Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on December 28th?

Westminster Abbey, located in London, is consecrated and opened by Edward the Confessor, becoming the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance in England. More

The Council of Oxford condemns the teachings of John Wycliffe, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation.

The first observation of Neptune is recorded by Galileo with his small telescope. He believed it to be a fixed star rather than a planet. More than 200 years later, ob September 23 1846, the ice giant Neptune became the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky. More

Spain finally accepts Mexico’s permanent independence with the Santa Maria-Calatrava Treaty. Spain had previously attempted to re-invade Mexico in 1829, leading to the Battle of Tampico where Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, defeated the Spanish and became a war hero.

Illinois is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 29th State.

The world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris showing a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. They had unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. More

The Messina Earthquake, Europe's most powerful earthquake shook southern Italy. Centered in the Messina Strait, which separates Sicily from Calabria. The quake's magnitude equaled a 7.5 by today's Richter scale. Moments after a devastating tsunami formed, causing forty-foot waves to crash down on dozens of coastal cities. Most of southern Italy's cities lost as many as half their residents with the total death toll throughout Italy was estimated at nearly 200,000. More

An uprising against Portuguese colonial rule in Angola, known as the Baixa de Cassanje revolt, begins.

U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Endangered Species Act, which obligates federal and state governments to protect all species threatened with extinction that fall within the borders of the United States and its outlying territories. More

The United States Congress passes the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, providing economic relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic.