July 28

What happened that day?

• 1957: Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, kills 992.
• 1945: A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
• 1943: World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
• 1942: World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227. In response to alarming German advances, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be tried in a military court, with punishment ranging from duty in a shtrafbat battalion, imprisonment in a Gulag, or execution.
• 1939: The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered.
• 1938: Hawaii Clipper disappears between Guam and Manila as the first loss of an airliner in trans-Pacific China Clipper service.
• 1935: First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
• 1932: U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
• 1917: The Silent Parade took place in New York City, in protest to murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans.
• 1915: The United States begins a 19-year occupation of Haiti.
• 1914: In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, igniting World War I.
• 1896: The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
• 1868: The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
• 1866: At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream becomes the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln).
• 1864: American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1854: USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned.
• 1821: José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain.
• 1809: Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
• 1808: Mahmud II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
• 1794: French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France.
• 1778: Constitution of the province of Cantabria ratified at the Assembly Hall in Bárcena la Puente, Reocín, Spain.
• 1656: Battle of Warsaw begins.
• 1635: In the Eighty Years' War the Spanish capture the strategic Dutch fortress of Schenkenschans.
• 1571: La Laguna encomienda, known today as the Laguna province in the Philippines is founded by the Spaniards as one of the oldest encomiendas (provinces) in the country.
• 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
• 1364: Troops of the Republic of Pisa and the Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.