Historical Events on October 28
- 1344: Crusaders capture the town of Smyrna.
- 1420: Beijing is announced as the officially capital of the Ming Dynasty.
- 1492: On his first voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.
- 1538: In what is now the Dominican Republic, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino is founded, making it the first university in the New World.
- 1636: The first college in what would become the United States is established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This university is currently known as Harvard University.
- 1864: After failing to pierce Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant leads his Union forces on a withdrawal from the area. This ends the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road.
- 1893: In St. Petersburg, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B Minor receives its premier performance.
- 1940: Italy invades Greece, thereby pulling the country into World War II.
- 1956: Elvis Presley gets vaccinated for polio on national television. This act is credited with raising immunization levels by over 133%.
- 1995: The deadliest subway disaster in history – the Baku Metro Fire – kills 289 people and injured another 265.
- 2009: NASA launches the Ares I-X Mission on this day.
Famous Birthdays on October 28
- American biologist, physician and inventor of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk is born in 1914.
- English actress Pearl Hackney is born in 1916.
- American actor John Connell is born in 1923.
- American businessman and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is born in 1955.
- American author Gary Lavergne is born in 1955.
- English drummer Stephen Morris is born in 1957.
- American computer scientist Landon Curt Noll is born in 1960.
- American actress Daphne Zuniga is born in 1962.
- American-Canadian actress Lauren Holly is born in 1963.
- American comedian and actress Sheryl Underwood is born in 1963.
- American actress Jami Gertz is born in 1965.
- Scottish screenwriter and director, Kevin Macdonald is born in 1967.
- American actress Julia Roberts is born in 1967.
- American video game designer and co-founder of Id Software, John Romero is born in 1967.