On this day: August 28

Events on August 28

• 475 The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna. Wikipedia
• 632 Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies, with her cause of death being a controversial topic among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. Wikipedia
• 1521 Ottoman wars in Europe: The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade. Wikipedia
• 1830 Tom Thumb (replica pictured), the first American-built steam locomotive, took part in an impromptu race against a horse-drawn car in Maryland. Wikipedia
• 1849 Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire: After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria. Wikipedia
• 1850 Richard Wagner's Lohengrin premieres at the Staatskapelle Weimar. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days. Wikipedia
• 1901 Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. It is the first American private school in the country. Wikipedia
• 1913 Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight. Wikipedia
• 1924 The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated. Wikipedia
• 1946 The Workers' Party of North Korea, predecessor of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is founded at a congress held in Pyongyang, North Korea. Wikipedia
• 1955 Black teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement. Wikipedia
• 1963 American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech "I Have a Dream" during the March on Washington, calling for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech. Wikipedia
• 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery: Stockholm police secure the surrenders of hostage-takers Jan-Erik Olsson and Clark Olofsson, defusing the Norrmalmstorg hostage crisis. The behaviours of the hostages later give rise to the term Stockholm syndrome. Wikipedia
• 1987 Construction began on the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, the tallest building in North Korea. Wikipedia
• 1990 Gulf War: Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province. Wikipedia
• 1990 An F5 tornado strikes the Illinois cities of Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people. Wikipedia
• 1993 The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia in Bosnia and Herzegovina is transformed into the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. Wikipedia
• 1993 NASA's Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl. Wikipedia
• 1996 Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention. Wikipedia
• 1998 Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate. Wikipedia
• 1998 Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa. Wikipedia
• 2017 China–India border standoff: China and India both pull their troops out of Doklam, putting an end to a two-month-long stalemate over China's construction of a road in disputed territory. Wikipedia

Born on August 28

• 1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German novelist, poet, playwright, and diplomat (died 1832) Wikipedia
• 1833 Edward Burne-Jones, English artist of the Pre-Raphaelite movement (died 1898) Wikipedia
• 1878 George Whipple, American physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1899 Andrei Platonov, Russian author and poet (died 1951) Wikipedia
• 1899 Charles Boyer, French-American actor, singer, and producer (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1910 Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch-American mathematician and economist Nobel Prize laureate (died 1985) Wikipedia
• 1916 C. Wright Mills American sociologist and author (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1917 Jack Kirby, Comic Book Artist and Writer (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1919 Godfrey Hounsfield, English biophysicist and engineer Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1928 Vilayat Khan, Indian sitar player and composer (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1930 Ben Gazzara, American actor (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1931 Ola L. Mize, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1938 Paul Martin, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Canada Wikipedia
• 1957 Ivo Josipović, Croatian lawyer, jurist, and politician, 3rd President of Croatia Wikipedia
• 1957 Ai Weiwei, Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist Wikipedia
• 1962 David Fincher, American director and producer Wikipedia
• 1965 Satoshi Tajiri, Japanese video game developer; created Pokémon Wikipedia
• 1965 Shania Twain, Grammy Award-winning Canadian Country Singer-Songwriter Wikipedia
• 1982 Thiago Motta, Brazilian-Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 César Azpilicueta, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Valtteri Bottas, Finnish race car driver Wikipedia
• 1990 Bojan Krkić, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 28

• 430 Augustine of Hippo, Algerian bishop, theologian, and saint (born 354) Wikipedia
• 632 Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad (born 605) Wikipedia
• 876 Louis the German, Frankish king (born 804) Wikipedia
• 1481 Afonso V, king of Portugal (born 1432) Wikipedia
• 1645 Hugo Grotius, Dutch playwright, philosopher, and jurist (born 1583) Wikipedia
• 1761 Melchor de Navarrete, Spanish colonial governor of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia, 1739–1742); of Spanish Florida (1749–1752); and of Yucatán (Mexico, 1754–1758) (born 1693) Wikipedia
• 1903 Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and architect, co-designed Central Park (born 1822) Wikipedia
• 1943 Boris III of Bulgaria (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1984 Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (born 1901) Wikipedia
• 1987 John Huston, Irish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1995 Michael Ende, German scientist and author (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2006 Melvin Schwartz, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 2020 Chadwick Boseman, American actor and playwright (born 1976) Wikipedia
• 2026 Harald V of Norway (born 1937) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Alexander of Constantinople Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Augustine of Hippo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Edmund Arrowsmith Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Florentina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hermes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joaquina Vedruna de Mas Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Moses the Black Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• National Grandparents Day (Mexico) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 28” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.