December 28 facts for kids

December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; three days remain until the end of the year.

December 28 is a day packed with history! Many important events have happened on this date, from ancient times to modern discoveries. It's also the birthday of many famous people and a day when we remember others who have passed away. Let's explore some of the interesting things that took place on December 28 throughout history.

Events

Early History (Before 1600)

• 418 – A new Pope was chosen, and Pope Boniface I was elected.
• 457 – Majorian became the new Western Roman emperor.
• 484 – Alaric II became king of the Visigoths after his father, Euric. He made Aire-sur-l'Adour in Southern Gaul his capital city.
• 893 – A big earthquake destroyed the city of Dvin in Armenia.
• 1065 – Westminster Abbey, a famous church in London, was officially opened. It was built in the Romanesque style by Edward the Confessor.
• 1308 – Emperor Hanazono began his rule in Japan.

From 1601 to 1900

• 1659 – The Marathas won a battle against the Adilshahi forces in the Battle of Kolhapur.
• 1768 – King Taksin was crowned king of Thailand. He made Thonburi the new capital city.
• 1795 – Construction began on Yonge Street in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto). This street was once known as the longest in the world.
• 1832 – John C. Calhoun became the first Vice President of the United States to resign from his position. He resigned after being elected a Senator from South Carolina.
• 1835 – Osceola led his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
• 1836 – The areas of South Australia and Adelaide were officially founded.
• 1836 – Spain officially recognized that Mexico was an independent country by signing the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.
• 1846 – Iowa became the 29th state in the United States.
• 1879 – The Tay Bridge disaster happened in Scotland. A train was crossing the Tay Rail Bridge when the middle part of the bridge collapsed, and 75 people died.
• 1885 – The Indian National Congress, an important political party in India, was started in Bombay Presidency, British India.
• 1895 – The Lumière brothers showed their first movie to a paying audience in Paris. This was a big step for cinema!
• 1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen published his discovery of a new type of radiation, which we now call x-rays.

From 1901 to Today

• 1902 – The Syracuse Athletic Club won the first indoor professional football game. It was held at Madison Square Garden.
• 1908 – A huge earthquake hit Southern Italy, causing a lot of damage and sadly killing many people.
• 1912 – The first city-owned streetcars started running in San Francisco.
• 1918 – Constance Markievicz became the first woman ever elected to be a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons.
• 1941 – During World War II, a secret plan called Operation Anthropoid began. Its goal was to try and capture a high-ranking Nazi officer named Reinhard Heydrich.
• 1943 – During World War II, the Battle of Ortona ended in Italy. After eight days of tough fighting, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division won against the German forces.
• 1944 – Maurice Richard became the first player in NHL history to score eight points in a single ice hockey game.
• 1948 – A DC-3 airplane named NC16002 disappeared about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Miami.
• 1958 – The "Greatest Game Ever Played" happened! The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants in the first-ever National Football League game to go into sudden death overtime.
• 1967 – American businesswoman Muriel Siebert made history by becoming the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
• 1973 – The United States Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. This law helps protect animals and plants that are in danger of disappearing.
• 1989 – A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, and 13 people sadly died.
• 2006 – During the War in Somalia, the armies of Somalia's government and Ethiopian troops took control of Mogadishu without a fight.
• 2014 – Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Karimata Strait while flying from Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board died.
• 2014 – Nine people died and 19 went missing when the MS Norman Atlantic caught fire in the Strait of Otranto in the Adriatic Sea.

Births

Early History (Before 1600)

• 1461 – Louise of Savoy, a French nun. (d. 1503)
• 1510 – Nicholas Bacon, an English politician. (d. 1579)

From 1601 to 1900

• 1619 – Antoine Furetière, a French writer and scholar. (d. 1688)
• 1635 – Elizabeth Stuart, the second daughter of King Charles I of England. (d. 1650)
• 1763 – John Molson, an English-Canadian brewer who started the Molson Brewery. (d. 1836)
• 1798 – Thomas Henderson, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician. (d. 1844)
• 1856 – Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States and a Nobel Prize winner. (d. 1924)
• 1882 – Arthur Eddington, an English astronomer and physicist. (d. 1944)
• 1882 – Lili Elbe, a Danish model and painter. (d. 1931)
• 1888 – F. W. Murnau, a German-American film director. (d. 1931)
• 1895 – Carol Ryrie Brink, an American author and playwright. (d. 1981)
• 1900 – Ted Lyons, an American baseball player. (d. 1986)

From 1901 to Today

• 1902 – Mortimer J. Adler, an American philosopher and author. (d. 2001)
• 1903 – John von Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist. (d. 1957)
• 1922 – Stan Lee, a famous American publisher and writer who created many comic book characters. (d. 2018)
• 1925 – Milton Obote, the 2nd President of Uganda. (d. 2005)
• 1929 – Terry Sawchuk, a Canadian-American ice hockey player. (d. 1970)
• 1932 – Dhirubhai Ambani, an Indian businessman who started Reliance Industries. (d. 2002)
• 1932 – Nichelle Nichols, an American actress, famous for her role in Star Trek. (d. 2022)
• 1934 – Maggie Smith, a well-known English actress.
• 1937 – Ratan Tata, an Indian businessman and giver to charity.
• 1939 – Philip Anschutz, an American businessman who founded Anschutz Entertainment Group.
• 1944 – Kary Mullis, an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner. (d. 2019)
• 1945 – Birendra, the King of Nepal. (d. 2001)
• 1946 – Edgar Winter, an American singer-songwriter and musician.
• 1950 – Alex Chilton, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. (d. 2010)
• 1952 – Arun Jaitley, an Indian lawyer and politician. (d. 2019)
• 1953 – Richard Clayderman, a French pianist.
• 1954 – Denzel Washington, a famous American actor, director, and producer.
• 1955 – Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese author and activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize. (d. 2017)
• 1956 – Nigel Kennedy, an English violinist.
• 1958 – Terry Butcher, an English footballer and manager.
• 1960 – Ray Bourque, a Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1968 – Akihiko Hoshide, a Japanese engineer and astronaut.
• 1969 – Linus Torvalds, a Finnish-American computer programmer who created the Linux kernel.
• 1970 – Elaine Hendrix, an American actress.
• 1972 – Patrick Rafter, an Australian tennis player.
• 1972 – Adam Vinatieri, an American football player.
• 1973 – Seth Meyers, an American actor and talk show host.
• 1976 – Joe Manganiello, an American actor.
• 1978 – John Legend, an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor.
• 1979 – James Blake, an American tennis player.
• 1979 – Noomi Rapace, a Swedish actress.
• 1981 – Sienna Miller, an American-British actress and fashion designer.
• 1987 – Thomas Dekker, an American actor and musician.
• 1989 – Mackenzie Rosman, an American actress.
• 1990 – David Archuleta, an American singer.
• 1994 – Adam Peaty, an English swimmer.
• 2001 – Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, a Canadian actress.

Deaths

Early History (Before 1600)

• 1218 – Robert II, Count of Dreux. (b. 1154)
• 1491 – Bertoldo di Giovanni, an Italian sculptor. (b. c. 1435)
• 1503 – Piero the Unfortunate, an Italian ruler. (b. 1471)
• 1547 – Konrad Peutinger, a German humanist and antiquarian. (b. 1465)

From 1601 to 1900

• 1622 – Francis de Sales, a French bishop and saint. (b. 1567)
• 1694 – Mary II of England. (b. 1662)
• 1706 – Pierre Bayle, a French philosopher and writer. (b. 1647)
• 1734 – Rob Roy MacGregor, a Scottish outlaw. (b. 1671)
• 1859 – Thomas Babington Macaulay, an English historian and politician. (b. 1800)
• 1890 – Dennis Miller Bunker, an American painter. (b. 1861)

From 1901 to Today

• 1916 – Eduard Strauss, an Austrian violinist and composer. (b. 1835)
• 1919 – Johannes Rydberg, a Swedish physicist. (b. 1854)
• 1937 – Maurice Ravel, a French pianist and composer. (b. 1875)
• 1938 – Florence Lawrence, a Canadian actress. (b. 1886)
• 1945 – Theodore Dreiser, an American novelist and journalist. (b. 1871)
• 1947 – Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. (b. 1869)
• 1963 – Paul Hindemith, a German composer and conductor. (b. 1895)
• 1971 – Max Steiner, an Austrian-American composer, known for film scores. (b. 1888)
• 1983 – Dennis Wilson, an American drummer and songwriter, from The Beach Boys. (b. 1944)
• 1984 – Sam Peckinpah, an American film director. (b. 1925)
• 1989 – Hermann Oberth, a Romanian-German physicist and engineer, important in rocketry. (b. 1894)
• 1999 – Clayton Moore, an American actor, famous for playing The Lone Ranger. (b. 1914)
• 2004 – Jerry Orbach, an American actor and singer. (b. 1935)
• 2004 – Susan Sontag, an American novelist and essayist. (b. 1933)
• 2009 – Jimmy Sullivan, an American musician and songwriter. (b. 1981)
• 2010 – Billy Taylor, an American pianist and composer. (b. 1921)
• 2015 – Lemmy, an English musician, singer, and songwriter, from the band Motörhead. (b. 1945)
• 2016 – Debbie Reynolds, a beloved American actress, singer, and dancer. (b. 1932)
• 2017 – Rose Marie, an American actress and comedienne. (b. 1923)
• 2021 – John Madden, an American football Hall of Fame coach and commentator. (b. 1936)
• 2021 – Harry Reid, an American politician and former Senate majority leader. (b. 1939)
• 2023 – Vijayakanth, an Indian actor and politician. (b. 1952)

Holidays and Observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Abel (Coptic Church)
  • Caterina Volpicelli
  • Feast of the Holy Innocents or Childermas; in Spain and Latin American countries, people celebrate with pranks (inocentadas), similar to April Fools' Day (Catholic Church, Church of England, Lutheran Church), and its related observances:
    • Els Enfarinats (Ibi, Spain)
  • Simon the Athonite
  • December 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• King Taksin Memorial Day (Thailand)
• Proclamation Day (South Australia), a celebration that started the day after Christmas (South Australia)
• Republic Day (South Sudan)
• The fourth of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity)

See also

In Spanish: 28 de diciembre para niños