulah (1986), was born in Akron, Ohio. [Take our quiz about poets and poetic form.]
© 1946 Universal Pictures
1946
The Killers, starring Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster in his breakthrough role, had its world premiere in New York City, and it became a film noir classic. [Test your knowledge of women in classic cinema.]
Photo by Dave Chan-PMO
1938
Liberal politician Paul Martin—who, as prime minister of Canada (2003–06), fostered economic growth and introduced progressive social policies but lost power amid a financial scandal in his party—was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Canada.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1937
Toyota Motor Corporation, now one of the world’s largest automobile makers, was incorporated in Japan. The company had previously been a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1850
Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin was performed for the first time, at Weimar, Germany. [How much do you know about opera?]
© API—Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
1833
The British Slavery Abolition Act received royal assent, ultimately freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada when it took effect the following year.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-12382)
1793
The Siege of Toulon in the French Revolutionary wars began. [Test your knowledge of French history.]