28
April
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April 28 in History
2001
Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
1996
Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 21 more.
1994
Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1988
Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
1987
American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
1986
The United States Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-65|6}} becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the {{USS|Coral Sea|CV-43|6}}.
1978
President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
1977
The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.
1975
General Cao Van Vien, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on victory.
1970
Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
1969
Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
1967
Expo 67 opens to the public in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1965
United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.
1952
Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
1950
Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.
1949
Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while ''en route'' to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.
1947
Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the ''Kon-Tiki'' to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
1945
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
1932
A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
1930
The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
1920
Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
1869
Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay 10 miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
1796
The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
1792
France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.
1789
Mutiny on the ''Bounty'': Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
1788
Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
1611
Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the largest Catholic university in the world.
1503
Important victory of the Great captain at the Battle of Cerignola, ruling a small Spanish armies over a French four times bigger in number, in Cerignola, next Bari, Southern Italy. It is noted as the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.
1253
Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds ''Nam Myoho Renge Kyo'' for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
1192
Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.