On this day: July 28

Events on July 28

• 1148 Crusades: The siege of Damascus ended in a decisive victory for the Muslims, leading to the disintegration of the Second Crusade. Wikipedia
• 1402 Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara: Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I. Wikipedia
• 1540 King Henry VIII of England had his chief minister Thomas Cromwell executed for treason and heresy. Wikipedia
• 1540 Henry VIII of England marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Wikipedia
• 1794 French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France. Wikipedia
• 1808 Mahmud II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam. Wikipedia
• 1821 Peruvian War of Independence: Argentine general José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from the Spanish Empire. Wikipedia
• 1866 Aged 18, Vinnie Ream became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a United States government commission for a statue—that of Abraham Lincoln currently in the Capitol rotunda. Wikipedia
• 1868 The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law. Wikipedia
• 1899 A Category 1 hurricane made landfall in Azua Province in the Dominican Republic, destroying three large schooners at Santo Domingo; only one crew member on the three vessels survived. Wikipedia
• 1911 The Australasian Antarctic Expedition began with the departure of SY Aurora from London. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on the Kingdom of Serbia and begins the Great War. Wikipedia
• 1915 U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince to begin a nineteen-year occupation of Haiti. Wikipedia
• 1917 In New York City, the NAACP and church and community leaders organized a silent march of at least 8,000 people to protest violence directed towards African Americans. Wikipedia
• 1935 First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Wikipedia
• 1939 During the excavation of a 7th-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, archaeologists discovered the Sutton Hoo helmet, widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia. Wikipedia
• 1940 At the Salzburg Conference, Adolf Hitler demanded the replacement of much of Slovakia's cabinet. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1945 A B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 14 people and causing an estimated $1 million in damage. Wikipedia
• 1965 Vietnam War: U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. Wikipedia
• 1976 An earthquake registering 7.6 Mw, one of the deadliest in history, devastated Tangshan, China, and killed at least 240,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1984 Olympic Games: Games of the XXIII Olympiad: The summer Olympics were opened in Los Angeles. Wikipedia
• 1995 Two followers of the Indian mystic Rajneesh were convicted of a 1985 plot to assassinate Charles Turner, the U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon. Wikipedia
• 2001 At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single FINA world championship. Wikipedia
• 2005 Britain's costliest tornado struck Birmingham, injuring 39 people and causing £40 million of damage across the city. Wikipedia
• 2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced the formal end of its armed campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland and create a united Ireland. Wikipedia
• 2010 In the deadliest air accident in Pakistan's history, Airblue Flight 202 crashed into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, killing all 152 aboard. Wikipedia

Born on July 28

• 1804 Ludwig Feuerbach, German anthropologist and philosopher (died 1872) Wikipedia
• 1866 Beatrix Potter, English children's book writer and illustrator (died 1943) Wikipedia
• 1874 Ernst Cassirer, Polish-American philosopher and academic (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1887 Marcel Duchamp, French-American painter and sculptor (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1902 Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1915 Charles H. Townes, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1925 Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1929 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist and socialite, 37th First Lady of the United States (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1938 Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian engineer, academic, and politician, President of Peru (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1938 Luis Aragonés, Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1943 Richard Wright, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1951 Santiago Calatrava, Spanish architect and engineer, designed the Athens Olympic Sports Complex Wikipedia
• 1952 Vajiralongkorn, King of Thailand Wikipedia
• 1954 Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1958 Terry Fox, Canadian runner and activist (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1971 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1974 Alexis Tsipras, Greek engineer and politician, 186th Prime Minister of Greece Wikipedia
• 1981 Michael Carrick, English footballer and coach Wikipedia
• 1985 Mathieu Debuchy, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Pedro, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1993 Harry Kane, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1993 Cher Lloyd, English singer Wikipedia

Died on July 28

• 450 Theodosius II, Roman emperor (born 401) Wikipedia
• 1057 Victor II, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1018) Wikipedia
• 1655 Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet and playwright (born 1619) Wikipedia
• 1741 Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (born 1678) Wikipedia
• 1750 Johann Sebastian Bach, German organist and composer (born 1685) Wikipedia
• 1794 Maximilien Robespierre, French politician, (born 1758) Wikipedia
• 1794 Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French soldier and politician (born 1767) Wikipedia
• 1808 Selim III, Ottoman sultan (born 1761) Wikipedia
• 1818 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and engineer (born 1746) Wikipedia
• 1844 Joseph Bonaparte, French diplomat and brother of Napoleon (born 1768) Wikipedia
• 1930 Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist and optician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1968 Otto Hahn, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 2002 Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2004 Francis Crick, English biologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Botvid Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jaime Hilario Barbal Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Henry Purcell (Episcopal Church commemoration) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich Schütz, George Frederick Handel (Lutheran commemoration) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nazarius and Celsus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pedro Poveda Castroverde Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Victor I Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Samson of Dol Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval (Canada) Wikipedia
• Fiestas Patrias, celebrates the independence of Peru from Spain by General José de San Martín in 1821. Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (San Marino) Wikipedia
• Ólavsøka Eve (Faroe Islands) Wikipedia
• World Hepatitis Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “July 28” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/July 28” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 28” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for July 28 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 27 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. The 1914 entry stays as well, and comes first in the one-line summary: we keep a short list, checked by hand, of widely known events that Wikipedia's editors leave out of their selection, usually because the article carries a maintenance notice. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.