May 28
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Featured Event
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (09021562); Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
On this day, the Federalist papers—a series of 77 essays defending the proposed new U.S. Constitution and discussing the nature of republican government, written in 1787–88 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay—were published in book form as The Federalist. The essays explored a wide range of issues, including judicial review, foreign policy, taxation, militias, separation of powers, elections, treaties, and why the Articles of Confederation were not sufficient to hold the country together. The remaining eight essays appeared in New York newspapers between June 14 and August 16, 1788. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© 1962 United Artists
British suspense-fiction novelist Ian Fleming, born this day in 1908, created one of the most successful and widely imitated heroes of popular fiction: James Bond, the stylish, high-living British secret service agent 007.
Famous Birthdays
More on May 28
© John Sommers II/Getty Images
2016
A gorilla named Harambe was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. The incident prompted debates in the United States over how the situation should have been handled as well as the role of zoos.
© Ken Charnock/Getty Images
2014
American poet, memoirist, and actress Maya Angelou—whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression—died in North Carolina at age 86. [Take our quiz about famous writers.]
SuperStock
1999
After some two decades of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper was reopened to public view in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. [Find out what happens when art restorations go wrong.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1998
Pakistan successfully conducted several underground nuclear tests, making it the seventh country to possess nuclear weapons.
© Olga Besnard/Shutterstock.com
1961
Dedicated to informing public opinion about human rights and to securing the release of political prisoners, Amnesty International was founded in London on this day in 1961 and won the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]
IFCAR
1937
Volkswagen was founded by the government of Nazi Germany to mass-produce a low-priced “people’s car.” That car, which later became known as the Beetle, became globally popular in the 1950s. [How well do you know U.S. license plates? Take our quiz.]
UPI—Bettmann/Corbis
1934
The Dionne quintuplets, the first set of documented quintuplets to survive, were born near Callander, Ontario, Canada, to Oliva and Elzire Dionne. [How did the Dionne sisters become a tourist attraction?]
Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-hec-13257)
1888
Jim Thorpe, one of the most-accomplished all-around athletes in history and the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, was born near Prague in what is today Oklahoma. [Take our quiz about great athletes.]
Bettmann/Getty Images
1830
The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress, allowing U.S. President Andrew Jackson to grant Native American tribes western land in exchange for their settlements within the borders of extant U.S. states, from which they would be removed.
© Photos.com/Jupiterimages
1804
Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London
1660
George I, the elector of Hanover (1698–1727) and the first Hanoverian king of Great Britain (1714–27), was born in Osnabrück, Germany. [Test your knowledge of English kings.]
By permission of the British Library
1291
Crusader rule in the Holy Land came to an end as the Mamluks took the city of Acre, the last stronghold of the kingdom of Jerusalem. [Take our quiz about the Crusades.]