September 28
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- World Rabies Day
- Czech Statehood Day in the Czech Republic
- Teacher’s Day in Taiwan and The Philippines
- Presidents Day in Australia
- Feast Day of St Bernardino, patron saint of bankers and pawnbrokers
On this day . . .
- The Greeks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC)
- William the Conqueror, the duke of Normandy, invades England (1066)
- Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrives at present-day San Diego (1542)
- At the Drury Lane Theatre, London, God Save the King, the national anthem, is sung for the first time (1745)
- Flogging is abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy (1850)
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson becomes the first qualified woman physician in Britain (1865)
- Simon Marks and Tom Spencer (Marks & Spencer) open their first Penny Bazaar in Manchester (1894)
- Radio Times magazine is published for the first time (1923)
- Two United States Army planes complete the first round-the-world flight in 175 days (1924)
- Pope John Paul I, pope for only 33 days, is found dead (1978)
- Pokémon is launched in the U.S. (1998)
Births
- Caravaggio, Italian painter (1573)
- Elmer Rice, playwright, director and novelist (1892)
- Ed Sullivan, American TV personality (1901)
- Peter Finch, British film actor (1916)
- Marcello Mastroianni, Italian actor (1924)
- Brigitte Bardot, French film actress (1934)
- Mira Sorvino, American actress (1967)
- Naomi Watts, English-born Australian actress (1968)
- Hilary Duff, American actress, singer (1987)
Deaths
- Louis Pasteur, French chemist (1895)
- Émile Zola, French novelist (1902)
- Harpo Marx, American comedian and actor (1964)
- André Breton, French poet (1966)
- W H Auden, English poet (1973)
- Charles Addams, American cartoonist (1988)
- Miles Davis, American jazz musician (1991)
- Elia Kazan, Greek-born American film director (2003)